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The Ireland injury update and what they make of Borthwick's England
Assistant coach Mike Catt has delivered the latest Ireland injury update and also shared his thoughts on how England are doing with Steve Borthwick three games into his second year in charge.
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The Irish are two wins away from completing their historic first back-to-back Grand Slam campaigns in the Guinness Six Nations.
Step three was defeating Wales 31-7 in Dublin last Saturday. Next up is a March 9 trip to Twickenham to take on Borthwick’s English, who are coming off the back of an abject 21-30 loss away to Scotland.
Neither Garry Ringrose nor Hugo Keenan were involved in the round three success versus the Welsh and following an open training session on Thursday in front of a noisy gathering of Irish fans at Aviva Stadium, attack coach Catt provided a medical bulletin on Andy Farrell’s squad.
“Garry Ringrose trained with us today, which is good,” he began. “It’s nice to have him back, so he is progressing nicely. Hugo did a little bit on the sideline and did the fitness with the boys. He is progressing really nicely. Ryan Baird had a back spasm this morning, so he didn’t train.
“Those are the ones, Garry and Hugo, the main two that are coming through nicely, so we will see how the weekend progresses. Garry had (only) done a couple of unit sessions, so I suppose (this was his) first full session in terms of doing absolutely everything.
“He has been running with us in the past couple of weeks as well. He is progressing nicely so fingers crossed he comes through and is fine.
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“Hugo, again, it’s a process, just slowly ticking along nicely. Hopefully by Tuesday, Wednesday he will be training fully and give us that opportunity. We need that sort of competition in the team for us to drive forward.”
Aside from Baird, Oli Jager, who made his Test debut off the bench versus Wales, was absent from training due to a minor bang on his knee.
Reflecting on the victory over the Welsh, Catt explained that Ireland were hard in their assessment of how they played and he stressed they much improve if England are to beaten in London.
“We have had a review of the Wales game and it wasn’t perfect by any means. We have really realised what we need to do over the next 10 days to prepare properly for England. We went away from what we are really, really good at against Wales.
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“It’s something we have addressed and we need to make sure that we get right. The session today was pretty sharp. It’s a good start. The boys will relax this weekend but then come Sunday, Monday they will be fired up again.”
Asked for specifics about what aspects didn’t satisfy last weekend, Catt remarked: “That would be telling, wouldn’t it? We just went through the motions a little bit rather than actually really implementing the way we wanted to play.
AVIVA PARTY: Andy Farrell and his double Grand Slam-chasing Ireland got a massive reception when they walked out onto the Aviva Stadium pitch for Thursday's open training session. #GuinnessM6N #IrelandRugby #ENGvIRE pic.twitter.com/1oYBx5YklQ
— RugbyPass (@RugbyPass) February 29, 2024
“It was a bit disappointing in certain aspects of the game, but we have addressed it, we are good enough to address it and it’s something we have to get right for England. We will!”
Beaten in Scotland, England are facing the prospect of suffering their fourth successive two-wins-from-five Six Nations campaign unless they secure an upset win over Ireland or win away to France in Lyon.
Catt, a 2003 Grand Slam and Rugby World Cup winner with England, branded the Borthwick team as dangerous, explaining that attack is usually the last part of the jigsaw to fit when moulding a new side.
Asked if the English had improved since Borthwick succeeded Eddie Jones in December 2022, the Ireland assistant suggested: “It’s not for me to say, to be honest.
“Doing the job, especially from an attacking point of view, it does take time. It’s a tough one to get, especially when you are at the top end of the sport. You take a bit of time to do that.
“Yeah, the individuals that are there, they are definitely capable of causing teams (trouble). They got third in the World Cup so the players are all there barring Owen Farrell. Everybody else is still there and they are well capable. It is tough at that level but they will keep ticking along no doubt.
“This England side we will be coming up against next week are a dangerous side, we know they are capable of doing things. It’s making sure we take our next step and the next step is England at Twickenham, so that is all we are going to focus on at the moment.”
The sights and sounds of the Ireland open training session in Dublin on Thursday. #GuinnessM6N #IrelandRugby #ENGvIRE pic.twitter.com/8W9Fom5GIj
— RugbyPass (@RugbyPass) February 29, 2024
Comments on RugbyPass
Dear Ben Smith you are a genius! God please become the next all blacks coach that can take on the mighty BOKS. Your rugby acumen is second to none - imagine your dads sperm bounced as unfortunately as that oval ball did….we would not be blessed with your presence. Just as the all blacks were missing a man you too are missing a chromosome for 80% of your life, so your insights are not only profound but ring true from your own experiences. Just as the TMO interfered with citing an illegal pass I am sure your local authorities interfere with your illegal passes you make on women - How dare they!!! God forbid that rugby be officiated fairly. You are the right man for the job. Next all blacks coach is here ladies and gentlemen Miss Ben Smith (He/She/They/IT)
218 Go to commentsHuge engine this guy and great to see him back ..The amount of clean outs he does at the ruck are ridiculous !!
