A week ago, Ireland's 31 man Rugby World Cup squad looked a little threadbare as news of Robbie Henshaw's hamstring injury, a tight calf for Rob Kearney, and a still not fully fit Keith Earls emerged. A week on, and Ireland have put themselves in the best position possible in Group A with a bonus point win over Scotland, and the injury news is altogether different.
Ireland backs coach Richie Murphy took today's press conference in Japan with universally good news, unusually.
Peter O'Mahony and Bundee Aki, both removed from Sunday's win over Scotland, have both passed their HIA 3, meaning they returned to full training today.
Meanwhile, Joey Carbery, Rob Kearney and Keith Earls were all full participants in training today, while Johnny Sexton, with an air of caution rather than worry, is undergoing rehab and is set to rejoin the full sessions on Thursday.
Even Robbie Henshaw continued his recovery in a positive way, running today, though training away from the squad still.
It leaves Joe Schmidt in an interesting position ahead of the Japan clash. A win against the hosts all but seals first place in the group with two games to spare, but one would imagine the coach will also want to see some of the fringe players get game time against serious opposition.
Jordan Larmour, Andrew Conway, Chris Farrell, Luke McGrath, Jack Carty and the replacement props getting serious game time will have been a huge positive coming out of the Scotland game. One suspect Earls, Kearney and Carbery will need to get the same under their belt this week.
Joe Schmidt will announce his team for the Japan game on Thursday morning.
