Six Nations officials are investigating the possibility that more than two minutes of additional time was accidentally added into the second half of Ireland's 19-9 win over England at the Aviva Stadium on Sunday.
A Six Nations source admitted to The Irish Times that "there was a problem with the synchronising of the timing" and that at one point "it got out of sync", although he maintained that this error may have been corrected.
The apparent mistake followed Robbie Henshaw's try, when Craig Joubert went to the TMO Deon von Blommestein, but after the South African referee awarded the try, the match clock seemingly remained stopped on 52 minutes 39 seconds for two minutes and four seconds, as first Johnny Sexton converted and George Ford restarted the game. Thus, when Joubert blew the final whistle at 80 minutes and four seconds, it would appear this equated to 82 minutes and eight seconds.
The Six Nations differs from the European Champions Cup in that the TMO is also the official timekeeper, and the match clock is the same as that which shows on television screens. This is different from the stadium clock, which is overseen by an IRFU-appointed technician.
The error could have had potentially serious repercussions in the event of the title again coming down to points difference between the two countries, as was the case last season, had England not had a try by Jack Nowell disallowed for a forward pass by Billy Twelvetrees with the game’s final play, given the ensuing 10 or 14-point swing.
Medical bulletin
Ireland
retain their destiny in their hands pending their game away to Wales on Saturday week, and regards Ireland’s walking wounded in the fallout of Sunday’s game, the IRFU yesterday released an
Ireland Team Medical Bulletin
which contrived to shed absolutely no additional light on the pronouncements of
Joe Schmidt
within an hour of the game.
The entire contents of the statement read: "Seán O'Brien – Seán suffered a concussion, is much improved and has started the graded return-to-play protocols. Jared Payne – Jared suffered a concussion and has also commenced the graded return-to-play protocols. Johnny Sexton – Johnny suffered a minor hamstring injury."
It would appear that O’Brien remains a bigger concern than Payne, and had the Welsh game been this coming weekend the flanker would have had little or no chance of playing given the return-to-play protocols require a minimum of five days to complete. However, the 13-day gap between Sunday’s game and the meeting with Wales gives O’Brien a much better chance of being passed to play.
As for Sexton, who “felt a twinge in his hamstring” when converting Henshaw’s try according to Schmidt, the management apparently remain hopeful that he will be fit for the Welsh game after scans on the injury; the results of which have not been divulged. The outhalf returned to Paris yesterday for a medical examination by his club Racing Metro, who are at home to Grenoble on Saturday evening, and it remains to be seen whether Sexton plays for them this weekend.
By contrast, the WRU issued a more detailed medical bulletin which confirmed that Paul James, a 70th-minute replacement for loosehead Gethin Jenkins in the win over France in Paris, “suffered a fractured thumb and has been ruled out of action for 4-6 weeks”. Sam Warburton and Dan Biggar suffered contusions to a knee and hip respectively and both “will return to training later this week”.
Open session
The Ireland team gather tomorrow lunchtime for a two-day get-together in Belfast, which will incorporate an open training session at Kingspan Stadium on Thursday. This will feature the starting XV last Sunday, which will most likely be supplemented by Tommy O’Donnell, Ian Madigan and Felix Jones as cover for O’Brien, Sexton and Payne. All 5,000 tickets for the open session were snapped up within two days of being released.
It is expected that the remainder of the Ireland squad, including those on the bench last Sunday, will be released back to their provinces, all of whom – in a curious fixture anomaly – are away from home in the Guinness Pro12 this weekend.
Connacht, now six points clear in sixth place, play Cardiff on Friday night, while Munster and Leinster are away to the Ospreys and the Scarlets on Saturday.
