Cian Healy likely being out of a significant chunk of this tour leaves Andy Farrell with a serious problem at loosehead. Photograph: Hannah Peters/Getty ImagesThe decision to travel to New Zealand with just three props on either side of the scrum and three hookers for a tour featuring five games in a 24-day period may have been designed to see how Ireland would cope with stress.
“Cian doesn’t look too good,” conceded Farrell, before adding: “He was in a bit of pain coming off the field. It’s settled down a bit so we’ll see with him.” Andrew Porter, Dan Sheehan and Tadhg Furlong are set to be the starting frontrow, but if Loughman is ruled out for Saturday’s first Test in addition to Healy, the only available back-up would be for Bealham to cover loosehead and Tom O’Toole, after playing the full 80 in the 32-17 defeat by the Maori All Blacks, to cover tighthead.
In addition to all this, James Hume especially and also Jimmy O’Brien were helped from the pitch, placing question marks over their availability for the rest of the tour.“James has a bit of a groin injury that needs assessment tomorrow,” said Farrell. “Jimmy came off with a strain. He thinks it’s a strain. He’s feeling pretty good in the changing rooms.”
“The Maori team 100 per cent deserved to win that game. I thought the skillset was pretty good in that first half in those conditions so congratulations to them. But I’m proud of the boys, the way that they came back. It could have been a landslide with the way the score was at half time?