Ireland assistant coach Simon Easterby says hooker Rónan Kelleher is on track to play their opening game of the Autumn Nations Series against New Zealand at the Aviva Stadium on Friday, November 8.
Kelleher has been sidelined with an ankle injury he sustained while playing for Leinster on October 5 with the province giving a four-to-six-week recovery after he underwent an operation.
Ulster hooker Rob Herring has yet to feature this season while Dan Sheehan is ruled out until next year.
Asked about Kelleher’s chances of featuring against the All Blacks, Easterby said: “Yeah, for sure, he’s doing well.”
Easterby hopes there will be a “full deck” of players training tomorrow at their base in the Algarve, Portugal. Ciarán Frawley picked up an ankle injury two weeks ago while Mack Hansen sustained a hip injury in their defeat to Ulster earlier this month.
“[Hansen] is progressing really well,” Easterby added. “Like Ronan and Rob Herring and a few others, they are working incredibly hard and came into camp in a good place and continue that progression.
“The medics have done a great job on top of the provincial stuff and then the transition into national camp has been seamless in terms of those players coming in with a couple of niggles. So far so good and hopefully we will have a full deck to train with tomorrow and leading into next week.”
Easterby confirmed that Peter O’Mahony will join up with the national squad once he comes through Munster’s game with a New Zealand select XV at Thomond Park on Saturday after his hamstring injury.
Caelan Doris was last week confirmed as O’Mahony’s successor as Ireland captain for the Autumn Nations Series.
“[Doris] leads by example but also he thinks about the game differently. He thinks about the way the group are, the empathy he has for the group and that allows him to lead in different ways,” Easterby said about the selection of Doris as Ireland captain.
“He has a high standing obviously within Leinster but also within this group. I guess the next four weeks are going to be part of his development as a leader and that will allow him to settle into the role and then who knows after that.
“I’m sure Caelan is just thinking of the here and the now and what we’re going to prepare for in about eight days’ time.”
The IRFU confirmed last month that Easterby will take-over as interim head coach from December 1 while Andy Farrell takes a sabbatical to lead the Lions for the tour to Australia next year.
“Not a huge amount will change [in the Ireland squad]. We lose Faz and we lose a big part of what this team is about,” continued Easterby.
“But this is Andrew Goodman’s [backs coach] first time involved fully. He was with us in the summer, shadowing Mike Catt. He came on tour with us with the Emerging group. He’s added massive value to the group. Great knowledge, great way about him, coaches really positively.
“I think that’s a real addition. I guess we’re trying to figure out what the dynamics of the coaching group will look like and feel like when Andy’s not here for the second half of this season. I guess the next few weeks will allow us to do that, to figure out what will be needed and like I say it’s an exciting time.
“We probably won’t make any decisions until the latter part of the November series.”
New Zealand beat Japan 64-19 in Yokohama last Saturday and they will play England at Twickenham this weekend. In comparison, Ireland haven’t played together since their 25-24 win over South Africa in July.
Easterby says they’re trying to develop their style of play since the nations last faced each other in the World Cup quarter-final in October last year which the All Blacks won 28-24.
“It’s brilliant, we get the chance to play teams from the southern hemisphere and there is that little bit of rivalry between ourselves and New Zealand over the last couple of years. They got one over on us the last time we met in Paris obviously,” he recalled.
“We’re trying to progress and evolve as well. It’s a nice storyline, they’ve come off the back of the Japan game and have to play England this weekend. It’s our first game for a good while so there’s lots of sub-plots but essentially we’re playing against New Zealand at the Aviva on a Friday night, we want to make sure we hit the ground running.”
Easterby also spoke about the “inspirational” Nando Parrado who was a guest speaker with the Ireland squad recently. The former Uruguayan rugby player was one of the survivors of a flight that crashed in the Andes in October 1972.
“He came and spoke to the group when we arrived in camp. Just a really inspirational figure in terms of what he and his team-mates went through in terrible conditions. I didn’t realise that he was one of 17 players on that flight but he also had his mother on the flight, his sister on the flight. He lost them in the accident and the survivors spent two-and-a-half months trying to figure out a way to stay alive,” Easterby added.
“It was really inspirational. Just someone you could relate to because of his rugby background. The team that he played with has a shamrock on the jersey that they play in and he obviously has a massive love and affiliation towards Ireland because of that.
“He grew up being taught by the Christian brothers. So there was a familiarity and similarity to what he was talking about. A real inspiration and interesting to hear from someone who had been through all of that and still had the positivity to come out the other side and live a very good life.”