Forwards coach Paul O’Connell has confirmed Ireland have no further injury concerns before next week’s Nations Championship opener against Australia in Sydney.
Having missed out on reclaiming the Six Nations title in March, Ireland take on the Wallabies and Japan in Australia and New Zealand in Auckland on 4, 11 and 18 July.
Head coach Andy Farrell’s preparations have been hit by injuries to key players including fly-half Jack Crowley, prop Andrew Porter and captain Caelan Doris.
While Munster forward Tadhg Beirne and Ulster centre Stuart McCloskey have been struggling with injuries, O’Connell confirmed “everyone is fine”.
“Everyone is training and trained hard and trained well today, so everyone’s fine,” he said.
While the inaugural Nations Championship is not a traditional summer tour, Ireland have the chance to claim the scalps of next year’s World Cup hosts Australia and rivals New Zealand, who have won the past three meetings with Farrell’s side.
Ireland’s second batch of Nations Championship games will see them host Argentina, Fiji and South Africa in November before a possible finals weekend at Twickenham’s Allianz Stadium.
And O’Connell hopes the next four weeks prove as useful as recent summer tours, which included 2022’s historic series win in New Zealand.
“It feels like a summer tour, really. I think it’s exciting to have a competition. And we certainly want to be at the business end of it come November, but it feels like a tour,” added O’Connell.
“And that’s what we’re trying to make it like. I think you learn a lot about each other as a group. You develop a little bit more on tour because you’re not going home at the weekend.
“You’re not catching up with your family at the weekend. You’re together all the time. So, we tend to get an awful lot of work done when we’re on tours,” O’Connell added.
“We tend to, I think, take big strides as a team in terms of trying to improve and evolve. So, even though it’s a competition, it feels like, and we’re probably treating it like a tour.”
Ireland’s Nations Championship fixtures (times BST)
4 July: Australia v Ireland, Allianz Stadium, Sydney, 11:10
11 July: Japan v Ireland, McDonald Jones Stadium, Newcastle, 11:10
18 July: New Zealand v Ireland, Eden Park, Auckland, 08:10
Source:
www.bbc.co.uk
