The All Blacks came more sharply into focus for the Irish international squad at their third mid-week session at the ALSAA complex near Dublin airport yesterday. Viewed in that light, the list of absentees was probably as revealing as those additional non-contract players invited to attend.
Aside from the injured quartet of Jim Staples, Simon Geoghegan, Jonathan Bell and Barry McConnell (out for the season), as well as flu victim Eric Miller, nine of the 35 players contracted by the IRFU at the outset of the season were not asked to attend.
These included such notables as half-backs Paul Burke and Stephen McIvor, as well as Richard Governey, Killian Keane, Gavin Walsh, Michael Lynch, Stephen Ritchie, Darren Molloy and Justin Fitzpatrick.
With the squad virtually narrowed down to the basic premise of two players for every position, it would seem that the non-contracted additions to the squad have usurped the aforementioned absentees when it comes to consideration for the game against New Zealand on November 15th at Lansdowne Road.
The additional 11 who attended yesterday were Kevin Nowlan, John McWeeney, Mark McCall, Victor Costello, Pat Duignan, Conor McGuinness, Dylan O'Grady, Reggie Corrigan, Alan Quinlan, Brian Cusack and Richie Wallace.
Clearly, coach Brian Ashton is ever nearer to deciding the starting XV for the All Blacks game, and that, barring exceptional circumstances, the said team will come from those who attended yesterday's session.
"I don't think anyone is totally out of consideration at the moment," he said. "Suffice to say that we're beginning to reduce the net. In the case of Staples and Geoghegan, they're slightly different to other players who haven't thrust themselves forward."
In the case of Staples (confined to one appearance for Harlequins and no team training), the chances would appear to be slim, while in the case of Geoghegan, the chances are more akin to none at all. Ashton was singularly unable to confirm rumours that the flying Irish winger was about to depart for America for another operation on his troublesome foot problem with a San Diego based specialist.
But he stopped short of ruling Geoghegan out of the All Blacks game. "We can't rule him out until we know what's going to happen to him. It's unlikely but we can't rule him out."
The session itself looked perceptibly sharper and more focused on the All Blacks game. Leinster coach Mike Ruddock was again enlisted for specialist forward practice, his Connacht counterpart Warren Gatland will come on board at the next session, but the afternoon work-out was virtually one step removed from a full-scale practice match.
"I think certainly on this afternoon's session, in terms of the team play, all of you who were here last week will have seen a big improvement in terms of sharpness and togetherness," said Ashton. "We didn't focus in on the team play last week because it wasn't actually part of the programme, but we did this afternoon.
"We had a meeting inside, went through the principles of team play and what we're looking to put into our game. Considering that the backs didn't know what the forwards were going to be doing and the forwards didn't know what the backs were going to be doing, I actually thought they were pretty sharp this afternoon.
"There's lots of good, ball-playing forwards there and we're now beginning to learn in the backs the sort of things that we're going to be looking at if we want to translate what we win up front into things wider out. Holding our width and our depth, and actually getting forwards out there too. Yeah, it was an improvement.
"But there's still a long way to go. We've got to start now actually fitting the real jigsaw together to play against the All Blacks and the next three sessions will very much focus on the All Blacks. I've deliberately kept away from them for the moment but the time has now come over the next three Wednesdays to have a look at the All Blacks in detail."
In actual fact, there will be no session next Wednesday due to the re-arranged programme of English league matches caused by the funeral of Princess Diana, thereby leaving Ashton with six or seven working days for the All Blacks game on November 15th.
"Which is not a lot," agreed Ashton. "But if people stick these internationals in at this stage of the season then there's not a lot you can do about that, because they've got other responsibilities these players."
Reflecting on a 40-week season which oscillates between three different strands of the game, Ashton added: "It's a peculiarly organised season, which is one of the nice ways of putting it."
