Jennings one of many Test cases

Rugby/Ireland Tour of Argentina: A dozen changes, one of them positional, a couple of deserving debutants, another couple of…

Rugby/Ireland Tour of Argentina:A dozen changes, one of them positional, a couple of deserving debutants, another couple of players making their first Test starts and three more with new Test numbers on their backs; averaging under 11 caps per man, Eddie O'Sullivan has never sent out such an inexperienced side as the gathering of World Cup aspirants who'll be on trial in the cauldron of Velez Sarsfield in Buenos Aires this Saturday.

This lot could be anything, and if nothing else it's different.

"This tour is a means to an end, not an end to a means," explained O'Sullivan of an "unusual Test series". So it is Shane Jennings, homeward bound after two productive years with Leicester which saw him judged the best player in the Premiership by observers such as Wasps' assistant coach Shaun Edwards, who makes his Irish debut at 25, as does the 21-year-old Robert Kearney, after a more meteoric rise albeit not without its hiccups.

There will also be a first start for Barry Murphy after his two-minute cameo last Saturday in the 22-20 defeat in Santa Fe, and ditto Eoin Reddan, after the sum total of one minute on the wing from eight selections on the Irish bench. You have to serve your time in the Irish set-up, as Jeremy Staunton will testify more than most.

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Having only been called up this week in the light of Paddy Wallace's misfortune, the London Irish-bound 27-year-old will be grateful to have his Wasps' half-back partner inside him on his belated first start for Ireland at outhalf eight years since first travelling with the Irish squad to Australia. He has been moved around from club to club, position to position and pillar to post ever since.

Heretofore, Staunton's four appearances have been confined to a try-scoring debut at fullback against Samoa under Warren Gatland six years ago, two replacements' appearances under Niall O'Donovan in Japan two summers ago, and one minute on the wing in Perth last summer after Geordan Murphy had been preferred as back-up outhalf for the two New Zealand Tests.

O'Sullivan attributed Staunton's delayed arrival to this point to "actually playing", adding "his period at Munster was behind Ronan O'Gara and his period at Wasps was behind Alex King. That's the kernel of the matter. He's a talented player but it's very hard for a guy to make a case for a Test place if he's not consistently batting at the next level down". It's a fair point, but even so, Staunton must be acutely conscious he is not one of O'Sullivan's favoured sons.

Reddan, by contrast, is playing for the chance to usurp Isaac Boss as Peter Stringer's main challenger. "A scrumhalf has to be a bit of a boss on the pitch. He needs to manage the pack, he needs to run the game and he needs to give a good service. So he needs to mix his game, he needs to pass, he needs to run and he needs to kick, and he's actually a pretty complete package when he's on his game," observed O'Sullivan.

There's also a first start at inside centre for Gavin Duffy, as well as a first start at number eight for 21-year-old Stephen Ferris, who thus has an opportunity to underline his versatility across the backrow. Locating another inside centre in addition to Gordon D'Arcy and Shane Horgan was one of the primary aims of this tour and Kieran Lewis does not appear to have passed the test.

"I had it in my head I might look at him," said O'Sullivan of Duffy. "The other guys are outside centres, Andrew Trimble, Barry Murphy and Kieran Lewis is more of an outside centre, so if you peel away the onion and you're looking for a third outside centre, there really isn't one on the radar. It's a bit of an ask but it's an experiment worth taking."

Amid all of this, there's a smattering of recalled Munstermen in the pack - Frankie Sheahan, Mick O'Driscoll and Alan Quinlan - who will be straining at the leash to underline their Coupe de Monde credentials. Likewise the homeward-bound Leo Cullen.

No players have been in the firing line every week quite like the trio of Leicestermen, whose all-conquering season was only punctuated at the last by a fired-up, tactically more savvy Wasps' side. Even in defeat two Saturdays ago at Twickenham, Murphy remained a class act and Leicester's best player. Cruelly denied a World Cup place by a broken leg four years ago, and given the way he effortlessly played the last quarter at outhalf in Santa Fe when one charged down drop goal away from being the hero of the hour, it seems ridiculous to think Murphy's World Cup hopes are even up for discussion. After a run of about nine or 10 high-pressure games in a row, all virtually big knock-out games, he must be running on empty.

The player you'd feel most sorry for is Peter Bracken. Hauled away from Wasps' post-Heineken European Cup celebrations, the poor lad is the only player amongst the 30-man squad who doesn't even make the bench in either Test, while Luke Fitzgerald's World Cup hopes look forlorn after just an outing on the bench this Saturday in deference to another chance for Brian Carney. O'Sullivan also "wanted to have another look at Tony Buckley" on the bench and admitted it was "a tough call" on Bracken.

Indignant and "disappointed" about Felipe Contepomi's charge of "cheap shots" by Ireland in the first Test, O'Sullivan nearly fell out of his seat when informed of Graham Henry's tirade against Northern Hemisphere sides for sending weakened squads at the end of long hard seasons with the World Cup only 100 days away, as of today. "That's rather rich coming from the Southern Hemisphere. These summer tours, particularly with the World Cup moving forward a month, are a bit ridiculous, and it's kind of rich coming from the Southern Hemisphere when they're not bringing their sides up for an autumn series this year . . . Probably Graham is feeling a little frustrated at the moment, but I'm sorry for him," he concluded, rich in sarcasm.