Henshaw left to wait on world cup debut
Robbie Henshaw will have to wait to make his first World Cup appearance - as he is a notable absentee from Ireland’s match-day squad named for Sunday’s game against Romania.
An hamstring injury ruled Henshaw out of Ireland’s World Cup opener against Canada and the Athlone man will again miss out for Ireland’s second Pool D game on Sunday in Wembley.
Henshaw’s absence means that he is the only player not to be included in either of Ireland's first two match-day squads. However, hopes are still high that the highly rated centre will feature in the matches against Italy and France, though his lack of game time might be an issue.
On Wednesday, Ireland skills coach Richie Murphy said: “Whether Robbie will be ready for this week, we’re not sure. Robbie trained reasonably hard today. He did a lot of running, a lot of passing and again he’s in a position where he’s returning to full fitness and he’s very close.”
Later reports suggested that all members of the Ireland squad were fit and available for selection against Romania.
However, some national media reports this morning suggested that Ireland coach Joe Schmidt would not risk Henshaw against Romania to ensure he would be available for the crunch games against Italy and France.
Overall, there are numerous changes to the Irish team with the inclusion of Ian Madigan at out-half and Cian Healy at loosehead prop among the main talking points.
There are only three survivors from the team which started the comfortable win over Canada – Keith Earls, Jared Payne and Jamie Heaslip. Ireland captain Paul O’Connell is named among the replacements, which means Heaslip will deputise as skipper on the day.
The Ireland v Romania game has a 4.45pm kick-off time and will be shown live on TV3.
Ireland play Italy on October 4 before meeting France on October 11 – a game widely expected to decide which team will top Pool D.
Ireland team v Romania
15. Simon Zebo
14. Tommy Bowe
13. Jared Payne
12. Darren Cave
11. Keith Earls
10. Ian Madigan
9. Eoin Reddan
1. Cian Healy
2. Richardt Strauss
3. Nathan White
4. Donnacha Ryan
5. Devin Toner
6. Jordi Murphy
7. Chris Henry
8. Jamie Heaslip (captain)
Replacements:
16. Sean Cronin
17. Jack McGrath
18. Tadhg Furlong
19. Paul O’Connell
20. Sean O’Brien
21. Conor Murray
22. Paddy Jackson
23. Rob Kearney