Rugby:Declan Kidney will wait until Friday to name his side to face Argentina. The Ireland coach had initially been due to announce his starting line-up this afternoon but, with a number of injury concerns hanging over the squad, Kidney will wait until the end of the week.
With Luke Fitzgerald and Rob Kearney unavailable and Gordon D’Arcy and Brian O’Driscoll carrying knocks, Kidney clearly has a number of interesting calls to make when selecting what could be a much-changed back-line.
Although Tommy Bowe has declared himself fit after hurting his calf against the All Blacks, and O’Driscoll trained in today’s non-contact session, Keith Earls appears likely to make his first start of the season at full-back in place of Kearney while Andrew Trimble can expect to start instead of Fitzgerald.
If one, or both, of Ireland’s midfield partnership is ruled out Paddy Wallace could be promoted from the bench with Earls deployed alongside him. In that scenario, either Gavin Duffy or Geordan Murphy could come into the side at full-back.
Up front, the injury list is not quite as telling although hooker Rory Best is out with a broken cheekbone. Sean Cronin, an able deputy against New Zealand, is likely to start in the front row.
Flankers David Wallace and Stephen Ferris also missed training earlier today but Tony Buckley has returned to bolster the front row while Leo Cullen and Damien Varley have also joined the squad.
Wallace and Ferris picked up Achilles and calf injuries respectively and were among a large group who missed training today. However, the flankers are expected to be available to face the Pumas — as is O’Driscoll, who is nursing a shoulder problem.
“We had a few guys sitting out today’s session — David Wallace, Gordon D’Arcy, Stephen Ferris and Tommy Bowe,” said team manager Paul McNaughton today.
“They have various knocks while some other guys, such as Brian O’Driscoll and Damien Varley, have done modified non-contact work. We expect Brian to be OK. He got a bruise on his AC joint, but he trained this morning, though it was not a full contact session.
“All of those players are under consideration for selection and we don’t anticipate any problem with them. We’ll wait until Friday to name the team because it’s a Sunday game. We just need more time to think and also the injuries should be clarified by then.
“We wouldn’t take a risk on any player’s fitness. You can’t send out anyone who is 90 per cent fit and hope for the best.”
Ireland produced arguably their best performance of the year against the All Blacks, but their heroics in defence clearly took a heavy toll. Statistics for the match show that they completed 130 tackles, compared to New Zealand’s 75.
“I don’t have any great theories on the injury count, it’s coincidental,” said McNaughton. “It was a fairly physical game and we made as many tackles in the first half as there would be in a normal game.
“That doesn’t help the injury toll. It’s just unfortunate. We have an eight-day turnaround so we can take our time. We’ll train tomorrow and have a rest day on Thursday. Hopefully everyone will be fine by Friday.”