IRELAND ARE NOT convinced Romania’s four-day turnaround between playing France tomorrow evening and taking on Joe Schmidt’s side on Sunday will be a major disadvantage.
Lynn Howells’ men face les Bleus at Olympic Park at 8pm tomorrow, before facing Ireland in Wembley at 4.45pm on Sunday, stretching a squad that realistically does not contain any depth whatsoever.
Many of Romania’s frontliners will be asked to double up.
Japan have faced a similarly difficult task in recent days, as they prepare to take on Scotland tomorrow after shocking South Africa on Saturday.
New Zealand and France have also been handed four-day turnarounds in the opening week of the World Cup, although their strength in depth makes it far less of an issue. The Kiwis have almost completed rotated their XV and have still named an exceptional team to face Namibia.
While Ireland enjoy more than a week to prepare for Romania after beating Canada last weekend, Jack McGrath said these matters are out of their hands.
“It’s just the way the rankings have gone, the seedings have gone and there’s not a lot we can do about that,” said McGrath. “All we can do is give them the respect they deserve, turn up and give them a good game.”
McGrath said he “absolutely” could play two Test matches in four days, rejecting the notion that the schedule was unfair on Romania and other Tier 2 nations.
“I wouldn’t think that, that’s not the case,” said McGrath. “It’s just the way the chips fell and there’s not a whole lot we can do about it. I didn’t make the fixture list.
“Japan just beat South Africa, I wouldn’t say that’s getting stung. We’ll see tomorrow how they get on (against Scotland). It’s only getting stung if you lose the game. So, it’s a long way to go in the World Cup.
“If they can back up the two games then they have a nine-day turnaround after that, so if you can play two games in four or five games and have a bit of a rest after, it’s not the end of the world.
“If it was just another four days after that, it’d be a bit unfair but it’s just the way it happened and that’s it.”
The fact remains that Ireland will be a great deal fresher than Romania at Wembley on Sunday, although that is no guarantee of success or performance.
Centre Jared Payne feels a high-tempo game plan might be a clever approach for this fixture, given Romania’s schedule, but he also thinks that the four-day turnaround could actually be an advantage for Howells’ men.
“If we go that way, it could be an advantage to us, but at the same time as a player sometimes you don’t mind the four-day turnarounds,” said Payne.
“You don’t have to do too much in the gym or too much on the pitch, you get to relax in between and sort of front up for the game, which is nice. It could work in their favour as well, it’s going to be interesting to see how it pans outs on Sunday.”
