Given a choice between an elastoplast or radical surgery, the Irish management, as ever, have opted for the former in picking a team to play the concluding Five Nations outing against Scotland in Murrayfield this Saturday. The only alteration to the back-row which malfunctioned against England sees the return of Eric Miller in a straight exchange for Victor Costello.
In addition, Jonathan Bell, who had been selected to face England but withdrew through injury, returns at inside centre at the expense of Rob Henderson.
A decision as to which seven replacements will be chosen from the eight available in the 23-man party has been deferred to later in the week.
Meanwhile, Mervyn Murphy has withdrawn from the A side, to be replaced by Cian Mahony, while Stephen Bell comes into the replacements bench instead of the injured Tom Tierney.
Gatland's rationale for the back-row selection was brief at the outset. "Just happy with the way the back-row finished against England." When pressed, the Irish coach admitted that there was also an element of horses-for-courses about the selection.
"Having looked at the way the Scots denied teams and the angle of their back-row, we just feel that at this stage Eric might give us more options in back-row moves."
From the quintet of back-rowers in the squad, there were 10 combinations in personnel alone, not to mention the additional permutations brought about by the versatility of most of them. (One group of St Mary's supporters discussed this back-row issue and came up with 23 viable alternatives. And the one chosen excluded their two men.)
Gatland didn't reveal how many he and his fellow selectors came up with, but he conceded they had considered swapping Dion O'Cuinneagain and Andy Ward around, and reverting to the back-row which performed against France, namely with Miller at six, Costello at eight and O'Cuinneagain at seven. "We thought the back-row against France was very good. As regards a decision on the back-row, it is a difficult decision to try and find the right combination. There are numerous possibilities in terms of combinations that could be used in the back-row, if you consider Trevor Brennan as an option as well."
As for the preference of Bell over Henderson, Gatland said that "all along Jonathan Bell has been our number one selection originally. We've been very happy with the way that Rob Henderson has played. He's been very solid for us without being completely, or overly, spectacular at centre, so we've reverted back to the original selection."
Moving with the times, the management revealed that they had given Eric Elwood 48 hours paternity leave, and he was excused training on Monday and yesterday after his wife gave birth on Monday.
Peter Clohessy's brief limp at training, Donal Lenihan explained, was because "Mick Galwey stood on his toe twice and he was a bit annoyed with him. Other than that, no problem."
Justin Fitzpatrick missed training yesterday with a slight back spasm after an intensive scrummaging session on Monday.
Having been un-typically critical of the team in public and, one presumes, in private, Gatland revealed: "There's been a sharpness there and a competitiveness in terms of the attitude of the players and we're very happy with the response the players have given us since they've come in."
As it's been 11 years since the last win over Scotland, and 14 since victory at Murrayfield, he admitted there would be no danger of underestimating the Scots. Explaining this extraordinary sequence, Lenihan conceded that at times Irish teams may have been guilty of under-estimating the Scots, who have also won a number of tight matches.
"They seem to have had the edge on and off the field. I think one would have said that tactically they were a little bit sharper than we were and that is something we're extremely conscious of this week. None of this group have ever beaten Scotland and the last two Murrayfield games have been pretty disastrous, to put it mildly, so I don't think there's anybody under-estimating them on Saturday."
Ireland: C O'Shea (London Irish); J Bishop (London Irish), K Maggs (Bath), J Bell (Dungannon), G Dempsey (Terenure College); D Humphreys (Dungannon), C McGuinness (St Mary's College); P Clohessy (Young Munster), K Wood (Harlequins), P Wallace (Saracens), P Johns (Saracens, capt), J Davidson (Castres), D O'Cuinneagain (Sale), E Miller (Terenure College), A Ward (Ballynahinch). Replacements (from): R Henderson (Wasps), E Elwood (Galwegians), C Scally (UCD), V Costello (St Mary's College), M Galwey (Shannon), J Fitzpatrick (Dungannon), T Brennan (St Mary's College), R Nesdale (Newcastle).
A charity match between a combined Blackrock/St Michael's selection and a combined Belvedere/ Clongowes will take place in Donnybrook on Thursday, March 25th (kick-off 7.0) as part of a series of events for the Donal O'Flynn Appeal. Proceeds will help to defray the substantial medical and living costs facing Donal and his family as a result of a serious injury he sustained while playing for his school in December 1997.
