Brendan Fanning, writing for the Irish Independent, looks ahead to Saturday's clash between Ireland and Scotland.
"World Cup warm-ups are fretful times for players, a mix of trying to play your way into the squad without playing your way out of it through injury. And before Declan Kidney can even announce his side to play Scotland in Edinburgh on Saturday, in the first of five games in August, Gordon D'Arcy looks like he won't be going anywhere with Ireland until the New Year.
D'Arcy had surgery on an ankle in late June and the six weeks rehab from that leaves him short of any pre-season, which would appear to rule the World Cup out for him altogether. Kidney conceded last week that the timeline was "getting tight" for him. In Kidneyspeak, that sounds like the discomfort a crab experiences at 40 fathoms.
You would imagine that Fergus McFadden was nailed on in any case but the likelihood of D'Arcy's demise promotes further the case of a man whose versatility will be important when September rolls around and we're counting who is left standing and what direction they're facing.
Interestingly, the Scots are taking the low road on this one. Italy will provide their only other opposition before flying south, and relying on just two warm-up games seems unwise, especially when you consider that Andy Robinson took his marquee names out of the closing rounds of the Magners League.''
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