RUGBY:AS IS the way of such squad announcements, in naming the 34 players initially chosen for the forthcoming November Tests yesterday, Declan Kidney and the Ireland management have suspended most of the difficult decisions until next week. And difficult decisions there are aplenty.

Ireland are, as usual, thinner in some areas than others.

The management would dearly love to have Paul O’Connell and Tomás O’Leary fit and well, and for Jerry Flannery and Keith Earls to have more rugby under their belts.

But in every other respect they are pretty much at full-strength, with most of their front-liners actually having more game time under their belts than 12 months ago, while in some areas the battle for starting places has become more competitive.

Take the backrow. Omitting the four loose forwards who featured in Ireland’s most recent outing against the Wallabies in Suncorp Stadium at the end of June was one thing. Perming three from the chosen six is the tricky part.

Trawl through Kidney’s tenure and the established backrow of Stephen Ferris, David Wallace and Jamie Heaslip have started 13 of the 14 matches against the Southern Hemisphere big guns or in the Six Nations – the only exception being when Ferris was ruled out against Italy last season.

Thus, this trio may well start against the Springboks next Saturday fortnight. However, it’s a measure of John Muldoon’s progress and increased standing with the management that he is included, while, in contrast to last season, Denis Leamy is now back and playing well and Seán O’Brien’s form has been sensational.

Ultimately, though, two of the latter three could miss out on the match-day 23 altogether, even if opportunity is then likely to knock against the Samoans.

The most striking change from last season, and the last decade, will be in the frontrow, where it would appear Tony Buckley has usurped John Hayes at both Munster and Ireland, while Mike Ross is also coming up fast on the rails.

Cian Healy should hold on at loosehead, and unless Jerry Flannery can squeeze in a couple of stormers for Munster over the next two weekends, Rory Best is liable to be recalled at hooker, though Seán Cronin’s try for Connacht against Bayonne last Friday was a reminder that not since Keith Wood has Irish rugby had such a dynamic, ball-carrying hooker.

Up until two weeks ago, Donncha Ryan looked the favourite to partner Donncha O’Callaghan, but that has changed with Munster’s difficult day out in the lineouts against London Irish, along with Mick O’Driscoll’s dominant display last Saturday, admittedly at home to Toulon.

All the while, Devin Toner has strung together his most mature performances as Leinster’s main ball-winner in the last three weeks, and the need for having the best available lineout operator, at least in your match-day squad, is especially compelling against the Boks.

Eoin Reddan was the next in line at scrumhalf all last season and in light of O’Leary’s absence his return to form has been timely.

Quick-ball king Peter Stringer’s credentials haven’t shone so brightly in a while, although it could be Isaac Boss will be chosen on the bench to reprise his impact role for Leinster.

Masterful though Ronan O’Gara was on the end of Stringer’s service last Saturday, Jonathan Sexton’s performances underline that he is the man in possession, and while the Ireland management’s request to play Paddy Wallace at outhalf once this season may have sent off alarm balls in at least one Cork household, it’s hard to see O’Gara making way from the 23 to accommodate Wallace’s versatility as a 10 or 12.

Wallace is, strictly speaking, the man in possession at inside centre, which will again be a very tight call, but for much of the latter end of last season Gordon D’Arcy was patently troubled by the groin strain which required a summer operation and is returning to his best again.

Arguably the biggest call of all will be in the back three, or more to the point, on the left wing.

This is on the premise that Tommy Bowe just cannot stop playing well or scoring every time he steps on a rugby pitch, although the Ireland management may be tempted to have a look at Bowe, Earls or Luke Fitzgerald against Samoa or Argentina as back-up/a longer-term option to you-know-who at 13.

Rob Kearney has rediscovered much of his old swagger at the back, and though Geordan Murphy will return to the squad after the Springboks game, there is no other rival in the initial squad who is playing weekly at fullback.

That leaves Fitzgerald, Earls and the in-form Andrew Trimble vying for one slot.

Unless things change in the next two weeks, Earls has the least rugby and form under his belt this season and presuming Fitzgerald’s hip injury is but a minor delay in his being added to the squad, his razor-sharp displays deserve a recall for his first Test in exactly a year.

But, incredibly, at least one of that trio is liable to miss out on the 23-man match-day squad to face up to the Springboks in the first Test at the Palindrome.

Given each has the footwork and ability to beat a player one-on-one and the finishing skills to trouble any team in the world on their day, that truly is an embarrassment of young riches.