On the face of it, six tries, a big win, and five points on the board represents a good return for Ireland. They managed to avoid being embarrassed like Japan did to South Africa - but the one negative on the day was that Rob Kearney had to come off injured after just coming on and scoring a try.
It was Kearney's second try in two games, as he was coming back from a few injury niggles. He looked sharp in the tournament so far, and it will be a worry for Joe Schmidt as Ireland's competition is getting tougher each week.
Speaking in the post-match press conference, Schmidt addressed how Kearney is:
I think Rob was involved in a high speed play immediately after coming onto the pitch. Just in scoring the try, he’s just jarred himself up a little bit. We hope it’s not too much. I guess the next 24 to 48 hours will tell whether he’s done anything that would be telling for next week. We would hope at this stage that he’s OK.
That doesn't sound overly good. It may not be the end of his World Cup as of now, but it would appear unlikely that Kearney would be able to recover for Italy next Sunday. At the very least, Simon Zebo proved today that he enjoys the free surrounds of full-back in attack.
On Keith Earls, Schmidt gave a slightly better prognosis:
Keith Earls was fine. He passed his HIA. He was put back on the field. The plan was to replace him with Rob Kearney with 20 minutes to go so.
Again, Keith should be fine. Through his glute and his hip really. I think it might have happened when his knee hit the ground or it might have just been in the acceleration that he felt he jarred himself up a bit. I think we’ll be able to give you a better picture either tomorrow or Tuesday, but at the moment, he’s just icing his glute and hopefully he’s going to be OK.
Earls gave possibly his best performance for Ireland today, and despite the intense competition for places in the back three - Schmidt will be hoping that he is ok. After two starts, it was always going to be unlikely that Earls would play next week, but if his glute is ok then he should be ready for France.
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Picture credit: Brendan Moran / SPORTSFILE
