Ireland to make late fly-half call

Dublin: Any hopes that Declan Kidney had of moving on quickly from his decision to omit Ronan O’Gara from Ireland’s squad for Saturday’s Six Nations fixture against France were scuppered by untimely injury setbacks to two of the three fly-halves who have been selected ahead of the Munster veteran.

Kidney was told half an hour before attending a press conference in Dublin on Tuesday to announce his team that Jonathan Sexton, who had been expected to return after missing the hamfisted defeat in Scotland with the hamstring problem he sustained against England, needs another week to recover.

To make matters worse, Paddy Jackson, who was widely criticised for his performance at Murrayfield before making way for O’Gara, has also suffered a hamstring injury, prompting Kidney to take the unusual step of leaving a vacancy at No 10.

The coach said that Jackson’s “chances of pulling through are very good”, and he expects the 21-year-old to train on Thursday. “What I’m trying to do is just give the absolute up-to-date,” he said.

But for the moment Jackson is bracketed alongside Ian Madigan, the uncapped 23-year-old from Leinster — leading to inevitable questions over whether O’Gara could yet receive another recall for a game that Ireland must win to avoid being dragged into danger of their first Six Nations wooden spoon.

“There’s no need to call in anybody at the moment,” said Kidney, countering a suggestion that the decision to drop O’Gara had been premature. “When you pick a squad you can’t be bringing 45 or 47 to training. It was just Murphy’s Law that this was going to happen at 10.”

He admitted that the veteran of 128 Tests had been “disappointed” when given the news of his omission before the squad announcement. “You don’t put the type of service that Ronan’s given and not be disappointed,” Kidney said. “When there is a time for change, there will always be a lot of inspection as to why it has to happen. It’s just one of those calls you have to make as a coach.”

He insisted that O’Gara’s exclusion shortly before his 36th birthday did not necessarily mark the end of his international career. “Form is temporary, class is permanent,” he added. “Who’s to know what’s going to happen tomorrow — or in the future?”