O'Connell allays fears over Lowe and Ringrose fitness

James Lowe and Garry Ringrose both sat out Ireland's open training session with the U20 squad at the Aviva Stadium this afternoon, but coach Paul O'Connell says he's confident both will be available for selection in next week's Guinness Six Nations trip to Scotland.

Ringrose continues to be managed for a calf injury which ruled him out of last week's 34-20 win against Italy in Rome, while Lowe and Stuart McCloskey also suffered knocks to their calves in the game, and sat out this afternoon's session.

However, O'Connell said they're expecting to have Lowe available for the visit to Murrayfield on 12 March.

"That's the plan at the moment," the forwards coach said of Lowe.

"I think his calf was sore after the game a little bit so they just wanted to look after him this week, given his history.

"He's had a few injuries so they wanted to look after him. That's generally a pretty tough session, that 20s session, it's a fast session for us so they wanted to look after him."

O'Connell (below) also expressed confidence that Ringrose will be recovered in time for the Round 4 game.

"Garry didn't train today but from what we believe he’s going to be fine. Garry nearly played last week but pulled out on Friday morning with his calf.

"Listen, he’s very important. I suppose everyone talks about doing their role, and doing their role well. Some players are able to do their own role really well and help other people do theirs really well as well, and Garry is one of those guys.

"He’s been in that '13’ position for quite some time. It’s a real specialist position where you have to get used to seeing the pictures. The more you’ve trained there, the more you’ve played there, the more mistakes you’ve made there almost, the better it is, and he’s