Injured duo on track for All Blacks as Farrell brushes off Jones' comment

Murray Kinsella Reports from Newcastle

IRELAND BOSS ANDY Farrell said that Robert Baloucoune and Jeremy Loughman are on track to return from injuries for next week’s highly-anticipated Nations Championship clash against New Zealand at Eden Park.

Ulster wing Baloucoune missed last weekend’s win over Australia in Sydney and came up short in his bid to recover for this Saturday’s meeting with Japan in Newcastle.

Farrell had initially been optimistic about Baloucoune featuring against the Japanese, but Ireland are being careful with the right wing’s recovery ahead of the All Blacks clash.

“We just thought it would be a little bit stupid of us to push him,” said Farrell of Baloucoune.

“I suppose if we were going into a final or whatever… It’s the end of the season, and we’ve got one more game, and we don’t want to burn our bridges as far as that’s concerned.

“It’s a little bit softly-softly with him to make sure that’s fit for next week.”

Farrell was asked if he’s confident Baloucoune will be good to go for New Zealand.

“Yeah, so I’m told,” he said. “He’s obviously got to go through it.”

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Loosehead prop Loughman came off the bench against the Wallabies but suffered a concussion and had to go back off just eight minutes later.

He will miss the Japan game, but Farrell said his recovery is going well.

“Jeremy has the 12 days [of the return-to-play protocols] but he’ll be fit and he’s fine and going through all of that,” said Farrell. “He’s back up and running again.”

Meanwhile, Farrell brushed off Eddie Jones’ latest attempt at mind games with good humour.

Japan boss Jones said he expects his side “to dominate the Irish scrum in the second half” of Saturday’s game in Newcastle.

Farrell’s response?

“In the first and second half, especially, we expect to dominate in all areas of the game,” said Farrell.

The Ireland head coach knows Jones well from their time at Saracens and as an opposition head coach ever since.

“I have loads of respect for Eddie,” said Farrell.

“We go back a long way, and I know what he’s trying to do. There’s always something, and it’s great for you guys to throw the questions back over here. It’s just a bit of banter thrown back, I would have thought, from my end.”

It’s not expected that there will be a big crowd for this game at McDonald Jones Stadium, home to the NRL’s Newcastle Knights. 

Indeed, it’s estimated that there may only be around 8,000 people at the game, depending on the weather on Saturday in Newcastle.

Ireland got a closer look at the venue at their captain’s run on Friday, and Farrell said they’re excited to get stuck in against Japan.

“Well, there’s been a few clips knocking around this week in our camp of Covid times, the game that we played in Covid and we played pretty well there [Ireland beat Japan 60-5 in Dublin in 2021] so it’s about us, isn’t it?” said Farrell.

“It’s about us understanding the opposition and what they’re going to bring to the game. We know that they’re well coached, well-organised, want to play a certain brand of rugby, a quick type of game. But we want to play the game ourselves as well.

“The stadium’s fantastic, the pitch is gonna be great. It is what it is with the crowd. It shouldn’t really matter for us whenever you put a green shirt on. Understanding what that means is first and foremost.”