Joe Schmidt was at least trying to sound positive on fitness of four key players

Remember when Tadhg Furlong came off after 3:41 against Italy as 'a precaution'?

It was more of the same from Joe Schmidt after Ireland's 37-27 victory over Wales at Lansdowne Road. Schmidt had just witnessed Ireland score five tries on a Welsh side, who they had not beaten in a competitive match since 2014, before he faced the press. As now seems commonplace after these high intensity and punishing fixtures, many of the queries were about injuries or knocks. Conor Murray, Keith Earls and Peter O'Mahony all received treatment on the pitch, with the latter two coming off early. Johnny Sexton was clearly struggling and his goal-kicking, if not his overall game, was affected. Sexton has been troubled by back, shoulder, foot and hamstring issues in the past but Schmidt had a new one for us. "Johnny just got a dead glute," said Schmidt.

"He copped a knee in the backside really. He could have stayed on and played on but we’ve got a lot of confidence in Joey Carbery and we just felt that we want to keep growing the group and it was a good opportunity for Joey. "In his Test debut, he came on with 20 to go against the All Blacks and guided us home, so we felt that he was well enough placed to go and control that last five minutes."

Murray looked in some discomfort, midway through the second half, when his leg was trapped in a ruck and twisted awkwardly. "He’s walking without any problem at all," Schmidt assured us. "He finished the game, he ran fully, changed angles fully.

“I can imagine it will be a little bit sore and it’s incredible what these guys will do to get out of training on Tuesday. He and Johnny might get Tuesday off but on the other hand, they have well and truly earned it."

The one concern many Irish fans had, during that tense second half, was seeing Earls withdrawn for Fergus McFadden despite the Munster man enjoying another fruitful day on the right wing. Earls all but wasted himself with an epic chip, chase, hack and chase again that nearly led to a sensational try before he was deceived by the cruel bounce of a ball. Watching from the stands, that effort seemed to take a lot out of Earls and he was replaced by McFadden less than two minutes later. Schmidt said Earls had suffered some cramping in his calf muscle.

"He is fine, there was no event, but in the context of keeping him fully fit we decided we would take him off."

Earls is in the form of his life these past two seasons and he is vital to Ireland's cause. O'Mahony was replaced by Jack Conan in the last quarter, having earlier received, treatment but Schmidt insisted there was not 'anything too concerning'. We must remember, though, Ireland are two weeks out from their next fixture and it is Schmidt prerogative to sound as upbeat as possible about his squad of players. One must recall how positive the coach was about Furlong and Iain Henderson after the Italy game only for both men to miss out on Wales. Ireland hold an open training session at Lansdowne Road on Tuesday and we could see several big names watching, like the fans, from the sidelines.