Gerry Thornley: Ireland ready for the heavy lifting

The old maxim that you wouldn’t want to have a limp around here certainly applies to the Irish squad.

While the news of Rob Kearney's strained glute was better than feared, he is again unlikely to train on Wednesday, and with Simon Zebo having returned to the squad last night after 24 hours' compassionate leave, the likelihood is that the Munsterman will start against Italy at the Olympic Stadium this Sunday.

Irish forwards' coach Simon Easterby also gave a strong indication that they will pick as strong a side as possible from an otherwise fully fit squad.

The French camp have been far more candid in casting a wary eye on Ireland, and partly in readiness for Sunday week's pool finale in Cardiff, Philippe Saint-André has again made 14 changes for their third pool game against Canada in Milton Keynes on Thursday.

France have a ten-day turnaround, and Ireland seven days, before the group finale. Ireland, it seems, would not be adverse to playing the same side back-to-back over the next two Sundays.

“We’re looking purely at Sunday and trying to get the best available 15 out on the pitch,” said Easterby after training in their latest sun-drenched cocoon of Guildford in Surrey.

“The forwards will obviously come under a fair bit of workload against the Italians and the same against the French but you’d like to think we can back that up over the next couple of weeks.”

Same side

Of course, were Ireland to largely retain the same side for the next two weekends and then go on to reach the semi-finals (with Argentina looming as a major obstacle even if Italy and France are both beaten), that would mean they will be playing on the final weekend.

This in turn would amount to more matches over five successive weekends, with a six-day turnaround between the French match and the quarter-finals. Seemingly though, the Irish management believe front-liners such as Mike Ross, Paul O’Connell, the first-choice back-row, Conor Murray, Johnny Sexton and co, can handle such a workload.

There is another key difference between Ireland and France; namely Ireland are playing for a place in the quarter-finals this Sunday, and as a by-product, ensuring qualification for France as well.

Italy’s glut of games affords the Irish think tank plenty of information regarding “areas that we might look to try and manipulate”, said Easterby – but with the rider that they are better structured and more disciplined without the ball.

“They are hard to break down and their discipline has been much better as well. It takes sides a lot more energy and phases to break them down whereas in the past they haven’t been as disciplined or as structured without the ball but they are defending really well at the moment. If we have to multiphase against them then we are going to have to make sure we have good ball protection, continuity,” said Easterby.

Easterby is pleased that Ireland and South Africa are the only teams with a 100 per cent return from their own set-pieces thus far.

“It’s great that that is the case but I think we’ll come under a huge amount more pressure in the next couple of games, starting with Italy on the weekend, especially with the type of front row they have at their disposal, and guys off the bench and their forward pack. . .”

The return of Sergio Parisse may add more of a threat from Italy's defensive lineout in tandem with Josh Furno.

Good operators

“ Furno and

Parisse

are good operators, especially in competing against opposition lineouts. When Parisse is in there, you know you’ve got another issue to overcome before you’ve got to win your ball.”

“He’s pretty competitive,” said Easterby of Furno, “not just in the air, but once we try and set up certain things, mauls in particular, he manages to get himself into places where you’d rather he wasn’t, and we’ve got to deal with that and make sure certain players don’t come through and disrupt our set-ups. If Parisse is coming in we have to deal with that, but we’ve played against that combination before, so there’s a familiarity in that.”

With Robbie Henshaw having reportedly trained fully, and therefore set to make a delayed World Cup debut against Italy, the only other minor injury concern is Jordi Murphy. This is in stark contrast to the likes of Wales, England, Australia and South Africa, albeit the intensity and physicality of Ireland's games will henceforth go up a notch or three.

Iain Henderson and Peter O'Mahony have also returned to full training. "Last week gave them an opportunity not to take contact at the weekend, and Rossy, Pete and Iain had the opportunity to come into this week reasonably fresh, which was good."