Conor Murray says Ireland can respond in second Test as Dave Heffernan and Nathan Doak are called up
Ireland's Conor Murray on his way to the try-line against South Africa on Saturday. Photo: Siphiwe Sibeko/Reuters
Andy Farrell has sent for reinforcements ahead of Saturday’s second Test against South Africa as Connacht’s Dave Heffernan and Ulster’s Nathan Doak were last night called up to the squad.
The IRFU has confirmed that Dan Sheehan and Craig Casey will miss the game after suffering injuries in last weekend’s 27-20 loss in Pretoria.
The union did not provide detail on the extent of Sheehan’s injury, but it’s understood he’s suffered damage to his anterior cruciate ligament and will be out until 2025, while Casey suffered a concussion.
South Africa tour daily - July 8th
Ireland have rejigged their training week after a bruising opener, with James Lowe, Bundee Aki, Andrew Porter and Jamie Osborne all dealing with injuries.
They did a walk-through in uMhlanga, near Durban, yesterday and have today off. They’ll train tomorrow and Thursday with Farrell naming his team at 2pm.
South Africa coach Rassie Erasmus has no injury concerns and will name his team this morning.
And although the better side won the first Test, Conor Murray believes Ireland have what it takes to come back and level the series.
“There’s hope for next week, I think we could give it a good crack,” he said.
“I think in fairness, they attacked really well in the first half especially, and we fixed it, or dealt with it, better in the second half in terms of our own ‘D’ line. They were going wide-wide quite a bit, which we kind of expected, with Tony Brown as their next attack coach.
“We knew there would be a little bit of a difference from them, but they’ve real good threats out wide. We kind of got our head around that in the second half, and got ourselves back into the game. A couple of moments where we’d like to have done a little bit better.
“They’re World Cup champions, they were back for a first game at home and they really brought it physically. The breakdown was difficult, but as soon as we got a bit of quick ball, we looked dangerous. Andy said, ‘No feeling sorry for ourselves’, and I don’t think we should. We [will] have a right go of it for Saturday.”
Murray will likely start in Casey’s absence and he’s ready to sign off the season in style.
“I feel good, feel fit, feel good about my game for the last part of the season, ready to rock,” he said.
