RUGBY SIX NATIONS CHAMPIONSHIP: IT'S A slightly unnerving state of affairs when the normally indestructible Donncha O'Callaghan is deemed hors de combat.
A supreme professional as well as the ultimate squad prankster, one can hardly recall the last time O’Callaghan was deemed unavailable for province or country, but a knee injury sustained in Munster’s win over Northampton has ruled him out of Ireland’s RBS Six Nations opener against Italy tomorrow.
O’Callaghan had “a setback on Wednesday,” according to manager Paul McNaughton, who wouldn’t go so far as to rule out the lock for the French game on Saturday week. “We don’t think so but these things change.”
Likewise, there must be a cloud over the availability of Stephen Ferris (who has returned to Belfast) and Jonathan Sexton, who is “making progress”, for the trek to Paris.
In any event, Leo Cullen comes in for his first championship game since 2003, when he started his one and only Six Nations game in the 25-24 win away to Wales, and was a replacement in three others, while Donncha Ryan is promoted to the bench. Since cruelly missing out on the 2003 World Cup, Cullen has won just seven caps, all of them in friendlies, in the intervening time, when he also took a two-year sabbatical at Leicester before returning to captain Leinster to their first Heineken Cup last season. Good things come to those who wait.
O’Callaghan usurped Cullen and then Malcolm O’Kelly to become Paul O’Connell’s regular secondrow partner on the 2006 summer tour to New Zealand and Australia, effectively starting Ireland’s last 31 frontline Tests in a row (partnering O’Connell in all but four of them) including every Six Nations game for the last three seasons.
He joins an expanding Irish casualty list, which also numbers Geordan Murphy, Luke Fitzgerald, Denis Leamy, Sexton and Ferris, on top of Marcus Horan’s lengthy absence and the serious shortfall in game time for Jerry Flannery and Rory Best.
“That’s why it’s so important to build a squad,” stressed the unperturbed Gert Smal, “and to have players who can fit in quite easily. Also, Donncha didn’t train last week and Leo trained in his position all week, so it’s an easy fit.”
The enforced changes excite Ireland’s forwards coach more than concern him. “It’s a chance Leo has waited for, for a long time and it’s a great opportunity for him. That combination can also work quite well for you. Paul (O’Connell) and Leo gives you a huge amount of flexibility in the lineouts as well.”
Smal admits the Italian pack is their strength and embraces the challenge. “I would like to see us grow in the scrumming area as well. I think we can pick up there by a fair margin so we’re busy behind the scenes, working quite hard on that and looking forward to the challenge on Saturday.”
Nick Mallett has his own injury concerns and relatively speaking, the loss of Sergio Parisse is probably Italy’s equivalent of Ireland’s entire casualty list. The starting line-up Mallet unveiled yesterday is along expected lines, with Kaine Robertson preferred to centre cum-sometime outhalf Andrea Masi on the wing and Carlo del Fava picked ahead of former captain Marco Bortolami at lock in a team featuring nine home-based players.
Craig Gower has overcome a bruised quadriceps to make his first Six Nations start as the latest attempt to fill the huge void left by Diego Dominguez. The future is probably Riccardo Bocchino, the 21-year-old, bona fide Italian, who will be on the bench on Saturday, provided he attains exposure to a higher level. Indeed, the two half-back positions post Dominguez and Allesandro Troncon remain the Azzurri’s biggest problems, and both Gower and the Parma scrumhalf Tito Tebaldi have just half a dozen caps apiece.
As a former Australian rugby league player, who couldn’t speak any Italian when brought into the team last summer, Gower is familiar to Ireland’s defensive coach Les Kiss. “It’s pretty much the same combinations they had in November and I know they took a lot out of that series. I know there was an injury doubt about Gower but he’s a tough cookie. We’ll have to keep our eye on him. He’s a good player and he’s developing nicely for them.”
Kiss says Gower was more committed to the union code than most rugby league converts. “He has a real good individual streak to his game. He can take the line at any moment. I think the biggest thing that he’s learning at this stage is how to engage in his starter attack and starter defence – the little elements that you don’t get in rugby league. But as you watch each play he’s slowly getting that together. He’ll be a threat, that’s for sure.”
Italy v Ireland, Croke Park, Saturday, (ko 2.30)
OnTV: RTÉ 2: 1.30-7.30, BBC 1: 1.40-7.05
