The ongoing uncertainty surrounding a definitive return date for Cian Healy following neck surgery redirects the spotlight firmly onto Jack McGrath, who started at loosehead prop in Ireland's victory over Wales in Cardiff last weekend, and Dave Kilcoyne, a second half replacement and the man likely to start against Scotland at the Aviva stadium on Saturday (5pm).
Until Healy is pencilled in for match duty, his fitness will be a weekly conversational point when the Irish management and media collide. The Lions, Ireland and Leinster prop is making good progress, a message that has remained unchanged in tone over the past week.
His continuing absence represents a chance for others to shine; McGrath got first crack and the indications are that Kilcoyne will wear the number one jersey against the Scots. The 26-year-old Limerick born prop acknowledges that every minute counts. “Yeah I don’t think that’s just to do with games; it’s training, it’s everything in and around the (team) environment.
“Every minute in here is crucial and it is about making the most of it. I can only speak from my own point of view, as you said it is about making the most of the minutes you have on the pitch. If you get distracted, worrying about outside influences, things out of your control, you lose focus. Everyone’s mind is on the game at the moment.
“There will be new combinations and so it is about making it a seamless transition and executing our game plan to the best of our ability. Scotland are going to be gunning for it; it is their first run out, so it is going to be a very physical game.”
Kilcoyne, who has 13-caps, made a positive impact in Cardiff, producing a couple of traditionally corrosive carries and also being part of an Irish scrum that continued to dominate after the frontrow changes, winning a penalty and also remaining steadfast when the Irish side were a player down due to Tommy O’Donnell’s injury: Ireland has used all their replacements at that point.
He admitted: "I think we started the game really well, the set piece was strong and speaking to a lot of the players they felt in pretty good physical condition. That is credit to Jason Cowman (Ireland's strength and conditioning coach), the rest of the medical staff and Joe (Schmidt).
“It is not just us being in here and being flogged; we have but we have been freshened up for these games. That’s stood to us. On the flip side of that I wouldn’t judge Wales on that performance. They chose a different route, trained hard at altitude and that takes its toll on the body and it can take you a while to come back from that. You’ll see a different Welsh side in a couple of weeks.
“The scrum was good. I think it showed character when we were down to seven (forwards) and up against eight. Any time you get parity or better than that, it’s good. It shows where your scrum is at; we won’t fall in love with ourselves.
"I know Samson Lee has been out injured. They are probably down a few first team regular starters but you can only play what's in front of you. All credit to the (Irish) 23 out there (last weekend in Cardiff) they did themselves a lot of favours.
“Joe watches everything at training, everything in games so it’s not like you work is going unseen. That’s great, that’s all you can ask for from a coach; once you have that there is real clarity.”
