IRELAND SAY THAT Calvin Nash and Ciarán Frawley are both on track to be fit to face Scotland in the Six Nations this weekend.
Munster wing Nash was replaced after a fourth-minute head injury against England in last Saturday’s defeat at Twickenham.
Nash did not return to the action after being removed from play after departing for his Head Injury Assessment.
But Ireland assistant coach Simon Easterby said today that Nash, who was at Ireland training today, is on track to be cleared to play against the Scots in Dublin.
Easterby also said that Frawley, who replaced Nash before also suffering a head injury that forced him off in the second half, is on track to play this weekend against the Scots.
However, it’s understood that Frawley has returned to Leinster to carry out his rehabilitation and is therefore highly unlikely to be involved with Ireland this weekend.
“Nashy and Frawls have to go through the process and make sure they don’t have symptoms,” said Easterby this afternoon.
“If they did, that might put them back a day but both are on track to play.”
In 2022, World Rugby changed the regulations regarding the return-to-play protocols to ensure that any player removed from a match who has obvious concussion symptoms has to stand down from action for 12 days.
However, World Rugby’s guidance also states that “players without a history of concussion who subsequently undergo a Head Injury Assessment 3 [HIA 3] that unearths no abnormal findings will be eligible to return on the seventh day after the occurrence of their injury.”
That means that if Nash successfully completed the HIA 3 assessment, he could be passed fit to face Scotland after being approved by an independent concussion consultant.
Easterby said there were no other new injury concerns as Ireland look towards the chance to bounce back from defeat to England by sealing the Six Nations title.
“Obviously, the previous games during the Six Nations had been good, we still feel there are things every week that we can get better at,” said Easterby.
“We just didn’t get on the front foot enough versus England. We let them come at us and get momentum.
“And whatever the dynamics were around England losing to Scotland, at times we allowed them to play that game at the weekend when we were passive and allowed them to come at us. We weren’t at our best but we could have won it.
“It’s important that we tidied that up, got over it and there’s plenty to play for this week.
“Like any team that loses and has high expectations of themselves, they’re disappointed in how they performed. They know there is more in us and it wasn’t the best version of ourselves but England had something to do with that as well, so credit to them.
“We could have won it, we didn’t, we need to take the learnings from that but we can’t feel sorry for ourselves. We need to pick ourselves up for Saturday.
“The leadership group is really aware of the mood in the camp, even when we’ve won there has been disappointment at times and reflection on what we could have done better.”
