LAST UPDATE | 15 Nov 2021
IRELAND CAPTAIN JOHNNY Sexton has been ruled out of action for four to six weeks after suffering a twisted knee and ankle during Saturday’s 29-20 win over New Zealand.
Ireland head coach Andy Farrell has called Connacht’s Jack Carty into his squad in place of Sexton ahead of this Sunday’s Autumn Nations Series clash with Argentina in Dublin.
Sexton will remain with the Ireland squad as they prepare for the meeting with Los Pumas but is now facing a stint on the sidelines.
Sexton was injured in the first half of the victory over New Zealand but had his knee strapped up and played on until the 65th minute when he was forced off for a head injury assessment.
This injury makes Sexton a major doubt for Leinster’s Heineken Champions Cup games against Bath in four weekends’ time and Montpellier a week later.
Carty’s Ireland call-up is sure to be popular among supporters, with the Connacht man having been in good form in the United Rugby Championship early on this season.
It is expected that Joey Carbery will start against Argentina on Sunday, while Harry Byrne may be used off the bench, but Carty – who last played for Ireland at the 2019 World Cup – will relish this opportunity to be back in the Ireland mix.
Meanwhile, Ireland have confirmed that Munster back row Gavin Coombes has recovered from the illness that had sidelined him for the last two weeks.
The 23-year-old made his Ireland debut back in July and has been a consistently impressive performer for Munster. Having now re-joined the Ireland squad, Coombes will hope for some involvement on Sunday.
The IRFU says that more than 45,000 tickets have already been sold for the game against Argentina.
Interesting how everyone writing shamrocks off, all Ireland champs 2 years ago and beaten semi finalists last year. In the year they won it, beat na piarsaigh in the semi so I think they will fancy their chances. Saying that, would love to see na piarsaigh win it
Two very evenly matched semi finals. I’d love to see a Na Piarsaigh v MLR final. Think Na Piarsaigh will win it. Anyone but Portumna. A team who doesn’t have to qualify from its province doesn’t deserve an All Ireland title. Na Piarsaigh and MLR would be more than deserving of winning it considering who they had to beat to get to the semi.
Yeah they only have to qualify out of most competitive county in the country where many of the All Ireland Club Champions have come last 10 years.
Doesn’t matter who they have to beat in the Galway championship. I’m talking about Galway clubs in general.
The exact reason why Galway clubs have a good track record in it is because they walk in to the All Ireland semi finals every year.
Same as minors getting straight through to quarter finals and U21′s getting straight through to All Ireland semi. They all pick up some handy titles and then wonder why the Galway senior team is not successful.
Simple, they have less teams to beat to win All Irelands at every level except senior and they win them at all levels except senior!!!
Sour grapes mike. Portumna one of the best club sides of all time. Going by your logic no team from Galway should be allowed enter the competition.
When portumna were at their best , they would give any of the top team’s in the country a game.
I have nothing to be sour about. Portumna mean nothing to me. I see and hear Galway people moan about their senior team not being able to win anything but they rub their hands with glee when they walk in to the latter stages of most other competitions. It’s more than a coincidence that Galway can win titles at all levels except senior. They have too easy a route in all bar the senior. Galway won’t win a senior All Ireland until they wake up to that fact. They want the senior team in Leinster but are more than happy to have every other grade team and club not as they are winning things. Why don’t they look at the possibility of moving all teams in to Leinster so they can actually see what they are worth and not just be handed byes the whole time while every other team and club have to get through several matches to get to the same stage.
The Galway clubs have to beat provincial and county champs to win an All Ireland Mike, same goes for their minors and U21s, nothing handy about that.
You sound pretty sour to me.
Portumna will win it
Portumna won their titles Mike Neil because they were the best team, to say otherwise is just bloody sour grapes.Same goes for all the clubs who won the All Ireland.
I will be shouting for Portumna but think Na Piarsigh will win out, they have more scoring forwards than anyone else.
It’s not portumna’s fault they go straight into semis. It’s theirs to lose now, should be a handy all-ireland for them now. Although this is a year full of surprises.
Only a fool would write off the Rangers. Have seen off 2 favourites already and didn’t even play well against Outlart.
I know they will still be the underdogs, but they will wear that badge with pride!!!!
Loughgiel shamrocks be very hard to beat they R a good team winning 4 county titles and 4 ustler titles and all Ireland in the last 4 years what more can I say
think you’ll find Eamon that Loughgiel have as good a six forwards as any of the teams left.will take a damned good performance to beat them much better than anything I’ve witnessed on TG4 to date..
I disagree Denis.I have seen Shamrocks 3 times in the last 2 years , they are a fine side but they don’t have forwards of the calibre of Canning, Hayes, Dowling, Hannon or Downes.
Hannon plays for Adare not Na Piarsaigh.
Fair bad support for loughgeil. A club that has been there and done it plus has one of the best hurlers in the country. Would love to see them prove a lot of people wrong again. From a tipp man
As a Birr man, having seen how these All-Ireland’s are won, it’s about getting the most from your forwards. One of the reasons KK did well last year was Slevin the free taker. Similarly Loughgiel have a great full forward, whose name escapes me. Na Piarsaigh have serious forwards and of course Portumna have Joe Canning & Damien Hayes, plus their experience. It’s hard to see past Portumna. Fair play to MLR though – inspirational stuff!