Stuart McCloskey and Tadhg Beirne both in line to play in Ireland’s Nations Championship opener

The Ireland squad is fully engaged in training in Sydney, preparing for their opening Nations Championship match against Australia. Despite some players ending their domestic seasons with injuries, the full 36-man team is training hard ahead of the sold-out game at Allianz Stadium.

Notable players Stuart McCloskey and Tadhg Beirne are back in action after recovering from a torn hamstring and a knee injury, respectively. These recoveries are significant boosts for the team as they head into the new competition.

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Everyone is training and trained hard and trained well today. So, everyone’s fine.

Forwards coach Paul O'Connell described the training environment as positive, highlighting the team's arrival and initial activities, including a ferry trip to Manly. He noted the good weather and the quality of the training ground at Leichhardt Oval. The team has a day off before resuming preparations.

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It feels like a summer tour, really, and I think it’s exciting to have a competition. And we certainly want to be at the business end of it come November. But it feels like a tour and that’s what we’re trying to make it like.

O'Connell views the Nations Championship, which also includes matches against Japan and New Zealand, as an opportunity to develop as a team. "It feels like a summer tour, really, and I think it’s exciting to have a competition," he said. "We tend to get an awful lot of work done when we’re on tours. We tend to, I think, take big strides as a team in terms of trying to improve and evolve."

While acknowledging the demands on players after a long season, O'Connell expressed confidence in the Irish system's game management to counter fatigue. He pointed out that many players have not had excessive game time, and some have been injury-free throughout the year, suggesting a balanced workload for the squad.

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You develop a little bit more on tour because you’re not going home at the weekend. You’re not catching up with your family at the weekend. You’re together all the time. So, we tend to get an awful lot of work done when we’re on tours.