Ireland captain Best to miss Australia tour

Australia will be facing an Ireland team missing their talismanic captain Rory Best.

Ireland hooker Rory Best has succumbed to a hamstring injury

Australia will face an Ireland team missing their talismanic captain Rory Best after the hooker was ruled out for the forthcoming three-Test series with a hamstring injury.

Best, who led Ireland to a Six Nations grand slam this year, will be replaced by Munster hooker Niall Scannell in an otherwise near full-strength touring squad, the Irish Rugby Football Union confirmed.

Scannell, who has won seven caps for his country, will compete with the similarly internationally inexperienced Rob Herring of ­Ulster for the back-up No 2 jersey.

Now that Best has failed to ­recover in time, it leaves Leinster’s Sean Cronin heading the queue to start the first Test, in Brisbane on June 9.

Johnny Sexton and Peter O’Mahony will share captaincy duties.

Ireland confirmed Best’s injury on Twitter.

Head coach Joe Schmidt then explained at a press conference the squad’s strategy for dealing with the 35-year-old’s ­absence against the Wallabies.

“Rory’s not going to tour,” said Schmidt.

“He had a hamstring issue that kept him out of the game against Ospreys and we felt he was really going in the right direction and he would be ready for game one, ­definitely for game two.

“But he’s just not quite where we need him to be.

“Because a number of these things have just become apparent, we’ve two vice-captains in Peter O’Mahony and Johnny Sexton and a strong leadership group.

“It will depend a bit on selection and what we feel we need at any given time.

“It could be that Pete and ­Johnny take the team on and share the load.”

The Irish are hoping for their first win in Australia since 1979.

Schmidt’s initial installation of Best as captain for the summer tour had pushed the Ulster star one step closer towards skippering Ireland at the 2019 World Cup.

Reuters