AT THE last count, of the 36 players to have played for Ireland in nine Tests in the 2009-10 season, 13 have been ruled out of the season finale against the Wallabies at the Suncorp Stadium here this Saturday (kick-off 8pm local time, 11am Irish). With David Wallace flying home to be with is wife, Aileen, for the birth of their second child, seven of them are backrowers.

While there’s no accounting for the latter development, or the suspension of Jamie Heaslip, if nothing else one ventures this season and this tour has been a reminder to the Irish coaching staff that the attrition rate is often highest among the loose forwards.

Accordingly, it ought to have reminded them of the need to include six backrowers in their 30-man squad for next year’s World Cup.

In addition to the aforementioned two, Stephen Ferris, Denis Leamy, Seán O’Brien, Kevin McLaughlin, Donncha Ryan and John Muldoon are missing.

Next in the line of fire are the locks which, in addition to the versatile Ryan, are missing Paul O’Connell, Leo Cullen and the uncapped Devin Toner. The 13 could yet be 14 if, as has been the case since France on the second week of the Six Nations, Jerry Flannery is ruled out, although is liable to be named.

Outside of the backrow, the only other change is likely to see the return of Jonathan Sexton, which would mean Ronan O’Gara, on 99 caps, being on the bench.

“It’s unbelievable, mate. Never seen anything like it,” said Alan Gaffney yesterday after doodling down the absentee backrowers during yesterday’s press conference cum medical bulletin. “But we keep learning. I mean, (John) Muldoon stepped up to the plate, didn’t he? And he would never have been given an opportunity at the start of the year. He was so far down the pecking order. Rhys (Ruddock) went alright, a 19-year-old first up playing against the Maori. Went alright. What’s going to happen this week?”

With Dan Tuohy not being considered for the backrow, the latter, as Gaffney acknowledged, pretty much picks itself. “There are four backrows left and c’est la vie. Just as long as we don’t have an injury at training.”

Thus, it looks like being a combination of Shane Jennings, the uncapped Chris Henry and Niall Ronan, with the uncapped Ruddock. Ronan deserves a call-up on his performance against the Maoris, when he made a host of intelligent plays, linked superbly, carried strong and defended aggressively, even though this enforced combination is far from ideal.

“He’s a good player,” Gaffney said of Ronan. “An excellent player. The difficulty is we’ve got no sixes and two sevens. We got Chris Henry who can play six, but he’s also the only eight we’ve got left! Whether we play left or right, Shane has a little bit of experience at six but more at seven. Niall has a fair few attributes. He’s a good runner with the ball. I know he’s hard over the ball, so’s Jenno. Niall’s got a few attributes of a six, so I don’t know who we’ll go with at the moment. That’s still up in the air. We’ll come up with the best solution.”

Overlooking Alan Quinlan leaves them without an experienced lineout option in the backrow, which makes Mick O’Driscoll’s retention all the more likely bearing in mind the lineout hasn’t functioned on this tour.

Gaffney clearly believes Ireland can register an overdue Test win in the Southern Hemisphere for the first time in 31 years. “We just gotta go into the game and give it a crack. That’s all we can do. The more we keep the ball in hand, the more we keep them under pressure. ’Coz I still think we have the ability of attacking them in midfield, as we did in Croke Park.

“When you go back and look at the number of line breaks we made, which was significant, and didn’t finish them off. But that’s been part of the problem.”