Murray Kinsella reports from Trump Tower
ANDY FARRELL SAYS Ireland will be maintaining their focus on Saturday’s clash with the All Blacks despite the potential distraction of news that Paddy Jackson and Stuart Olding were arrested and questioned by the PSNI over alleged sexual offences.
Ulster out-half Jackson was left out of the Ireland squad that travelled to Chicago yesterday, with the IRFU citing “personal reasons” before news of the police questioning broke last night.
A statement from Ulster this morning said that Jackson and Olding both “deny any wrongdoing and have not been charged with any offence.”
24-year-old Jackson has won 16 international caps so far in his career, while 23-year-old Olding has been capped four times. Both players started Ireland’s most recent fixture, the third Test defeat to South Africa in June.
Ireland assistant coach Farrell fronted up to the media in Chicago today and declined to add anything further on the Jackson and Olding situation.
“I think there’s been a bit said about it already and Ulster have come out and made a statement this morning,” said Farrell. “We’ll reference you to that and we’ll get on with our own business.
We’ve got a big week ahead of us here in Chicago. Little preparation, our focus has to be on the game and we’ll make no further comment.”
Asked if Jackson would have been involved with Ireland had this weekend’s fixture been in Dublin, Farrell again declined to answer directly.
“Again, I’ll just reference you to the statement from Ulster and I’ll make no further comment because we’ve got a big job ahead of this week with preparation, etc., so I hope you’ll respect that.”
While Farrell also declined to provide detail on Jackson’s possible involvement with Ireland later this month, Ulster have stated that the out-half will be available to play from next week onwards.
Ireland face Canada in Dublin on 12 November, before taking on the All Blacks again on 19 November, then finishing their run of games against Australia on 26 November.
Olding is currently on the comeback trail from a groin injury and was not named in Ireland’s 34-man squad for the November Tests.
Ireland arrived to their Trump Tower base in Chicago yesterday evening at around 8.30pm local time, having flown direct from Dublin.
A number of the 27-man travelling squad were involved in Pro12 games with their provinces last weekend.
Ireland will not carry out a full squad training session today in Chicago.
They will instead walk through some of their plays and complete a gym session, before a day off tomorrow. Thursday will see them training fully at the University of Illinois, while they will carry out their captain’s run at Soldier Field on Friday.
A group of 17 players gathered at Carton House last Thursday for a training session, while a larger number of players trained under Schmidt on Sunday. There was a final pitch session on Monday before the squad departed for Chicago.
All in all, it means disrupted preparation for Ireland, particularly in light of the All Blacks having arrived in Chicago last Friday.
However, Farrell said they won’t be making excuses.
International rugby is all about adaption, there’s no excuses, it’s all about adaption. You would like the perfect preparation but you never get it in international rugby.
“We’re at different stages of the season, their season allows them to get here early and have the weekend off and have a full week’s preparation, get over the jet lag, etc., but ours didn’t. There’s no excuse.
“We dust ourselves down, get on with it. We’ve had a couple of days’ training in preparation and our focus has just got to be on ourselves and getting ourselves prepared, because we’ve still got a lot to do.”
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