Ireland still waiting on injured trio ahead of New Zealand match

Ireland are still waiting to see if three of their key players are fit enough to face New Zealand in the final Test of the November series on Sunday in Aviva Stadium.

No decision has yet been made on centre Brian O'Driscoll, fullback Rob Kearney or outhalf Johnny Sexton, all of whom left the match against Australia last weekend with injuries.

"We will make a call later in the week," said Ireland forwards coach John Plumtree of Sexton. "He hasn't trained this week. Rob trained today and Brian O'Driscoll hasn't trained either."

Sexton pulled up with a hamstring injury at the end of the first half of the 32-15 defeat to Australia, while Kearney injured his ribs late in the game. O’Driscoll left the pitch with a calf strain.

Training for Kearney was light today but it would appear the prognosis for him is positive, with Plumtree venturing today that he would be “all right”.

As for the other two, “it’s hard to say,” said Plumtree. “The nice thing is that we’ve got a long turnaround this week.

“It’s only Wednesday, so they’ve got a day off on Thursday and then come in on Friday. We’ve got that extra day which is great and hopefully by the time they come in on Friday they’ll be feeling a lot better.”

Plumtree was angry with the display of his pack against the Wallabies and warned them a substantial improvement is required if they are to compete with the All Blacks.

“We were very average against Australia and we’re very disappointed with that performance. We scrummed poorly,” Plumtree said. “We conceded a soft try from their drive which the boys are fuming at. We knew it was coming, but we didn’t execute the plan we had in place, which makes it doubly irritating.

“There’s been an extra edge in the forwards this week and there has to be. We’re playing against probably the best side in the world and the pack needs to front up big time. As a pack New Zealand are the ultimate test. It doesn’t get any tougher than this and we were irritated with our performance last week.”