THERE WILL BE no happy ending for John Hayes after the prop – along with a number of Munster colleagues including Peter Stringer – was told he will not be making the trip to next month’s World Cup, according to Cork’s Evening Echo (print edition).
The news is not a huge surprise given that neither player has been too involved in Ireland’s preparations but it does draw an end to Hayes’ distinguished international career and given that he is not contracted to Munster beyond the World Cup, he is unlikely to play for the Reds again either.
According to Conor George’s article, others to lose out include Marcus Horan, Mick O’Driscoll and Niall Ronan. The news will probably be of some relief to Munster supporters however, who saw their side held scoreless at Musgrave Park during a 15-0 defeat to London Wasps on Friday night.
Speaking afterwards, coach Tony McGahan admitted that it was a disappointing outing from his side.
“It’s all part of the process of pre-season. We’ve got a lot of young enthusiastic guys with a lot of energy. You need execution, you need skill to get results and that something they really learned out there.“There’s no lack of will or effort out there but you need to execute what you need to and we were off in that regard.”
To follow how the rest of Ireland’s hopefuls get on against France, tune into Thescore.ie’s Liveblog from shortly before 5pm.
For further details of some of Declan Kidney’s pre-World Cup decisions, see the print edition of the Evening Echo.