Rugby:So it's all Peter Stringer's fault. The only changes to the team that lost 25-3 to France are the return of Denis Hickie for Andrew Trimble - an admission of a selection error which effectively cost Ireland two tries and any hope of a bonus point against France - and Geordan Murphy for the injured Girvan Dempsey, writes Gerry ThornleyIn Bordeaux.
And you can be sure that's the only way Murphy would have returned to the team for his first start of the World Cup. It is a staggeringly blinkered selection policy.
The nett result is that Murphy becomes only the 19th player of the 30-man squad to start a match at this World Cup. As in 2003, five players can now start resigning themselves to not seeing one minute of action, namely Gavin Duffy (dropped from the bench despite not appearing against France and even though Dempsey is injured), Bryan Young, Brian Carney, Stephen Ferris and Alan Quinlan.
Ferris and Carney arguably shouldn't have been here ahead of Jamie Heaslip and Keith Gleeson and their non-appearance merely reinforces that view.
Given the way the pack has performed, that the lineout has malfunctioned and made little inroads into the opposition, that the maul has scarcely gained an inch, that the clearing-out has been poor, that there's been few dynamic ball-carries up front and that Quinlan is supposedly here as a lock cum backrower, it seems astonishing that the Munster flanker hasn't made even the bench once. The Georgia, France and now the Argentina games all seemed made for him, not forgetting it was his try against the Pumas in Adelaide four years ago which saved Ireland's and O'Sullivan's bacon.
There's gratitude for you.
For six other players there has been only bench duty, and in the case of Frankie Sheahan, Paddy Wallace and Isaac Boss, one solitary appearance of 10 minutes or less.
Meanwhile, 10 players will have been ever-present starters at this World Cup. Amazingly, this is making even less use of the squad than four years ago.
O'Sullivan has left a vacancy at hooker pending fitness checks on Rory Best and Jerry Flannery, but the expectation is that both will be fit. The signals are that Best - ruled out against France - will return to the starting line-up.
Ronan O'Gara again didn't train yesterday because of his bruised knee, but O'Sullivan is unconcerned about his fitness for Sunday.
Apart from injury-enforced changes therefore, the only alterations to the 15 Untouchables in four games are Trimble for Hickie against France and Eoin Reddan for Stringer in the last two. That's it. All else has stayed the same; even, pretty much, the bench, despite a run of five bad performances.
The Irish coach again stuck rigidly to his mantra that the only blemishes in an otherwise "good performance" were discipline and the lineout.
Maintaining that "we competed quite well in the first two games on the opposition ball", he attributed the inability to do so against France by taking David Wallace out of the lineout to help plug the 10-12 channel which France targeted with Damien Traille. "That's the trade-off we made. It was a tactical decision. I wouldn't generalise on our lineout."
There seemed a compelling case for Malcolm O'Kelly starting, and really competing for their restarts and opposition throws, or Quinlan being brought into the mix, with either him or Neil Best starting in the backrow, if only for an infusion of fresh attitude.
"We could have brought Alan Quinlan in as another lineout jumper, but that would have changed the balance of the backrow. On balance, we are happy where we are," said O'Sullivan.
Explaining the change at left wing, O'Sullivan suggested it was a "horses for courses" selection. As for Murphy's reinstatement at fullback, O'Sullivan talked of the Leicester player's abilities as a player and this being "a big opportunity for him".
Asked why he hadn't enough faith to select Murphy on the bench last week but is starting him this week, O'Sullivan said: "I wouldn't say I have no faith in Geordan. If I had no faith in Geordan he wouldn't be in the squad. I have plenty of faith in him. As I said, France had been a team Geordan had struggled against. This is a different game and different team."
The return of Hickie and Murphy, with 47 Test tries between them, ought at least give Ireland a slightly better chance of obtaining the rather fanciful four tries which they need against the obdurate Argentinians if their dismal World Cup campaign is to be saved.
O'Sullivan, now au fait with the permutations, commented: "First we have to win the game, then score four tries, stop them from scoring four tries and win by more than seven points. It's a mouthful to even say that, and if you go into the game with all of that spinning around your head you won't perform. The important thing is to have a big performance, and if you do that you create the possibility of achieving what you want to achieve."
Acknowledging Ireland were at the last-chance saloon, Brian O'Driscoll said: "It would be a travesty to work as hard as we have in three months of pre-season and in the four years since the last World Cup and not put in a performance."
Drawing on Munster's occasional miracles, he vowed: "If we can get four tries, fantastic. If not, we will die trying."
Overall, it is hard to understand why O'Sullivan has not been prepared to give chances to players while virtually all his front-liners have not delivered. It wouldn't happen with any other squad at the World Cup.
Whatever about "high-risk" rugby, it certainly isn't a high-risk selection policy.
