Now, at last, we will not die wondering. The notion of Geordan Murphy, Brian O'Driscoll, Gordon D'Arcy, Denis Hickie and Shane Horgan all finally playing together had seemed almost fanciful.

Invariably heretofore, one or more of them have been hors de combat or, in D'Arcy's case, marginalised. But for the first time Eddie O'Sullivan has named the entire quintet in the backline to play Italy in Rome next Sunday.

When D'Arcy burst on to the Test arena and emerged as last season's player of the tournament in the Six Nations, both Hickie and Murphy were sidelined, but now D'Arcy is back in harness after missing the second Test in South Africa (which Hickie and Murphy also missed) and the autumn series.

It is an exciting prospect, for it's doubtful whether Ireland have ever fielded a pacier, more potent collection of potential game-breakers and finishers (they have 75 Test tries between them) as at the Stadio Flaminio.

With Horgan reverting to the wing to accommodate D'Arcy's return, and Murphy returning to his more favoured full back role, there had to be a loser, and Girvan Dempsey - enduringly consistent throughout his 60 caps to date - drops to the bench. Kevin Maggs, who has 66 caps to his name, misses the 22-man cut altogether.

For all the security Dempsey brings at the back, it was always likely that O'Sullivan would opt for his array of attacking riches in the backs.

Equally, the only other change sees the largely anticipated selection of Denis Leamy ahead of Johnny O'Connor in the back row.

Eric Miller's versatility earns him the back row slot on the bench, so the Wasps tearaway, like Alan Quinlan, misses out altogether. With only Keith Gleeson of the frontline players ruled out by injury, Ireland have rarely approached a Six Nations campaign in such rude health.

Admitting Dempsey has been "a real stalwart at full back", O'Sullivan said it was "a tight call, but I think it's the first time we've been able to select pretty much from a full deck with the backs and I think it's the strongest backline we've picked for a while.

"It's getting tougher rather than easier to pick our back row, which is great, but I suppose the big loser there would be Johnny O'Connor, who started against South Africa and Argentina in the autumn, and to be honest acquitted himself very well.

"But Denis Leamy has been chomping at the bit as well and had a very big Heineken Cup campaign, has fought his way into a very good Munster back row, and edges out Johnny. But this job doesn't get any easier in terms of picking a back row."

Leamy's greater physicality and ball-carrying, as opposed to the more specialist openside play of O'Connor, were probably deemed more suited to the needs of what is liable to be a typically bruising battle with the Azzurri, particularly as Simon Easterby, D'Arcy, O'Driscoll and others give the team alternative scrappers at the breakdown.

With the Azzurri pack, you invariably have to fight it out in the trenches first.

The Irish coach agreed that it was the strongest squad Ireland have had going in to any campaign, be it autumn, summer, World Cup or Six Nations.

The one doubt surrounds Reggie Corrigan, whose knee seized up in training on Monday.

"It's happened to him before, it's one of these old warrior injuries that tend to come right," commented O'Sullivan.

Simon Best will travel with the squad tomorrow as cover.

Sunday's match will see John Hayes join the select club of 17 players to have reached 50 Tests for Ireland.

The bull has been a veritable bulwark of the team for the last five years, and when asked where would he have been without Hayes, O'Sullivan retorted: "Coaching another team maybe."

Malcolm O'Kelly, meanwhile, will equal the all-time Irish record of 69 caps held by Mike Gibson, having achieved the feat in almost half the time, and thus be in line to set a new landmark in Edinburgh.

With an average age of 28, the team is as primed as it is settled for a serious tilt at the Six Nations. The entire backline is aged between 24 and 28.

The pack is a little more gnarled and grizzled, save for Leamy, whose presence takes their average age just below 30.

They have a truckload of experience between them, with the starting XV boasting 577 Tests at an average of over 38 caps per man, and the squad of 22 has a combined haul of 819 caps to their names.

A major bone of contention for O'Sullivan is the IRB's "draconian" diktat - with typically unerring timing right on the eve of the championships - in regard to the tackle area.

O'Sullivan, who received a letter regarding this only a fortnight ago, and was briefed about it with all the other coaches at a seminar with the championship referees in London last Wednesday, tried to explain it thus:

"If you go to ground with the football, whether you're tackled or pushed to the ground, and make any movement which protects the football after you make contact with the ground, it's a penalty. It's very simple when you say it like that, but it's very difficult when you have to do it, obviously."

O'Sullivan tailored some of yesterday's continuity session with the RBAI coach Bryan McLoughlin accordingly, but admits there could be a raft of curious looking penalty decisions (the game will be refereed by Paddy O'Brien) on Sunday.

"This has the propensity to become an area of controversy in the first couple of weeks," warned O'Sullivan. "But I can see what the IRB are trying to do.

"One of the axioms of the game is a fair contest for possession, and they feel that the player in possession is often getting too much time to protect the football, and they want to eliminate that and make it a fairer contest on the ground."

This could be great news for opensides.

A headache for everyone else.