IRELAND's plans for tomorrow's clash with the All Blacks have been hit by a potential Covid-19 outbreak in their camp.
As many as three players from the matchday squad could be forced to miss the game after the IRFU advised of a "potential positive case" from their latest round of PCR testing.
They are now doing additional tests after subsequent lateral flow tests returned negative today. Results are due later today, with the union looking to establish if it is a false positive.
Independent.ie understands that Connacht hooker Dave Heffernan is on standby to join the squad, suggesting there may be an issue among the No 2s.
Starter Rónan Kelleher was at the team's captain's run at the Aviva Stadium., although Rob Herring and Ian Henderson were absent.
Tadhg Beirne is believed to be on standby to start with Ryan Baird and Dan Sheehan potentially coming on to the bench
An IRFU statement read:
“A potential positive case has been identified in one person via the latest PCR testing carried out on the Ireland squad. Additional testing is being undertaken to establish if this is a false positive.
“The entire Ireland squad and management have undergone additional lateral flow and PCR testing today. The lateral flow testing returned no positives and the PCR results are expected later today.
“As a precaution today’s planned Captain’s Run media briefing will be switched from in-person to virtual – details to follow.”
Assistant coach Simon Easterby said the management hoped to have clarity by this evening, admitting that the positive test and related close contact had caused major disruption to the team's preparation after the two players missed the captains run.
"If it wasn't challenging already, it gets more challenging when you deal with certain things that are outside your control," he said.
"But, I guess that's part of the challenge, the game certainly won't run all our way, it won't run smoothly all the time.
"Our ability to adapt and make sure we still get on the front-foot, we did that today... We've had a couple of pot-holes in the road today, but we have had a really good team run.
"There's a bit of clarity needed about the players who didn't make that team run, but hopefully in the next couple of hours we'll have that and we can look forward to tomorrow and put today behind us.
"Not at all, we've retested today and the important thing is we get clarity. We haven't ruled anyone out.
"As you know where you can have false positives and we have to make sure we give those guys an opportunity, give the respect to them, and it's important we allow that process to happen.
"Hopefully, we get the clarity in the next hour or so and then we can prepare for the challenge.
"They are part of the game, we're not the only team across the last couple of weeks who've had to deal with Covid issues.
"The important thing is we stay focused and don't allow the little things that happen derail us. That we stay focused."
Easterby said there was no threat to the game going ahead, while he confirmed that a number of players have been placed on standby.
"Yeah, we've got guys on standby. It's important to respect those guys who are in the position who weren't able to make the team run. It's important to respect them until we have clarity on whether they're ruled out or ruled in.
"There are guys, we've put certain things into place, to allow us to get cover if we need to."
Further updates will follow later today.
