Garry Ringrose Backed To Start For Ireland Against Wales

Decisions, decisions…

Leinster head coach Leo Cullen has backed Garry Ringrose to start for Ireland in their Six Nations showdown with Wales next weekend.

The young centre is back in full training with his province, and while he wasn’t considered for tomorrow’s PRO14 clash with Scarlets, Cullen thinks he’ll be ready to start against Wales should Schmidt call upon him.

“Garry started [full] training at the end of the week,” Cullen said.

”He trained yesterday so it was a little bit too soon for him [for Scarlets tomorrow] but he’s making good progress. He looked good training yesterday.

“We picked our team with the group a little bit earlier but he trained well yesterday and was running again today. We’ll see how he comes through that.

“It is difficult to go straight into a match [after being out injured] but Garry has been there before so it’s not like he hasn’t experienced that in the past.

“He’s a quality player and he’ll be well up for the challenge.”

Schmidt has also said on a number of occasions over the last week or so, that he’d be comfortable launching Ringrose straight back into the Test arena with no game time under his belt.

But he the Ireland head coach did however, reveal that Chris Farrell is currently slightly ahead of Ringrose in terms of selection, given that he’s been in camp since day one.

“I do think Chris would have his nose in front because he’s been with us the whole time and Garry hasn’t,” said Schmidt.

“As much as Garry has had more Test match experience and was outstanding in Japan and the USA and was super for us previous to that, Chris has got the current game form with us.

“He kind of found his feet a bit against Fiji, I thought he was really good against Argentina and I think he showed there’s a bit more to Chris Farrell than a bludgeon – nice soft skills and a tight pass, he’s got a good length in his pass.

Who would you start against Wales? Have your say in our poll below.

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