TIME WAS when Mike Ross was considered superfluous even to the Irish provincial circuit as he cut his teeth with Harlequins for three years and even when he first returned to Leinster. But such has been his importance in latter years – just the mere mention of the word Twickenham would suffice – that the Irish management are intent on giving the Leinster tight-head every chance of playing against New Zealand in Saturday’s first Test.

The impression is that the management are clucking over him like mother hens, and though still taking no part in training yesterday, there were more encouraging signs that Ross could yet make an improbable recovery from the grade one hamstring tear he suffered in the Rabo final last Sunday week.

“It changes every day,” admitted Greg Feek, his scrum coach at Leinster and Ireland. “You could wake up and feel like a box of birds. It’s changed. From yesterday, I thought he was gone but (there was) a glimmer of hope today.

“We’re just trying getting up the hip area where he’d done his hamstring, the tendon,” said Feek, pointing toward the higher end of his own right hamstring. “That hip/hamstring movement is pretty crucial in terms of power output and all that. We just did a little assessment on him today and he’s not quite there.”

Were it a one-off Test, the chances of Ross being risked would be higher, but the coaches are also mindful that there are two more Tests to come after Saturday night’s meeting with the world champions.

“Obviously we don’t want to risk him for it to get worse either. Okay it’s the All Blacks, you need your best players available but you also can’t risk the player himself. We wouldn’t put him out there if he wasn’t ready. We’ve a day off tomorrow so we’ll probably leave him alone, see how he wakes up on Thursday morning.”

The likely replacement would be the uncapped, 28-year-old Ulster tighthead Declan Fitzpatrick. “I look at the positives of him playing against Tony Woodcock,” said Feek. “That is going to be massive for Declan if he gets the chance. He will come out of that game going ‘Wow, that was tough!’. And if he goes well, that is even better for us, he is going to do his homework, as will the whole pack, we will get our stuff sorted first. We know what to expect.”

Regarding Fitzpatrick, Feek added: “If you look at his physique, he’s got quite narrow shoulders, so that’s a little difficult to scrum against. He’s all ‘quads’, and he’s smart. He knows what’s going on there and the beauty of it is that if he does start he’s got Rory (Best) next to him, which is his old mate from Ulster, and Dan Tuohy behind him if he starts, or Donncha O’Callaghan or Mike McCarthy, who are quite good scrummagers. So at least he’s got that comfort around him as well if he does start.”

There is every possibility that Ross will be named pending further tests, with Donnacha Ryan and Peter O’Mahony set to fill the vacancies left by Paul O’Connell and Stephen Ferris, as was the case against Scotland in the Six Nations when O’Connell and Seán O’Brien were ruled out, and again when O’Connell missed the Twickers debacle. This would mean 0’Brien shifting across to blindside.

The likelihood is that Conor Murray will return to the starting line-up after missing those same two games with a knee injury, and that the reluctant Keith Earls will revert to the wing (where he scored three of his five tries in the World Cup) given the return of Brian O’Driscoll and the absence of Tommy Bowe.

IRELAND (possible):R Kearney; A Trimble, B O'Driscoll (capt), G D'Arcy, K Earls; J Sexton, C Murray; C Healy, R Best, M Ross or D Fitzpatrick, D O'Callaghan, D Ryan, S O'Brien, P O'Mahony, J Heaslip. Replacements: S Cronin, D Fitzpatrick or R Loughney, D Tuohy, C Henry, E Reddan, R O'Gara, F McFadden.