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22nd February 2017
03:11pm GMT

Former Ireland international Donncha O'Callaghan has nothing but praise for the 31-year-old but he would stick with Kearney, if he comes through Thursday's final training run. O'Callaghan said:
"He's got a bit of X-factor in that he is so physical and he absolutely creams fellas, both in attack and defence. "Trimby for an awful lot of team - like we spoke about with Jamie Heaslip - that is massively respected by the players but who has had a really bumpy ride in his international career. "Finally, all his hard work, it was recognised [in 2014] when we won the Six Nations championships and he got all the plaudits and appreciation that he deserves. "You want competition for places but you are asking for an awful lot to put guys who are just coming back from injuries into international Test arenas. You have to earn it in training and you have to be training very well. For the last two weeks in camp, it has been up to guys to put names on shirts. "The Johnny Sexton and Trimble things will be decided on how well they train."In the past six months, and six games, only one Ireland team has been accurately predicted by news outlets in advance of the official announcement. With Schmidt waiting until Thursday at 1pm to finalise his team [and announce it an hour later] we may be left guessing until the last possible moment. Check out our Ireland vs. France preview in The Hard Yards rugby podcast:
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