Ireland head coach Joe Schmidt has been left with a selection dilemma ahead of this weekend’s visit of Scotland.
The New Zealander will have to replace injured centre Chris Farrell, who has been ruled out for the remainder of the championship with a knee injury, with Leinster centre Garry Ringrose favoured to return to the Irish midfield after recovering from an ankle injury.
Ringrose has played just six games for Leinster this season as he’s battled a variety of injuries that has seen him undergo three surgeries since last summer.
The 23-year-old has played just 113 minutes of rugby since New Year’s Day but should contend for a place in the centres alongside Bundee Aki.
“He hasn’t played a lot of rugby but he’s still a quality player,” said former Munster centre James Downey on The Hard Yards.
“If we lost a [Brian] O’Driscoll or whoever a couple of years ago we’d be like ‘oh no, who are we going to use?
“Or if we lost Paul O’Connell, or Mike Ross or even John Hayes, you lose these players and you’re like ‘where do we go?’
“But now we have so many decent quality players. If we lost two centres in a row we’d be scratching our heads but with Ringrose I’d completely parachute him in.
“He hasn’t played much ball but he’s defensively astute, he knows the position inside out, otherwise you’re looking to bring in maybe Rory Scannell and play him at 12 and push Bundee out but that’s a lot of messing.”
Leinster assistant coach Girvan Dempsey was pleased with Ringrose’s return against the Southern Kings last month and commended him on his defensive performance.
“I was very pleased with Garry,” said Dempsey on Tuesday. “Anyone who comes off a long-term injury, it does take time to bed in. I thought he looked sharp on his feet, carried well, his passing skills were excellent.
“What we like in Garry is he marshals that defence in the wider channels and he reads the game so, so smartly. For us, it was really pleasing that he got through that amount of work unscathed and he felt fresh.
“Playing at 13 pressure arises because of isolation and having to be able to connect with wingers. With 10 and 12 involved in attack off first phase the outside centre is the player organising the forwards and the wingers on the edges.
“You are the link between those players in terms of the defensive width in your wider channels.
“There is a lot of onus on that player and Garry has been excellent for us. We’re delighted he got through that work at the weekend.”
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