Ireland 'in good shape' ahead of Nations Championship
SPOTLIGHT: Ireland forwards coach Paul O’Connell said the team was in “good shape and good form” on Saturday after their long trek to Australia for the start of the Nations Championship.
Andy Farrell’s men kick off the inaugural tournament against the Wallabies in Sydney on July 4 and have been getting in some solid training since their arrival during the week.
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Former captain O’Connell, regarded as one of the greatest locks the game has seen, said he was impressed by how they had hit the ground running.
“From my impression of the lads, since they’ve come in, the eagerness to work, the eagerness to train, has been great,” he said.
“It’s always a change when you come abroad on tour, and you’re in a different hotel and a different city. So yeah, I think they’re in good shape and good form.”
Ireland are looking to build on positive performances during the Six Nations this year, where they finished runners-up to France.
They are in Australia, boosted by head coach Farrell signing a contract extension this month that will take him through to the end of the 2031 World Cup.
But in a setback, captain Caelan Doris and wing Tommy O’Brien have been ruled out of the Australia clash and Tests the following two weekends against Japan in Newcastle and New Zealand in Auckland.
They are replaced by uncapped Ulster brothers Bryn Ward and Zac Ward, with Leinster hooker Dan Sheehan taking over as skipper for the three-match tour.
O’Connell said the squad, which includes uncapped Connacht trio Billy Bohan, Sam Illo and Sean Jansen, was gelling quickly.
“We trained for the first time yesterday [Friday]. Sometimes you can judge how things are in the afternoon with a big number of boys sitting together around laptops, watching training together, getting realigned,” he said.
“So yeah, enthusiasm is great, and I think they’re excited to be away.
“I think you learn a lot about each other as a group [on tour], 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, you’re together all the time.
“So we tend to get an awful lot of work done when we’re on tours. We tend to take big strides as a team in terms of trying to improve and evolve.”
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