Rugby Six Nations Championship: Paul O'Connell's elevation to Martin Johnson-like status within the context of Irish rugby took another significant step forward yesterday when the fearsome and fearless 24-year-old lock was made captain of his country for the first time for the Six Nations opener in Stade de France this Saturday, Gerry Thornley reports
O'Connell leads an otherwise predictable Irish line-up, which shows only four changes from the side beaten 43-21 by France in the World Cup quarter-final during the summer, and two of those were enforced by Keith Wood's retirement and Brian O'Driscoll's torn hamstring.
Despite all the positive soundings from the camp regarding O'Driscoll's recovery, unsurprisingly Eddie O'Sullivan has wisely decided not to risk rushing O'Driscoll's return and he will remain in Dublin for a further five days' rehabilitation in the expectation that he will be fit for the pivotal game at home to Wales on Sunday week.
Gordon D'Arcy assumes the outside-centre role after taking to it with elan in O'Driscoll's absence for Leinster in their last three European games. Tyrone Howe is recalled on the left wing for John Kelly, Shane Byrne regains the hooker's slot and Anthony Foley returns for Victor Costello after being dropped for the first time in four years in Melbourne. Simon Best and Anthony Horgan are added to the replacements' bench in light of O'Driscoll's and Marcus Horan's withdrawal.
O'Connell has scarcely been obliged to call the toss of a coin in his burgeoning career to date but, typically, he appeared to be straining at the leash yesterday in his eagerness to lead his team out of the Stade de France tunnel next Saturday.
His appointment was also typical of O'Sullivan's preference for high achievers as leaders, as opposed to experienced, wily campaigners with extensive captaincy CVs. O'Connell, Wood and O'Driscoll were Ireland's world-class performers in the World Cup and, much as with the Australian cricket set-up in which your best player is picked as captain, as the only one left standing this week, O'Connell leads the team.
"I think it's a good choice, because he was an outstanding player for the team during the World Cup, when he was one of the best second rows in the competition," said O'Sullivan yesterday. "He's a good talisman for the pack, he's got the respect of the players and he leads from the front. So I think it's a selection based on those attributes which I suppose is what you look for in a captain."
Brushing aside concerns over O'Connell's lack of captaincy experience, O'Sullivan commented: "I think we had the same questions when Brian O'Driscoll was appointed captain last year. I think captaincy is about the personality of the individual, not so much the experience. There are more experienced players in the team, but I think Paul has the attributes to do the job."
As was true in O'Driscoll's initial elevation to the captaincy, O'Connell is the second youngest member of the team and his leadership will be more about what he does than says, and right now no Irish forward is doing it better. The incomparable Wood, who could talk for Ireland almost as well as he played for Ireland, was very much both.
Second row is also closer to the action and the referee than outside centre and thus, arguably, a better place to captain. Nevertheless, this bold move has its risk element for O'Connell. Undoubted long-term captain in the making though he is, he could hardly be considered an experienced tactician.
If, for example, he were obliged to make a key tactical decision with the match in its endgame and finely balanced, not only would you welcome the notion but you'd hope that someone like Anthony Foley was within earshot. At the very least he'll need help, and, to his credit, was honest enough to admit as much.
O'Connell's appointment overshadowed the rest of the selection. The pack looks pretty strong, the set-pieces should be solid enough, the defence should be more aggressive than in Melbourne and likewise, they'll hardly keep attacking the channel defended by Serge Betsen and co, while mentally they should be alert from the kick-off.
The Munster halves are in situ and there's a core of experience running through the team, save for D'Arcy, who will be making his championship debut. D'Arcy apart, with O'Driscoll, Denis Hickie and Geordan Murphy all sidelined, the likes of David Wallace, Rob Henderson and Mike Mullins omitted, and Victor Costello on the bench, the team isn't over endowed with line-breakers and firepower.
The marginal calls, such as the slightly surprising preference of Ronan O'Gara over David Humphreys, hooker and second-row, were all swayed purely by form, according to O'Sullivan. In the case of the much pilloried Girvan Dempsey, whose confidence seems shot to pieces, this doesn't quite stack up, but once O'Sullivan was unwilling to gamble on an unproven Test full back (D'Arcy, Gavin Duffy, etc) there was no real alternative.
"He's a very experienced campaigner, much maligned in the wrong at times, but the best way for him to answer his critics is to have a good game on Saturday and I've no doubt he will," asserted O'Sullivan. Given Dempsey's mental strength and reliability in the past, that is not inconceivable.
Form being the ultimate criteria, as O'Sullivan repeatedly stressed, one Munster-based journalist was obliged to raise, not unreasonably, the current good form of Frankie Sheahan and Donncha O'Callaghan, to which the Irish coach jokingly suggested he was detecting "a red mist".
O'Connell's appointment will go some way toward assuaging a lingering red mist in the direction of Limerick and Cork, though given the respective form of the provinces in the past month it does seem odd there are seven Leinster men to five Munster men in the starting line-up.
With Gary Longwell out of consideration and Humphreys overlooked, the inclusion of Howe keeps the Ulster flag flying, along with Bath's Kevin Maggs and Llanelli's Simon Easterby. Ireland's representative load in this most demanding of seasons is effectively being carried by two teams.
