Rob Kearney query near the end of Ireland’s press conference took Joe Schmidt by surprise

For anyone wondering, Andrew Conway is not involved for Ireland this weekend as he has an inflamed knee.

That fact was almost missed in the 'live' section of this afternoon's press conference, at Carton House, but Joe Schmidt shed some light with his final answer. Schmidt had just named an extremely good starting XV that featured a nice mix of experience and promise. Jacob Stockdale, Josh van der Flier and James Ryan all inject some youth into proceedings while Bundee Aki is all set for his Six Nations debut against the French. There is no Jordan Larmour but, with Conway now out for a couple of weeks, the 20-year-old is in line for an Ireland debut against Italy, on February 10. https://twitter.com/SportsJOEdotie/status/959056526941065216 The Conway nugget arrived moments after Schmidt had been momentarily thrown by a question about his fullback, Rob Kearney. The Leinster man was named in a back three with Stockdale and Keith Earls but apparently needed a short visit with the Ireland team medics before this morning's penultimate training session before the Six Nations opener. Here is how the exchange played out.

Reporter: "Joe, I saw Rob Kearney chatting to one of the physios at the start of training. He appeared to pick up some sort of knock. He's fully fit? You're happy with how he's going? Schmidt: "Yeah, he's 100%. Yeah [pauses], he might just have been passing the time, I'm not sure. Certainly I've had no feedback from Rob or the physios that he's anything other than 100% ready to go."

Schmidt may well have missed his star fullback getting looked at by his medical staff but he feels confident Kearney will be good to go in Paris. The Ireland coach then gave the update on Conway that goes, in some part, to explaining the recall of Fergus McFadden to the match-day squad. "The only guy who isn't 100% is Andrew Conway, who has been managing a knee that was a bit inflamed for a period of time. It looked like it was going to be okay but [now] it looks like he's going to be out this week and next, as a result of that. It's certainly nothing serious. He'll just have to let it settle down and then he'll springboard back into things as well." Schmidt is likely, then, to bring Larmour as his backline back-up, along with Kieran Marmion, while Ultan Dillane should round out the travelling reserves on the flight from Dublin to Paris.