JESSICA and Peter O’Mahony are savouring their final trip to Rome before the latter closes the book on his Ireland career.
POM and Conor Murray will be on the bench for Saturday’s clash with Italy – although surprisingly there’s no place in the matchday 23 for another departing legend in Cian Healy.
She captioned this airport snap ‘Love my new sunnies’[/caption]
A sneak peek at their accommodation for the few days[/caption]
Confirmation (just about) that Peter partook in the gallivanting too[/caption]
They dined on some beautiful and traditional local cuisine[/caption]
Realistically, anyone connected to the team could do with visiting the Vatican to say a prayer for Ireland’s Six Nations championship chances.
Last week’s crushing 42-27 defeat to France has left Les Bleus firmly in the driver’s seat ahead of ‘Super Saturday’ where all six nations will be in action across the day.
In order to now win the competition for an unprecedented third year in a row, Simon Easterby’s men need to secure a bonus point victory over their hosts before rooting for Scottish AND Welsh wins.
Outhalf Jack Crowley is one of six changes to the side as he comes in for his first Six Nations start of the campaign in place of Sam Prendergast.
Garry Ringrose also returns from suspension while James Lowe and Mack Hansen are back from injury, while Jack Conan and James Ryan get starts in the pack.
Healy is omitted in favour of Jack Boyle, meaning the 37-year-old brought down the curtain on his career last week with a try in what was his 137th appearance.
Easterby said of that decision: “I had a conversation with Cian in the early part of the week.
“It is tough but we have very limited time to get players these types of experiences.
“So the likes of Jack Boyle who has come in on the bench, he has been really good in training, he’s been excellent.
“We don’t have many opportunities at international level for meaningful games to get game experiences, get guys game time, so that was the conversation I had with Cian.
“I thought last week was so fitting for all three of them, the send off they had, how the squad recognised that internally, how it was recognised externally in the Aviva and the nation.
“There have been loads of messages coming in from people in terms of what they’ve given the jersey.
“Cian has been at the forefront of that.
“He was obviously disappointed but he understood the rationale behind it and he has been brilliant in the week.
“He will only make Jack’s role that much more effective by being the best team-mate that he can be. Cian gets it.”
FURY AT FRENCH
The usually mild-mannered Easterby also tore into French counterpart Fabien Galthie for creating a ‘s**tstorm’ of controversy around Antoine Dupont’s season-ending injury.
Dupont suffered an ACL injury in their win over Ireland when his knee buckled when hit by a combination of Tadhg Beirne and Andrew Porter in a clearout.
The incident was reviewed by the referee who deemed it a rugby incident, while the citing commissioner agreed when Galthie reported the duo after the game.
But his comments have led to social media abuse being directed at his players, and Easterby has hit out at Galthie and the French squad for causing it.
He said: “No player goes out to injure another player. It just doesn’t happen.
“Whatever the insinuations were from different people, post game, it’s disappointing because the unfortunate thing is that people who don’t really understand the game pick up on it.
“And it creates a bit of a s**tstorm where people are getting abuse.
“It’s unnecessary the coverage on social media, that’s all I am saying. I don’t read it, I don’t necessarily take a lot of notice of it.
“But when it’s directed at certain individuals and certain individuals’ wider family group, then it becomes an issue.
“It’s just unnecessary, and it’s not acceptable, but it happens.
“Those things could have been avoided had maybe other things been said post-game by certain individuals.
“We talk as coaches all the time and we chat post-game.
“I think it could have been a different discussion, a different platform to air those frustrations that maybe France had.
“We and World Rugby and the Six Nations believe that there was no case to answer and certainly it didn’t help.
“It almost sort of fanned the flames of what was a really unfortunate incident.
“But it was a rugby incident and that’s the bottom line. Unfortunately, these things happen.”
