Heaslip and Trimble ready to face French but Bowe not right

RUGBY:JAMIE HEASLIP and Andrew Trimble will be available for selection when Ireland coach Declan Kidney names his team at lunch-time today for Sunday's Six Nations Championship match against France at the Aviva stadium. Stephen Ferris will not be considered as he continues to rehabilitate from a knee injury.

At one point yesterday it appeared Kidney would defer naming his side until Friday to allow Heaslip, primarily, every opportunity to prove his fitness but the Leinster and Ireland number eight came through a squad session yesterday afternoon at the RDS – Trimble took a full part too – and so the Ireland team will be announced as scheduled.

National team manager Paul McNaughton confirmed: “We had felt earlier we weren’t in a position to name the team as there was too much doubt on the fitness of several players, but following training, Andrew Trimble and Jamie Heaslip came through the session okay.

“We felt there was no need to actually hold off on selection, so we will go ahead as planned. We were also able to confirm Stephen Ferris (knee) is still not ready for a return to play and has been ruled out of the France game.”

Heaslip’s recovery from an ankle injury sustained away to Clermont Auvergne in the Heineken Cup is a significant boost ahead of Sunday’s pivotal clash and he is likely to return to the middle of the backrow with Seán O’Brien – he played number eight against Italy – Denis Leamy, David Wallace, Shane Jennings, Rhys Ruddock and Mike McCarthy disputing the two flanker positions.

Trimble has recovered from a hand injury and the medical team are happy he’s ready to play at the weekend. Heaslip managed plenty of running last week but yesterday afternoon’s session was the first time he took contact as he will do again this morning when the squad go through their paces.

McNaughton confirmed the game had come a little too quickly for Ferris but both the Ulster flanker and Tommy Bowe should be available for the game against Scotland in Murrayfield at the end of the month.

“Stephen has been doing some rehab in Ulster. He saw a specialist last Friday and he has done some running this morning with us.

“As regards Tommy Bowe, we’re in touch with the Ospreys management and medical staff. We’re anticipating some progress and that he may be available for the Scottish game.

“We’ll review that at the end of this week with the Ospreys, with a view to seeing what type of activity he can undertake the following week, whether that is staying with the Ospreys, possibly having half a game with them, or coming into our camp next week. But we certainly believe he could still come into the frame for the Scotland game.

“We are approaching it (the French match) to have the best team available to play on Sunday. The coaches were quite pleased with a lot of the play last week and we have more options coming in, obviously, with Jamie and Andrew who will be considered as well. We are just looking forward to the French game now.”

Sunday’s visitors to Lansdowne Road appear to have rediscovered their attacking mojo on the evidence of their victory over Scotland. It means a busy week for Ireland’s defence coach Les Kiss.

He smiled: “The French one is one of the toughies. You have to give them a fair bit of credit. They got smashed by seven or eight tries in the autumn (against Australia) and they have shifted their game a bit, got back to some of their values and they played very well. They can launch off some pretty good set-piece so it will be a good challenge.”

France have conceded 11 tries in their last two matches but Kiss doesn’t regard it as a defence system in meltdown. “I don’t think you can ignore it. There are obviously some areas of concern for them in terms of their defence but you can’t say it defines them as a team on the down trend. In that game (Australia) they dominated the set-piece and got done by seven or eight tries to one, or whatever it was. It was something of an anomaly and what we are seeing from them last week (Scotland) is probably more true to form.”

He was reasonably content with Ireland’s defence against Italy. “They (Italy) challenged us on the edges a few times and we managed to hold it. Even though we were down to 14 men you would expect to do better in that area.

“As a trend, probably a bit of an area we would like to improve, the edge defence. I don’t think there is anything critically wrong with it. It is just combination issues and reading things at the right time.”

Sunday will provide a more definitive stress test.

HOOK AND FRANCIS ‘INCOMPATIBLE BED MATES’:

IT TURNS out the first dispute of the Six Nations did not erupt on the field but over the divvying up of national Sunday broadsheet column inches. Readers of the Sunday Independent will have noticed Neil Francis taking up residence last weekend after his regular stable, the Sunday Tribune, disappeared off the course having gone into receivership.

The arrival of Francis was equally noted by the absence of RTÉ television pundit and Newstalk radio presenter George Hook. “I no longer write a column for the Sunday Independent,” Hook confirmed yesterday. “I think Neil Francis is an incompatible bed mate for me in a newspaper.

“It was a corporate decision. They wanted to find a home for their Sunday Tribune (rugby) columnist and while they were happy to have me as well I was not interested in having my column in the same newspaper as Neil Francis.”

Gavin Cummiskey