Six Nations: Rory Best sits out Ireland training

Ireland captain Rory Best sat out training on Tuesday morning at Carton House with a minor calf strain but is expected to take a full part in Thursday's session ahead of Saturday's final Six Nations Championship match against Scotland at the Aviva Stadium (5.0).

Best trained on Monday but complained afterwards of a slight niggle in his calf and the medical team decided that it would be prudent for him to sit out this morning’s practice.

Leinster duo Eoin Reddan (calf) and Cian Healy (hamstring), both of whom missed the victory over Italy are back on the paddock and available for selection ahead of the team announcement on Thursday.

Ireland assistant coach Richie Murphy explained: "Eoin (Reddan) returned to training today; Cian (Healy) trained yesterday and today. Both guys are fit and ready for selection. Rory Best sat out the session today.

“He trained yesterday and came off. He was a little tight in the calf at the end of training. The medics think that he should be fine and ready to go on Thursday.”

Murphy confirmed that there would be no sea-change in terms of Ireland’s patterns for the upcoming game against the Scots, pointing out that there have been only minor adjustments in the first four matches of the tournament.

"We set out our stall out to play each team where he saw opportunities to attack them. Over this Six Nations we have come in with the same approach to most of the games with just little tweaks here and there. I don't see that being much different.

“We want to play the game at a high tempo and I think Scotland will do the same. It makes for a really exciting game. Scotland probably won’t give us the time and space that we had at the weekend to play like that.

"All their back three are very good. Tim Visser, if he gets space, he is very dangerous. (Stuart) Hogg is a special type of player; he is able to create space for others. He's got electric pace and really good feet.

“Your kicking game has to be really good and not give him opportunities to counterattack because otherwise you could be standing behind your sticks for a while.

“Italy were a little bit understrength with the players they lost. I haven’t seen a massive shift in how the guys feel or how they are approaching this game on the back of that. Everyone has always been determined to try and move on to the next game even after the defeats we had. The Italy game has been put on the backburner.”