mobanmarketAS HE RECOVERS from a season of injury problems ahead of the World Cup, Andrew Trimble is aware that he has a battle on his hands to earn a place in Ireland’s 31-man squad for the global tournament.
The Ulster man is one of 10 players in contention for the wing positions in the finalised group to travel to the World Cup, each of those men feeling confident that they will make the cut.
Trimble, Jared Payne and Tommy Bowe were on hand as BT Sport announced a new four-year deal with Ulster Rugby. Source: James Crombie/INPHO
A list of Trimble, Luke Fitzgerald, Tommy Bowe, Fergus McFadden, Craig Gilroy, Simon Zebo, Dave Kearney and Keith Earls offers Schmidt a range of high-quality, proven options, while Munster’s Felix Jones has also been used on the wing in the recent past.
Trimble excelled in the 2014 Six Nations but missed almost the entirety of last season with a troublesome toe ligament injury. Above all, he’s happy to be back in the current 45-man training group despite not having a recent body of work behind him.
“I was relieved, the standard is so high at the minute,” said Trimble at Kingspan Stadium yesterday.
“You’re looking at them going ‘right, where can I get the edge on these guys,’ but you’re struggling to work it out. There’s a lot of quality there. There’s a lot of quality in Irish rugby; Irish rugby is going in an unbelievably good direction at the minute.
“Obviously two Six Nations on the bounce and I want to be a part of that. The standard has really moved on again in the last six or seven months when I haven’t been on the pitch.
“In some ways, I’ve got to play catch up and make sure I get back in there and try and impress, get on the pitch and try and get a jersey on and play some good rugby.”