MUNSTER NUMBER EIGHT Gavin Coombes has remained in Ireland camp and won’t go back to his province for URC duty this weekend as the national team manage injuries for number eights Caelan Doris and Jack Conan ahead of the France clash on 8 March.

Doris missed last weekend’s Six Nations win over Wales due to a knee injury and was wearing a knee brace for the Triple Crown presentation in Cardiff, while Conan was forced off early in the second half of that game with a back injury.

Doris and Conan were both at Ireland’s open training session in the Aviva Stadium today, with Coombes also featuring.

Hooker Rónan Kelleher also took some part having missed the Wales game due to a neck injury.

Tighthead prop Tadhg Furlong was absent, having returned to Leinster to continue rehabbing the calf injury that has kept him out of the Six Nations so far.

However, Furlong won’t be available for URC duty this weekend and will return to Ireland camp ahead of the France game.

At this stage, Ireland are not ruling any of their players out of the huge round four clash with les Bleus.

“Everyone is fine,” said Ireland assistant coach Paul O’Connell.

“Caelan has been running for the last week, he ran today so he’s certainly in with a shout of being involved.

“Jack Conan is looking after his back a little bit. He hurt his back when he fell in a carry the other day but we’d be pretty confident he’d be OK.

“I know Rónan Kelleher trained today. No one is ruled out, they are all carrying bumps and bruises but they’re OK.”

As for the number eight situation, O’Connell explained that Coombes remaining in camp provides them with cover in a specialist position.

Caelan Doris with fans at the open training session. Ben Brady / INPHO Ben Brady / INPHO / INPHO

“I suppose both number eights, Caelan wasn’t going to be training with us this week,” said O’Connell.

“Jack had hurt his back and we find in these sessions someone goes down with an injury or we want to manage someone, it’s important that you have some cover that can give guys breaks or whatever because that 20s session is generally a pretty quick one.  

“Gav was in for that. He’s been playing really well for Munster. He’s been really good since he’s come for us so yeah, it’s just that position, you don’t want to rush players.

“You want to be able to let Jack Conan, he’s an experienced guy and you want to be able to let him figure out what’s going on with his back and if he’s good to train then he can jump in and train and if he doesn’t, we want to have guys that are preparing to play if he’s not right and Gav has been doing that for us.”

Ireland have given a handful of optimistic updates on tighthead Furlong during this championship but he has yet to feature.

Asked what the status of Furlong’s calf injury is now, O’Connell outlined that the fact the Wexford man has already suffered a recurrence means there is extra caution now.

“I just think because there’s been a few false starts, he wants to be sure about it, and the medics want to be sure about it and not have another false start,” said O’Connell.

“I’d say if he had no history with that calf he might be back by now but they just want to make sure and he wants to feel sure and feel confident himself as well.”