Jamie Osborne, Ryan Baird, Tadhg Furlong and Jacob Stockdale are out for Ireland’s final match of the Autumn Nations Series against Australia on Saturday. Fullback Osborne came off after 27 minutes of Ireland’s game against Fiji last weekend with a head injury.
Ulster winger, Jacob Stockdale, also hobbled off in the second half of the game, while Baird and Furlong were not included in the match day squad.
In addition Dave Heffernan, Jack Boyle and Nick Timoney have all been released back to their provinces.
Osborne, with four Irish caps, was hoping to build on his two performances in South Africa last summer in what was his first Irish start since then.
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“He’s a big loss,” said Irish assistant coach Paul O’Connell. “He’s very versatile as well on the bench, he covers so many different positions. He’s growing all the time and getting better all the time. It’s a shame he’s out. Hopefully it’s nothing too serious and hopefully he’s back to us soon”
O’Connell will be reacquainted with former Ireland coach Joe Schmidt, who currently coaches the Australian team. Schmidt spent nine years coaching in Ireland, at Leinster for three years and with Ireland for six years before ending his tenure in 2019.
Is Joe Schmidt the right man for Australia?
“He’s a fantastic coach,” said O’Connell. “He was very successful with Leinster and very successful with Ireland and still has a bit of an influence in here in terms of how we play the game.
“I enjoyed it. I was an older player when he took over, I was probably hanging on a little bit and I was able to find my niche in what he was doing. I enjoyed how we played, but I probably enjoyed how he coached more than anything.
“He’s a teacher, and he had a lot of teaching principles in how he coached. I played nine times against New Zealand as a player and failed to beat them and he was part of that coaching staff that broke that duck and did it again in 2018.”
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