Six Nations 2024: Ireland's Garry Ringrose & Hugo Keenan 'progressing nicely' before England game
- Published
Ringrose missed the first three games but took full part in Thursday's open training session
Ireland are hopeful that Garry Ringrose and Hugo Keenan will be available for next week's Six Nations game against England after they took part in Thursday's open training session.
Ringrose missed the first three games with a shoulder injury.
Keenan was ruled out of Saturday's win over Wales with a knee problem.
Centre Ringrose fully took part in Thursday's open session at Aviva Stadium while full-back Keenan trained separately.
Second row Ryan Baird missed training because of a back spasm while prop Oli Jager, who made his debut off the bench against Wales, did not take part.
"Garry Ringrose trained with us today, which is good. It's nice to have him back, he's progressing nicely," said Ireland attack coach Mike Catt.
"Hugo did a little bit on the sideline and then did the fitness with the boys so he's progressing really nicely."
In Keenan's absence, Ciaran Frawley filled in at full-back and marked his first Six Nations start with a try.
"It's a process which is slowly ticking along nicely," added Catt on Keenan's return to fitness.
"Hopefully by Tuesday or Wednesday he'll be training fully and give us that opportunity.
"We need that competition in the team for us to drive forward."
Ireland are chasing back-to-back Grand Slams - which would be unprecedented in the Six Nations era - after beating France, Italy and Wales.
However, Catt says Ireland must step up their performance at Twickenham after admitting that certain aspects of the Wales game were "disappointing".
"We've had a review of the Wales game and it wasn't perfect by any means. I think we've really realised what we need to do now over the next 10 days to prepare properly for England.
"We went away from what we were really good at against Wales, and it's something that we've addressed and need to make sure we get right, hence the session today was pretty sharp. It's a good start, the boys will relax this weekend, but come Sunday and Monday they'll be fired up again.
"We just went through the motions a little bit [against Wales] rather than implementing the way we wanted to play, and it was a bit disappointing in certain aspects of the game.
"But we addressed it and it's something we have to get right for England, so we will."
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