3 Go to commentsThe level of desperation in this article is just embarrassing.
218 Go to commentsSome silly trolling in the comments.
8 Go to commentsEverywhere you turn some irish journo is advocating Ireland as the greatest, reasoning that the wc is a 4 year cycle event so, they say wc doesn’t matter it’s the rugby in between that should account for the accolade. If there was no wc then some substance could be gained, however in my opinion the moment that defined Ireland’s fate against the abs was 37 phases of repeated head bashing against a brick wall. If a change in strategy or a tinker with the game plan was executed then things could've been vastly different. And to point a finger the let down was in the hands of the number 10.
44 Go to commentsI have heard it asked if RA is essentially one of the part owners and I suppose therefor should be on the other side of these two parties. If they purchased the rebels and guaranteed them, and are responsible enough they incur Rebels penalties, where is this line drawn? Seems rough to have to pay a penalty for something were your involvement sees you on the side of the conned party, the creditors. If the Rebels directors themselves have given the club their money, 6mil worth right, why aren’t they also listed as sitting with RA and the Tax office? And the legal threat was either way, new Rebels or defunct, I can’t see how RA assume the threat was less likely enough to warrant comment about it in this article. Surely RA ignore that and only worry about whether they can defend it or not, which they have reported as being comfortable with. So in effect wouldn’t it be more accurate to say there is no further legal threat (or worry) in denying the deal. Unless the directors have reneged on that. > Returns of a Japanese team or even Argentinean side, the Jaguares, were said to be on the cards, as were the ideas of standing up brand new teams in Hawaii or even Los Angeles – crazy ideas that seemingly forgot the time zone issues often cited as a turn-off for viewers when the competition contained teams from South Africa. Those timezones are great for SR and are what will probably be needed to unlock its future (cant see it remaining without _atleast _help from Aus), day games here are night games on the West Coast of america, were potential viewers triple, win win. With one of the best and easiest ways to unlock that being to play games or a host a team there. Less good the further across Aus you get though. Jaguares wouldn’t be the same Jaguares, but I still would think it’s better having them than keeping the Rebels. The other options aren’t really realistic 25’ options, no. From reading this authors last article I think if the new board can get the investment they seem to be confident in, you keeping them simply for the amount of money they’ll be investing in the game. Then ditch them later if they’re not good enough without such a high budget. Use them to get Jaguares reintergration stronger, with more key players on board, and have success drive success.
15 Go to commentsYeah, and ours is waaay bigger than yours. Just as you's get a semi…oh hold on that never happens
44 Go to commentsLove watching
1 Go to commentsThe Melbourne Rebels lineout is a complete disaster so not surprisingly a kiwi coach of the Wallabies hires the worst lineout coach in the country and a foreigner to boot. No surprises whatsoever here…….
3 Go to commentsThank your for wasting 2 minutes of my life Daniel. There is a useful message in there somewhere but your delivery sucks.
7 Go to commentsBen Smith, you are cry baby
218 Go to commentsSux that homophobia is still a thing though. I wonder how many players who could have become legends never kept playing rugby because they felt unwelcome.
7 Go to commentsCrazy he’s only 28, feel like he’s been around forever - don’t mind the move, safe pair of hands and creates depth in a thin position for ABs. Hopefully aides Kemara’s growth also without thrusting too much responsibility on him
1 Go to commentsMen should show strength and be mean, but they should be able to show emotion to those close yo them in certain times, birth of your child, death of family, proud moment. This article is stupid
7 Go to commentsWhat a weak article…absolute drivel and clickbait, well done. Will stick to rugby365 thanks
7 Go to commentsHonest, discipline, humility… Priceless.
2 Go to commentsSo many excuses. No mention of the SA number 2 being taken out illegally in the 2nd minute. That act of foul play had a massive impact on the SA game. Face it, NZ play pretty dirty very regularly, and it’s only since 2016 they’ve been held to higher officiating standards via stricter officiating and TMO reviews. They deserved to have a man down. Sorry. Fix the yellow and red cards and NZ will win more RWCs. Plus, there WAS a knock on invalidating the one try, so it was NOT a try. Period. Here’s a Kleenex…
218 Go to commentsOverheard conversation between NZ and SA rugby fans everywhere: We’re the greatest! No! we’re the greatest! We’re the greatest! No we’re the greatest! Ireland are arrogant! True but they beat you! We’re the greatest! No! we’re the greatest! Etc. etc, etc.
44 Go to commentsTypical crap Aussie weather
11 Go to comments“If they’d have beaten England, I still feel we would have been talking ‘is this the best team ever,’ ‘is this the best team that’s ever played in the Six Nations'” he said. “I still think they’re not quite that good. I actually don’t think they’re that good.” So Trimble is saying he doesn’t think this is the best 6N team of all time. He is silent on if it is the best Irish team of all time. Can’t disagree with him. Just another misrepresentative clickbait headline from the guys at RP.
44 Go to comments