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Ireland insist Joey Carbery is fully ready to deputize at scrum-half after \u201cnumerous occasions\u201d honing the role in training.<\/p>\nIreland insist Joey Carbery is fully ready to deputize at scrum-half after \u201cnumerous occasions\u201d honing the role in training.<\/p>\n
Fly-half Carbery will cover scrum-half from the bench in Thursday\u2019s World Cup clash with Russia in Kobe.<\/p>\n
Ireland gambled on selecting just two recognized scrum-halves in their 31-man squad to bolster the stocks in other positions, with Munster star Carbery stepping up to cover both nine and 10.<\/p>\n
Skills coach Richie Murphy revealed Carbery long since declared himself comfortable covering scrum-half, with Ireland then working hard to bring the 23-year-old up to speed with the unfamiliar task.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt\u2019s something we\u2019ve obviously been thinking about for a long time, back home,\u201d said Murphy, of Carbery\u2019s scrum-half duties.<\/p>\n
\u201cThe unfortunate thing for Joey was the amount of time that was taken off him after the ankle injury.<\/p>\n
\u201cBut we still felt it was a way we were going to go.<\/p>\n
\u201cAnd once we\u2019ve come over he\u2019s done some work on that. He\u2019s trained there on numerous occasions.<\/p>\n
\u201cHe feels comfortable. And we didn\u2019t just throw him in there, we asked him how he felt about it.<\/p>\n
\u201cAnd we made a decision in relation to the squad of players that we brought, about only bringing five half-backs.<\/p>\n
\u201cAnd his versatility in relation to playing 15, playing 10 and being able to cover nine was one of those factors.<\/p>\n
\u201cSo he\u2019s happy to do it, he\u2019d obviously prefer to be playing at 10 but these are the days where you put the squad first, and in fairness to Joey he\u2019s done that.\u201d<\/p>\n
Ireland\u2019s shock defeat to hosts Japan has opened up Pool A, but Joe Schmidt\u2019s men can still fight their to the quarter-finals with victories over Russia and Samoa.<\/p>\n
Schmidt\u2019s side let a 12-3 advantage slip in defeat by the Brave Blossoms, but assistant coach Murphy insisted it would be over the top to brand Japan more skillful than Ireland.<\/p>\n
Asked for his view on criticism that Ireland had slipped behind Japan on the skill front, Murphy said: \u201cI think it probably is an unfair observation of our team.<\/p>\n
\u201cI sat here last week and everyone was saying how well we\u2019d done the week before.<\/p>\n
\u201cSo we can\u2019t go from one week to the next and become a really bad team overnight.<\/p>\n
\u201cSo I think the Japanese were very good last week, they played at an incredible level of intensity and speed and were very accurate in their passing.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe trained against Kobe Steelers today, and most of their players are in their early 20s, and their skill levels were very high as well.<\/p>\n
\u201cSo it\u2019s obviously something that they work very hard on here. But it\u2019s something that we would be happy with at home.\u201d<\/p>\n