Ireland prepared to wait until last possible minute to select Joe Schmidt’s go-to guy

The Ireland coaching staff confirmed that their starting 13 missed another training session but has not been ruled out of Saturday's game against England.

Jared Payne sat out training this morning and though Ireland are refusing to rule him out. Regardless, it is unlikely that a man who played the second half against France on a torn hamstring would be risked against England one [hopeful] training run on Thursday. Ireland assistant coach Simon Easterby says Joe Schmidt is willing to wait on Payne to prove he is 100% for the away date. He said:

"Everyone trained fully today except for Jared Payne, He trained 85-90% yesterday and ran well... We're going to give him until Thursday to prove himself,"

Interestingly, Easterby mentioned Luke Marshall and Keith Earls as straight replacements for Payne were the Ulster centre to miss out. He did note, however, that Robbie Henshaw is "adaptable" so a shift over He added that Simon Zebo and Johnny Sexton had both trained fully so they should be comfortably in the selection mix. The sight of Mike Ross and Cian Healy back in training has heartened all involved with the squad. "Having those guys available to us gives us that bit more experience," said Easterby. The assistant coach said the medical advice was that concussed lock Mike McCarthy take a few months off, He said it was due to the severity of the blow he took to the head and not the number of blows he has taken over the course of the season.