Rugby Six Nations Championship:Wales v IrelandThere are, according to some Kiwi rugby folk, three golden rules of New Zealand rugby. The first: don't get injured. The second: don't get injured and, yes, the third, just to be on the safe side, is also don't get injured, writes Gerry Thornley, Rugby Correspondent
As testimony to the current rude good health, so to speak, of the Irish team, one can never recall it being so applicable hereabouts either.
The likes of Paul O'Connell, Simon Easterby, Eric Miller, Keith Wood, David Wallace and Rob Henderson have long since been ruing the day they first lost their place in this Irish team because of injury, and not even a return to health and form is guarantee of a return.
Latterly, Ronan O'Gara, Girvan Dempsey, Shane Horgan and Reggie Corrigan in turn have all been left cursing their luck and missing out on what is shaping into a momentous campaign, with only O'Gara enjoying the consolation of a place on the bench again.
This season's more congested championship was always likely to lead to a higher attritional rate and now, to that aforementioned list, can be added the names of Victor Costello (who sustained a slight groin strain in training on Monday) and Gary Longwell (who still hasn't shaken off the hamstring strain he suffered in the first half against France). Both have been sidelined for Saturday's penultimate game against Wales in Cardiff.
In their stead, Leo Cullen and Alan Quinlan have been promoted to the starting line-up, as is Justin Bishop who has been preferred to John Kelly, while the uncapped Donnacha O'Callaghan and Miller have been named on the bench. All of them will be acutely aware what a glimmer of opportunity this represents.
In such a climate it must be difficult to put the needs of the team and one's own longer-term health ahead of short-term gain, but in this the players and the management have been consistent.
"If we push players into situations of playing when they're not quite right, we get into chronic scenarios, and that's why we have been very careful with players like Girvan and Shane Horgan, and now Gary and Victor, and all the rest of them," said Eddie O'Sullivan. "We have a duty of care here with these professional athletes. They're hard calls, but this is the real test of management."
Hence, whatever about Horgan and Dempsey (who must be considered doubtful for the finale at home to England on Sunday week), the likelihood is that Costello and Longwell will be back in the frame next week, and the proximity of the England game was an influential factor.
"The feeling is that he (Longwell) will be back early next week but there's no point in going in with an injury this week and not surviving the game and being in trouble again next week," the Irish coach explained. Ditto Costello, Ireland's primary ball-carrier to date, whom Ireland will want at 100 per cent against the physically more imposing English.
"He possibly could get away with it, but maybe not," said O'Sullivan, "and certainly if it broke down later in the week it could jeopardise him for the remainder of the championship. So I think discretion is the better part of valour on these calls."
The one voluntary change, indeed the first in four games, sees Bishop recalled at the expense of Kelly in what O'Sullivan called a horses-for-courses selection and a tight call, without wishing to reveal the exact thinking behind this decision. No one saw that one coming, but despite only two comeback games of his own after sustaining a broken hand, O'Sullivan was impressed enough with Bishop's form, and clearly feels he can add a bit more presence to the role.
For Cullen this will be a first championship start, while it will be Quinlan's first since the Italian and French games two years ago before the foot-and-mouth interruptions. Both are established squad members, having appeared as a substitute in seven of the last eight games while starting the other (against Fiji). By contrast, if the blossoming O'Callaghan takes some part, he will become Ireland's 25th player of the championship, and 34th player of a season in which Ireland will be seeking a 10th successive win on Saturday. Ye gods.
Wales are expected to pick a more experienced and durable pack when revealing their hand tomorrow, changing up to half of it, but without second-guessing this, O'Sullivan ventured: "Whichever way they go, I think Wales will see this as an opportunity to get a win in the Six Nations before they go to Paris and I think for that reason there'll certainly be at least as fired up against England if not more so."
O'Sullivan expressed the hope that if it rains, the Welsh Rugby Union will close the roof over the Millennium Stadium, although it is entirely their preserve. Another issue, potentially, is the possible distraction of a much anticipated Grand Slam showdown with England on Sunday week, although somehow you sense this is far less an issue with O'Sullivan in charge.
"It's hard to ignore," he admitted. "It's a concern, we're all human, and it's possible to take your eye off the ball and think beyond, but the truth of the matter is that if we don't win in Cardiff, that's the end of everybody's copy on a Grand Slam discussion, not just you, but me as well. We know that if we come up short on Saturday we'll have taken away a great opportunity for ourselves on Sunday week but that opportunity isn't there unless we close the deal on Saturday."
To safeguard against premature talk of Sunday week's game and maintain complete focus on matters in the Millennium Stadium, the E word (ie England) has been banned within the squad, with Peter Stringer collecting the fines. Ironically, when asked, Brian O'Driscoll mischievously inferred that O'Sullivan was the chief offender thus far. "Eddie has coughed up a couple of times." Tut, tut.
O2 Ireland, the Official mobile communications supplier to the IRFU, yesterday launched a text initiative designed to generate one million "good luck" messages for the Irish team. Irish fans will be helping the IRFU Charitable Trust, as 17 cent will go to the trust for every text message received.
