Rugby:Ireland captain Brian O'Driscoll and Munster back Keith Earls remain the biggest concerns ahead of the autumn internationals, but defence coach Les Kiss insists the former, at least, is happy with his progress. The Leinster centre has been struggling with a hamstring injury since pulling up in the Heineken Cup match against Racing Metro 92 at the RDS on October 9th.
He has been undergoing rehab sessions with the Irish set-up in Limerick this week and, while Kiss avoided predictions on his eventual return to fitness, he said all parties are happy with his progress ahead of the meeting with South Africa on November 6th.
"Brian is working very hard and over the last two or three days he has put in some good rehab work with the medical staff who are doing a fantastic job there,” said Kiss in an IRFU statement this afternoon. “Talking to him today after the session he was very happy where he ended up, so he has another (rehab) session tomorrow and a couple of days rest where he will obviously be doing a little bit of stuff and we will see how he goes after that.”
The prognosis on Earls is similarly vague, but the Limerick man “sat out training again today as he continues the rehabilitation programme on his ankle injury”.
After another training session tomorrow the squad will break up for the weekend before reassembling in Dublin on Monday to prepare for the Springboks on Saturday week.
Kiss says training has been “fantastic so far”, with plenty of input on the tackle interpretations from the four provinces.
“They’ve (the players) come here and embraced the new ideas that the coaching staff have put on the table, they’ve added their own bits to the mix and we’re grateful that they’ve put in such a good performance for the week”.
The coach does not share the belief of some that the new laws are to the detriment of the game and argues “there is enough in the new interpretations to keep it an open affair but also make it possible to have a tighter game”.
“There is always going to be an opinion about where the interpretation should be going and what the referee should be doing. Each referee will have a slightly different interpretation on the day and like all teams we will adjust to that. I just think that the game has moved to a position now that we should still allow the referee to make his calls as he sees it. You are going to get good calls and bad calls on any given day and that is just part of the game and always has been.”
The Australian admits he and the squad have plenty to work on ahead of a gruelling series laden, as yet, with unkowns, but the focus is firmly on a memorable curtain-raiser for Test rugby at the Aviva Stadium.
“They’re four really physical teams the Boks, Samoa, New Zealand and the Argentinean team. It’s a physical challenge right throughout the Guinness Series. That starts in defence in a lot of ways with the Springboks in particular, as they challenge you at the set piece, they challenge you around the edge of the rucks and they also have the ability to shift the ball around the park and hurt you in that way as well. Plus will they play a contestable kick game and challenge you in that way?
“So we have a lot on our plate to handle in that area, but the approach so far has been fantastic as I said earlier and we are just really looking forward to that first game and obviously it being the Aviva’s first game, we hope we can do it justice.”