RUGBY/Ireland v Romania: Those who were expecting wholesale changes will be disappointed, though they shouldn't be surprised.

As expected, Ireland coach Eddie O'Sullivan has made only five changes to the team beaten 30-14 by Australia last Saturday for next Saturday's TSB international against Romania in Lansdowne Road.

The coach's hand was forced a little by Rory Best (knee) and Matt McCullough joining nine others on the official list of those not considered because of injury.

Thus, the changes are limited to call-ups for the former's brother, Simon, Leo Cullen (surprisingly back in from the cold after playing both Tests in Japan, to make his first start at Lansdowne Road in three years), Neil Best and the Ulster halfbacks Kieran Campbell and David Humphreys.

Shane Byrne holds on to his place at hooker, with Jerry Flannery, outstanding in place of Frankie Sheahan in Munster's excellent win over Castres, confined to a place on the bench.

Pointing to the injury list which has limited his latitude to experiment against Romania, O'Sullivan stressed that only three of this team started against Wales in the Six Nations finale last season.

Citing the example of hooker, O'Sullivan explained: "The reason I'm putting Shane in to start is that Jerry hasn't been that involved in the squad. You also have two new lineout jumpers starting, and you've got to give the team the best chance."

O'Sullivan added that he had to be mindful that Romania are "ever improving", and "we found them a tough nut to crack in the World Cup", in reference to Ireland's 45-17 win.

Thus, Girvan Dempsey is confined to the bench for the third game running, while Geordan Murphy is one of nine players who play on three successive Saturdays.

It's a tough schedule in itself, avoided even by the All Blacks chasing a grand slam, but the drop down in quality of opponents doesn't help maintain that Test level of intensity either.

O'Sullivan also vowed to continue down the road of a ball-in-hand game, which was modified against the Wallabies.

"It's the way forward for the team," he said. "I hope the weather is going to stay the same, but I've a bad feeling that it's going to turn nasty for the weekend, and that could colour how we play the game.

"But if it's like this we would go to play our game as we've been playing it, and try to be more accurate at it. As I've said, that's the plan going forward."

Humphreys, who will captain Ireland for the fifth time in his first start at Lansdowne Road for a year, was described by O'Sullivan as "a consummate professional and a smashing footballer", and the Irish coach would clearly like to have the Ulster stalwart revise his decision to retire at the end of the season.

With the outhalf conveyor belt having shuddered to a halt in recent years, when asked who was next in line O'Sullivan implied that Paul Burke was still third choice. "The next layer of outhalves we have aren't international level."

Much of yesterday's press conference focused on O'Sullivan's selections over the years, and the coach bridled a little when asked about London Irish lock Bob Casey, who is statistically the leading lineout stealer in the Premiership last season and has an impressive tackle count.

"The players who are picked are form players. He's in the pecking order, but he's not in the team. There's a pecking order in every selection; I'm just surprised at the question. I don't know what your suggestion is."

O'Sullivan said it was untrue Casey had not been watched, and he said he could "tell you, in the games leading up to the autumn internationals, how many rucks Bob was at, and that's the detail we have to go into to be fair to anybody, and I spoke to Bob and explained where he needed to improve his game. And we spoke to anybody who's not in the team."

In close calls, he admitted, O'Sullivan would favour the home-based players, although, he added, that rarely happened.

When also asked about the Toulouse cause celebre Trevor Brennan, who O'Sullivan has never picked in his 48 games in charge over four years, he admitted: "Trevor is playing well, and we've talked to Trevor. I was on the phone to Trevor earlier this year and he's taken tapes over. But Trevor at the moment we're looking at as a secondrow, not really as a backrow, where we're very lucky with the resources we have."

"The Toulouse system maybe doesn't suit him best, because he can often go a week or two without a game. Toulouse can afford to rotate their squad. But he's certainly watched, and if Trevor is the man for the job he'll come in, and we've had him in before and the Six Nations is another bag of spanners after Christmas.

"But I wouldn't like the impression to go out there that certain players are exiled and that's it," O'Sullivan said. "I'm quite happy to pick players from overseas, as you can see in this team.

"To be fair to everybody in Lansdowne Road (ie, the IRFU), I pick the team and I stand over the team. Everybody has opinions, but fortunately or unfortunately the team I pick has to play, so that's the way it works."

NOT CONSIDERED DUE TO INJURY: Rory Best (Ulster), Guy Easterby (Leinster), Denis Hickie (Leinster), Matt McCullough (Ulster), Eric Miller (Leinster), Paul O'Connell (Munster), Brian O'Driscoll (Leinster), Malcolm O'Kelly (Leinster), Alan Quinlan (Munster), David Quinlan (Northampton), Frankie Sheahan (Munster).