“In Joe We Trust”
That’s the message from former Irish international Malcolm O’Kelly, after the announcement of Ireland’s 31-man Rugby World Cup squad this morning.
There were some notable absentees from the 31, including Andrew Trimble and Michael Bent, while Darren Cave and Tadhg Furlong got the nod.
O’Kelly feels Trimble’s absence in particular is a blow to Joe Schmidt.
“I can really feel for Andrew Trimble”, he said.
“It’s reported that he had an injury that he couldn’t recover from in time. His physical nature that he can bring to the game will certainly be missed.”
There are only two specialist scrum halves in the squad in Conor Murray and Eoin Reddan, with Isaac Boss and Kieran Marmion losing out.
But O’Kelly can see the reasoning behind such a move, saying the third scrum half is often wasted.
“Sometimes that third scrum won’t get much involvement, so by having the likes of Ian Madigan who can fill-in if needs be in a crisis scenario probably will fulfil it.
92-times capped O’Kelly was also delighted by Cian Healy’s inclusion in the squad.
“The fact that Cian Healy has been selected is a huge boost. Obviously his injury is deemed to be good enough for selection.”
You can listen to O’Kelly’s thoughts in full below as he speaks to 98FM Sport’s Derek Ryan:
