The Morning Sports Briefing

Seán O’Brien likely to fill backrow vacancy

With the visit of the All Blacks four days away Ireland coach Joe Schmidt has just one real selection dilemma to tackle ahead of a mouth-watering second round at the Aviva Stadium.

Jordi Murphy’s season ending knee injury picked up in Chicago means there is a backrow vacancy, with both Sean O’Brien and Peter O’Mahony in line to fill it having made their Test match returns against Canada last Saturday.

And in his column today Gerry Thornley suggests O’Brien is the likely candidate to enter the fray against the world champions, he writes: “On his day, O’Brien remains a truly world-class player, a Lions Test starter whose explosive ball-carrying in particular, breakdown work and defence would be an asset to any team...

“...It’s rare to hear an All Black player name-check an Irish opponent or reveal he’d been keeping an eye on one at provincial level, but following O’Brien’s omission from the 27-man squad which travelled to Chicago, All Black flanker Jerome Kaino was genuinely surprised rather than indulging in any gamesmanship.”

Owen Franks

The tourists meanwhile have licked their wounds and prop Owen Franks suggested while the All Blacks weren’t necessarily out for revenge, there would be improvements, he said: “It wasn’t Ireland’s fault that we played bad.”

Ireland flourishing under O’Neill

With Ireland sitting pretty at the top of their World Cup qualification group Emmet Malone has given a positive assessment of Martin O’Neill’s tenure thus far, he writes: “His achievement at this stage is pretty much beyond dispute, though. Under O’Neill the line-up has evolved, the patterns of play have improved and the confidence has soared.”

Stenson well clear in Race to Dubai

The Race to Dubai title will be decided this week, with British Open champion Henrik Stenson comfortably in the driving seat heading into the World Tour Championship.

Rory McIlroy currently lies in fourth place, and would need to win the Tour finale and hope Stenson finished outside the top 45, Danny Willett finished outside the top five and Alex Noren finished outside the top two in order to usurp the Swede.