CONAN IS LOOKING GR-EIGHT

Jack set to face All Blacks

- BY DEREK FOLEY

JACK CONAN is on track to start in the Ireland No8 shirt against the All Blacks at Soldier Field, Chicago, on Saturday week.

This comes as Ireland captain Caelan Doris (inset), who has travelled with the squad, seeks to recover from a shoulder injury sustained in May and who has not played since.

As of training yesterday, Ireland are likely to start Conan, have Dan Sheehan as captain on the day with Doris getting a spot on the bench.

This, in turn, would see Doris pick up valuable game time ahead of the three Dublin-scheduled games to follow, against Japan (Nov 8), Australia (Nov 15) and South Africa (Nov 22).

All great rugby nations but none of whom engender the kind of rivalry that stirs Irish rugby blood.