Lots of cramping and sore bodies but three players will be hoping they are still able to play the Test Series decider Sydney
A few more Irish players are more serious concerns heading into the final Test next weekend.
Ireland were outgunned in Brisbane but starved Australia of possession and won the breakdown battle in Melbourne. Tadhg Furlong and Peter O’Mahony were Ireland’s top performers in a 26-21 victory that was closer than it should have been.
Johnny Sexton looked to be carrying an injury in the final quarter – and went off with two minutes to go – but the outhalf was not even mentioned when Joe Schmidt was asked to provide a post-match injury update.
Instead, the Ireland coach provided optimistic news on Dan Leavy, Cian Healy and try-scorer Andrew Conway.
“Andrew is looking… I’d say he could train, fully, on Tuesday. He got a hip-pointer and it’s just that bruise that’s debilitating at the time but, I think, that’s something that over the next 48 hours will wear itself through. I’d be really confident with Andrew Conway.
“With Cian, it was just a smack on the AC [shoulder], which again is temporarily debilitating but he could well be okay.
“With Dan, he got a whack on the sternum. Again, that is very uncomfortable but he could have potentially played on, but I thought Jordi Murphy went on and did a really good job in his place.”
Schmidt did tell Sky Sports, post-match, that he would have to glue several of his travelling squad back together for the Third Test in Sydney.
The Kiwi is expected to make a few changes to his match-day squad for the final game of a long season, with the likes of Jacob Stockdale, Sean Cronin, Iain Henderson and more all hoping to get a run-out next week.
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