Ryan Bailey reports from Carton House
ANDREW CONWAY HAS been denied the chance to continue his excellent form in an Ireland jersey after an inflamed knee ruled him out of contention for Saturday’s Six Nations opener against France.
The Munster winger is also set to miss next weekend’s clash with Italy at the Aviva Stadium, but Joe Schmidt insists the problem is not serious and should be back fit and available for the round three visit of Wales later this month.
Conway, who started all three of Ireland’s November Tests, had been struggling in training this week and misses out on a place on the bench at the Stade de France with Fergus McFadden named in the number 23 jersey.
“Andrew Conway is managing a knee that’s inflamed, he’ll probably be out for this week and next week, but it’s certainly nothing serious,” Schmidt said.
“Then he’ll springboard back into that as well.”
After making his debut in the final round win over England last year, Conway has featured five times since and really seized his chance last Autumn when his Munster team-mate Keith Earls was ruled out through injury.
Schmidt also played down any concern over the fitness of Rob Kearney after the fullback was spotted chatting with the Irish physio during this morning’s squad session at Carton House.
“He’s 100%. Yep. It might just have been passing the time, I’m not sure,” the head coach said.
“I’ve had no feedback from Rob or the physios that he’s anything but 100% ready to go.”
Ireland flew to Paris this evening and will finalise preparations for the campaign opener tomorrow morning when they have their pre-match captain’s run at the Stade de France.
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Fair play to ya Chris,don’t be afraid to fail , hope Wales go all the way.
They need to scrap that poxy yellow card rule , to many players are missing huge games for silly yellow cards . That ref was trigger happy with his cards , poor Ramsey gonna miss this biggest game of gis life for an accidental handball ,bullshit
Considering the length of this tournament, should have been an amnesty by the semi’s….. Stupid rules….
Crazy that there’s no amnesty.
Yellow Cards in consecutive games should result in a one match ban….. Other than that they shouldn’t count. Very harsh. He was brilliant today…..
Agree Ryan,he should at least be able to appeal it.
Totally agree. No way should you miss a semi or final..carry it forward and maybe make it a 2 game ban for next qualifying tournament? ??-
Belgium : A country that bottles great beer and big tournaments. Fair play to Wales.
England to sign up Colman in £10 million deal.
Emotional Cookie-monster motivates an entire country. Sports people of all grades appreciate the hard work that goes into creating the winning team effort. That was a proud moment for our Celtic comrades!!
Bale vs Ronaldo Semi-final… can’t wait
Team player v me feiner
I really hope they go all the way
Portugal have really rode their luck in their last 2 games and have not been at all impressive…. Wales have every chance….. could they repeat Denmark and Greece as being underdog champions? Either way I fancy them against Portugal.
Amazing amazing achievement by Wales which kind of puts were we are as a football team into perspective. Look at how they beat Belgium- playing football & not in anyway hanging on. We on the other hand seem to have this slight sense of euphoria about the euros yet we literally can’t play football. Still long ball rubbish. The sense is that we are on the right track – we’re not. And the media is still on about how great our fans are. Some joke.
Fair play to Wales. We have vastly improved since the last tournament. no disrespect to Brady but she’s a not Bail.
damn autocorrect. Brady is not Bail
Well england were you watching…??.I rest my case!!
What case is that?