PAUL O’Connell will miss the rest of the Six Nations campaign after damaging his knee in the Ireland versus France draw last weekend. The Limerick man is the second captain to fall foul of injury as Brian O’Driscoll was ruled out this season with a shoulder knock.
Ulster’s Rory Best will captain Ireland, in O’Connell’s place. this Saturday evening against Scotland, in what is fast looking like an increasingly difficult match.
With two natural leaders missing from the side, fans will be worried that the Ireland team might struggle against a dogged and well structured Scottish side.
Declan Kidney, speaking this week, feels that Best is a great man to have in these instances and to have a man of his calibre available, just shows Ireland’s depth.
“This is why you build a squad first day, so you can handle situations like this. Rory has captained a tour before with me to Canada, so this is nothing new to us” Kidney commented.
Best is looking forward to the role also.
“I was very honoured when I was asked. Coming up through my career, this is something I have dreamed of doing. Paul is going to be a huge loss, so we need to focus now on the win. The main thing is that we win this weekend. Milestones and new captains matter for little. We need to win this weekend”
With Conor Murray also missing out through injury, Kidney has made two changes for this Saturday’s game. (Kick off at 5pm). Donnacha Ryan comes in for O’Connell, while Reddan replaces Murray.
Mike McCarthy from Connacht and Munster’s Tomas O’Leary come onto the bench to make up the match day 22.
Following Ireland’s draw with France and their loss to Wales, the Triple Crown, Grand Slam and Championship are now all lost.
