IT WAS ALWAYS likely that Ireland’s World Cup preparations would suffer a couple of setbacks and following Saturday’s 33-17 defeat of Italy, Jack Conan has emerged as the first pre-season casualty in Andy Farrell’s squad.
The Ireland back-rower suffered a foot injury in the win against the Azzurri and yesterday, defence coach Simon Easterby confirmed Conan has not travelled to Portugal for this week’s warm weather training camp, with the 31-year-old instead staying in Dublin to rehab the issue as Ireland await a further update.
It’s a concerning development for a player who also left the 2019 World Cup early due to a foot injury, but the encouraging news is that at the moment, Ireland say they are not worried the issue will threaten Conan’s involvement in this year’s tournament.
“Genuinely not,” said Easterby. “Jack has, in the past, had troubles with his foot but it’s nothing like it was back in 2019. He was pretty bullish around the injury. From everything that we’re hearing – and we haven’t had full feedback yet – but everything we’re hearing is it’s positive injury as opposed to a really negative one.”
Aside from the Conan setback, the news back from Portugal is largely positive. All 41 players who did make the trip are fit and available to train, with Ireland set to train against the Portugal national team today.
And with each passing day the World Cup comes into sharper focus – with South Africa, New Zealand and England all naming their final 33-man squads earlier this week.
The Springboks face Ireland in Paris on 23 September and the defending champions have already been dealt some major blows, with Lood de Jager, Handré Pollard and Lukhanyo Am all ruled out of the tournament with injury.
All three were key players when the Springboks lifted the Webb Ellis Cup in 2019 but Easterby played down the significance of their absences.
“They certainly were (important players) in 2019 but I guess across the last four years a lot of those guys haven’t had a lot of game time, they’ve had injuries and obviously due to selection now those injuries either haven’t cleared up or they’ve had new injuries.
“So I think South Africa are a team that are comfortable enough to pull in pretty good quality around players they have picked in positions that maybe in the past were filled by the likes of Lood de Jager, Handre Pollard and Lukhanyo Am in the 2019 World Cup.
“But it’s sides of old, squads of old and we’re no different, South Africa are no different, you have to adapt and I think they’ve shown that they have adapted in terms of selection over the last few years anyway, it’s not like it has come as a big surprise.”
Reflecting on Ireland’s opening World Cup warm-up fixture last weekend, Easterby singled out Caelan Doris for praise after the 25-year-old delivered a superb display on what was his first start for Ireland at openside.
“I guess there was few guys who really stood out,” Easterby said.
“The obvious one was in the back row, Caelan Doris, who has been standout for a while now, in terms of his ability both side of the ball. He’s a fantastic athlete, he has the ability to play across the back row which is a tough thing to do, and he stood out in terms of leading from the front, his ability to lead and a young man that has a huge amount of leadership qualities that other players will want to follow.
“But he just has the ability to play big and more often than not he does the right thing at the right time.
“He’s learned massively from certain things that maybe weren’t as good in his game a few years ago and he’s managed to put certain things into place that has allowed him to perform at a higher level, both in training and in games on a consistent basis.
“He’s no different in that respect from a lot of our players but he is a leader in many ways in terms of his actions, he is someone who can really inspire his teammates and above all he’s working hard every day to get better.
“That’s a real credit to him and it’s a real example to any of the younger players coming through, and players watching him from afar, he’s somebody that knows he’s good but he knows that he can get better and better and he’s working on that all the time.”
Today’s session with the Portugal national team is a key component of a busy week in the Algarve. Easterby – who was part of two World Cup squad during his own playing career – admits the modern pre-season is far removed from what he would have known as a player.
“I think in general, the whole approach to pre-season has changed quite a bit since I was playing. I guess we don’t spend as much time apart, so the players don’t have as much time off I don’t think. In the past, there was maybe a bit more of a gap. We’re far more connected to what we did in the Six Nations now then when I was playing in 2007 or 2003.
“We’re far more… I guess the focus is on your ability to play with the ball, defend the ball, and make whatever you are doing conditioning-wise, make it more specific to the game as opposed to running up a hill aimlessly or other things that in the past were maybe in trend.
“We feel like we’ve gone down a slightly different route in making sure we work really hard, we’ve given the S&C guys the ability to grow the players, get good strength blocs, good power blocs, speed blocs but also combine them with challenging them on a rugby pitch, challenging them making decisions both sides of the ball.
“It has changed, it was a long time ago but there was a time when you wouldn’t see the ball for four or five weeks and you’d try catching a ball and inevitable you would not catch many.
“There is definitely a shift in the way most teams train I’d say. But every team would have their own philosophy around what they feel is how to prepare a team for a World Cup, which would be slightly different to other people.”
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