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Ireland: Head coach Andy Farrell plays down Irish injuries after 'clunky' win over Italy

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Published in Rugby
Sunday, 06 August 2023 04:23

Ireland head coach Andy Farrell has allayed concerns over injuries sustained by three of his players in their World Cup warm-up win over Italy.

Conan was wearing a protective boot on a foot injury sustained in the first half while O'Brien and Casey had shoulder and back issues respectively.

"They seem not too bad," Farrell said.

"Jimmy's shoulder has shut down a little bit, it's something he's had in the past. Jack lost power in his foot, he seems OK.

"Craig had a tight back which was making his hamstring cramp. They were taken off as precautions more than anything."

An experimental Ireland side, captained by Ulster's Iain Henderson, recovered from a sluggish start at a subdued Aviva Stadium to take control of the contest but did not fully convince, despite the comfortable scoreline.

Caelan Doris produced a man-of-the-match performance for the Grand Slam winners, scoring two tries, with Dave Kilcoyne, Stuart McCloskey and replacement Cian Healy also on the scoresheet.

With Farrell set to reduce his current 42-man squad down to 33 for the World Cup in France, that starts in September, Ulster hooker Tom Stewart made his debut from the bench on Saturday night along with Leinster's Ciaran Frawley and Munster's Calvin Nash.

It was the first of three World Cup warm-up games, with meetings with England and Samoa to come.

"To get up and running with a victory is nice, but I think we all know really that it was a bit clunky, to say the least, at times," said Farrell.

"There was some really good stuff as far as possession is concerned and opportunities to convert were there in spades.

"But we weren't patient enough to be able to convert that, so I think that's the morale of the story really."

Doris 'epitomises what we're trying to do'

Doris, playing in an unfamiliar role at openside flanker, was once again Ireland's standout performer, leading Farrell to joke about how often that has happened recently.

"I'm sick of him getting man of the match," joked Farrell.

"He just keeps getting better and better. We all know he's good at jackalling and good over the ball and I don't know whether he took that through the roof because he had a number seven on his back.

"He epitomises what we're trying to do as far as the player being in control of his own mind.

"It doesn't really matter whether he makes a mistake or two, he just gets on with the next job the whole time.

"He's playing extremely well but he's certainly growing as far as his leadership role is concerned as well. He's coming on leaps and bounds."

Ireland move on to a training camp in Portugal before taking on England and Samoa later this month.

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