'You can't carry too many' - Ireland set to name World Cup squad

RTÉ News​

2 days ago

The players already know and at 10 o'clock this morning Ireland rugby fans will know who's going on the plane to England for the World Cup.
Head coach Scott Bemand spoke to reporters after Saturday's 47-26 loss to Canada in Belfast and indicated that prop Christy Haney is likely to miss out with a hamstring injury, and was non-committal on the prospects of star back row Aoife Wafer being deemed fit after knee surgery.
In addition, co-captain Edel McMahon is recovering from a knee injury that kept her out of both of the warm-up games.
Ireland face Japan on Sunday week in Northampton and take on Spain and New Zealand on the following Sundays.
Asked about the risks of naming two currently injured back rows in the squad, Bemand admitted that a balance had to be struck.
"You are dead right, there is always a balance around who you can take and who you can't, we call them salvageable injuries," he told RTÉ Sport.
"'Tricky' [McMahon] is bang on track. If this was a World Cup quarter-final, 'Tricky' would have been in the mix for selection. She's well placed.
"Aoife, we said this one came a little bit too soon. We'll continue to progress and assess.
"You certainly can't carry too many.
"Having done this before with a slightly smaller squad and the knock on of workload picked up by other people, we know we need a squad to get what we want out of this competition.
"We've had to balance that in with some selections. In the main, 'Tricky's' pretty close."
The addition of former England prop Ellena Perry, who qualifies through an Irish grandparent, to the training squad over the summer was an early indication that experienced front row Haney was racing against time.
"Christy obviously picked up a bump with her hamstring which is a real shame for her. She worked really hard.
"We're assessing as we go through.
"It obviously meant we needed to bring somebody in the front row.
"I've been incredibly proud and pleased with how the pathway is performing in terms of developing the likes of Sophie Barrett.
"Sophie was in the conversation to bring in. Beth [Buttimer] has come in.
"Ellena, obviously my previous work [with the Red Roses], I'd worked with Elle, we knew what standard she's at and it got highlighted to us that she's IQ.
"So we were able to activate a process that could reach out to her, ask if she wanted to come in for an opportunity with nothing promised."
On the tough conversations he's had to have with some players, Bemand (below) said that the "players have also professionalised in terms of how they handle when selections are coming over the horizon."
Speaking to RTÉ Sport, he referred to the recent Lions tour in which numerous players who missed out on original selection received call-ups.
"The fact that the girls are putting themselves in a position to compete for something as special as a World Cup is to be applauded," he said.
"It doesn't make it not hurt if you are in a group. Those girls that won't end up getting on the plane are hugely important to us.
"The competition within training couldn't have looked like it did without them.
"There is a tough pill to swallow if you are not in that but anyone who has followed the Lions will have seen that you are a dead leg away from getting a call-up and should that moment happen and you are on a plane and your first game is a quarter-final of a World Cup, you've got to be ready.
"They'll feel the pain rather than the happiness but we also understand we've got a job to do.
"We're representing Ireland in a World Cup and we get a chance to put ourselves, our green wave on the world stage.