News round-up: Ireland coach Eddie O'Sullivan confirmed he would like Malcolm O'Kelly and Eric Miller to play for their clubs this weekend.
"I have spoken to Eric (Miller) and he's fine again so he's available to Terenure for their match. Malcolm will be assessed by the medical team and if he is given the go-ahead then I would be keen for him to play for St Mary's," he said. It is expected O'Kelly will be passed fit today.
O'Sullivan also pointed out the remainder of the replacements who came on in Ireland's victory over Wales on Sunday, with the exception of Gary Longwell, would be available to their respective clubs. "Gary picked up a knock on his shoulder so he won't be playing for Ballymena. We are quite happy for the rest of the subs to play club rugby."
That guarantees Shane Byrne and Paul Wallace will be available to Blackrock for their short trip to take on Terenure at Lakelands. Keith Gleeson should make his debut for St Mary's just seven days after winning a first cap for Ireland when coming on as a replacement and scoring a try.
Guy Easterby will be available to Llanelli while Ronan O'Gara and Rob Henderson have permission to play for Cork Constitution and Young Munster, respectively.
O'Sullivan was enjoying a rare moment of quiet yesterday since master-minding Ireland's 54-10 thumping of the Welsh. He will undertake a debriefing with the Ireland squad today and tomorrow to evaluate the performance against Wales and address some issues with regard to taking on England at Twickenham on Saturday week.
The Ireland coach wants to get several things sorted out before the squad reconvenes on Sunday for the English match. He confirmed the squad for that match would be named tomorrow but it is almost certain Keith Wood and Shane Horgan will be ruled out through injury.
Despite the big victory over Wales, O'Sullivan was suitably pragmatic about Ireland's next assignment.
"We will not be getting carried away. As I said after the Welsh game taking on England at Twickenham will be a sobering prospect. I was very happy with the display against Wales and we put them away well but there are still things that we didn't do to my satisfaction.
"We will look at those and others things. We lacked accuracy at times and needed to be more ruthless: there are things that we need to adjust."
St Mary's will have Ireland A number eight Victor Costello in the team. Emmet Byrne is definitely out with a shoulder injury, while Denis Hickie is rested. Better news for the club is that Peter Smyth is set to return to competitive action, albeit on the bench. It represents a tremendous achievement and a tribute to his resilience and character that he has returned so quickly following brain surgery and bacterial meningitis.
Cork Constitution will be without A internationals Anthony Horgan, Mick O'Driscoll and John Kelly but will be able to call on the services of John Fogarty and Donnacha O'Callaghan.
Meanwhile, Leicester and England flanker Lewis Moody will come before the European Rugby Cup Ltd (ERC) disciplinary committee on Friday to answer an allegation of stamping in the Heineken Cup quarter-final against Leinster.
The Irish province cited Moody for allegedly stamping on centre Brian O'Driscoll in the Welford Road clash on January 27th.
The Tigers last week decided to take no further action against Moody, sin-binned late in the game for an unrelated incident, after studying a video of the 29-18 home win. The disciplinary committee will convene in Dublin on Friday (2 p.m.) to hear the case.
The misconduct charge against Newcastle, in respect of their pitch preparation for the Heineken Cup round-five match against Leinster on January 5th, and the provision of an alternative venue, will also be heard in Dublin on Friday afternoon.
France captain Olivier Magne has been suspended for three weeks by the Six Nations disciplinary commission. He will miss the meeting with Wales at the Millennium Stadium on February 16th but will return to action in time to face England in Paris on March 2nd.
Magne was accused of stamping on centre Denis Dallan in France's 33-12 victory over Italy on Saturday. At yesterday's hearing the disciplinary committee decided his actions had been reckless rather than deliberate.
Uncapped Sale wing Mark Cueto was last night handed his first senior England squad call-up as Dan Luger's injury jinx struck again. England boss Clive Woodward has included Cueto in a 30-man training group for next week's showdown with Ireland.
Cueto has vied with Sale colleague Steve Hanley on top of the Premiership try-scoring chart this term and made his England A debut against Scotland A last Friday. Although he is unlikely to feature among Woodward's match-day 22, Cueto can still put down an early marker building towards World Cup 2003.
