RUGBY:Brian O'Driscoll could be fit enough to play against Namibia in Ireland's first pool match of the World Cup, next Sunday. Coach Eddie O'Sullivan was the bringer of the good news yesterday when he announced his captain, who was originally scheduled to open his World Cup in Ireland's second match, against Georgia on Saturday week, was making better progress than expected with his recovery.

O'Sullivan was able to say pencilling O'Driscoll's name in the teamsheet for the first pool game was now "a possibility".

It would be the outside centre's first match since he fractured a sinus following a punch from behind during Ireland's warm-up match against the French side Bayonne three weeks ago.

"It's good," said O'Sullivan at the team headquarters in Dublin after yesterday afternoon's training session at Belfield. "Brian O'Driscoll actually took full part in training today. So I'm very happy about that.

"Shane Horgan (knee injury) took part in some of the session, mainly warm-up, and stayed out of contact.

"So they are both actually on track at the moment, certainly on track for Georgia."

When further pushed as to whether O'Driscoll might play in the opening match, O'Sullivan remained positive but guarded.

"I'd need to get a medical call on that before we sign off but for the moment he is ahead of schedule so I suppose that (playing against Namibia) becomes a possibility," said the coach.

"It could have been a lot worse. Once we got the good news that he was going to be out for a few weeks, it was just about trying to beat the deadline then. To be fair, he's worked very hard on his fitness and rugby without getting into contact and we are getting very close now to getting the all-clear.

"It's the same with Shane. I was quite confident that if both of them had no setbacks, they would be in good nick at this stage."

O'Sullivan's thinking will also be freighted by the need to win the first match and win it well. While his head will be telling him to get some fringe players on the pitch as well as those short of match practice, he also needs to put points on the board against one of the weaker teams in the competition. The Irish side that starts on Sunday promises to be a strong one.

"I haven't decided yet," he said in reference to the line-up for the weekend. "But I think we will want to start well, so I'll probably be leaning towards a strong selection. The first two games are very important.

"Ourselves and France and Argentina being so close in the world rankings means there's a chance of us all beating each other and ending up with a loss apiece and it will go down to the points difference in the pool. That is a consideration so we have to factor that into our thinking."

Stephen Ferris, the Ulster backrow, injured a knee last week but was also able to train yesterday, as was David Wallace, about whom O'Sullivan said, "I would want him to play in the first match because he has been out for so long."

Denis Leamy, who has been nursing an injured shoulder for some weeks, is also healthy and trained yesterday.

"Denis is a management issue," said O'Sullivan. "We'll just watch the shoulder as we always have done. But he is fine."