Ireland v Fiji: Lansdowne Road, Sunday: The World Cup may be still a year away, and this is very much the phoney war stage, but as it's the nearest thing to a dress rehearsal of any sort, Eddie O'Sullivan and company have next year's Australian global get-together in mind when using the squad system for Sunday's test with Fiji at Lansdowne Road.

Only half a dozen heroes from last Saturday's famous win over the Wallabies are retained and will, presumably, thereby be asked to play all three autumnal tests on successive weekends when starting against Argentina on Saturday week as well.

The six in question are Brian O'Driscoll, who remains as captain after initially being earmarked for a rest this week, Shane Horgan, Kevin Maggs, John Hayes, Malcolm O'Kelly and Anthony Foley.

Another six of last Saturday's replacement panel will start against the Fijians, namely the two 31-year-old elder statesmen of this rejigged team at half-back, David Humphreys and Guy Easterby, and Marcus Horan, Frankie Sheahan, Leo Cullen and Alan Quinlan.

In addition, Geordan Murphy, Justin Bishop and Kieron Dawson return from the comparative wilderness. Murphy and Bishop played in the summer tests in New Zealand, while Dawson last figured against Samoa in near identical circumstances a year ago.

Since then Dawson has had a fifth protracted spell away from the game through injury, has recently bought a new house, and is engaged to be married next summer. Yet, he's still only 27, and though he began the season poorly after a knee operation, he's begun to hit form lately.

"He's a very good openside flanker and it's a great prospect for us to have genuine competition in the number seven slot, which is a very important position fort the game we're playing," said the coach.

Gordon D'Arcy, Mick O'Driscoll and Eric Miller all have to be content with a place on the bench and though they should all get a decent run, Miller has again been troubled by an injury, this time to his calf, which has resulted in Victor Costello being recalled to the squad as cover.

All told then, 28 players have been pencilled in over the two matches, just two less than will be permitted in the World Cup squad lists.

"We have to keep in mind that the World Cup format will be something similar, when you'll have four games in four weeks. At the same time we felt that the three matches in the autumn would be a chance to rotate the squad and give some guys a rest," said O'Sullivan.

Due to injuries, O'Sullivan admitted, things haven't gone exactly to plan, hence the recalls for O'Driscoll and Reggie Corrigan. Come the World Cup, O'Sullivan would ideally want cover for every position and the Irish coach admitted John Kelly had been earmarked for outside centre instead of O'Driscoll before straining his knee.

That O'Driscoll has been recalled does not augur well for Mike Mullins, the only other Irish qualified, first-choice outside centre playing regularly at professional level this season. Mullins, one might have thought, would be the next best number 13 going forward, given his potent lines of running and dynamic ball carrying over the first 10 or 20 metres. However, O'Sullivan reasoned that "Mikey hasn't been involved in the camp" heretofore, though clearly the Munster man has also suffered for a couple of porous defensive displays this season, especially away to Ulster.

Though it is a constant juggling act, O'Sullivan maintained the Irish system allowed them to manage player burn-out and he pointed out the maximum number of games any of the professionals based in Ireland will play before Christmas was 14.

Nevertheless, for some of the promoted replacements and the six players added to last week's squad, chances such as these could be few and far between in World Cup year, given Argentina are up next week and then it's the Six Nations championship next year.

Thus, the Fijian game is a particularly big opportunity for the likes of Murphy, Bishop, Horan, Sheahan and Dawson. "There is a bit of pressure on guys coming through," admitted O'Sullivan, "in the sense that they'll want to make their mark and I suppose there's a couple of lads there who mightn't have got their chance if all the players had been available. But I've always said that one man's injury is another man's opportunity. Fellas realise the landscape, they know it's a World Cup year and it's chance for them to throw down a marker, there's no doubt about that."

While apologising for again building up the opposition, O'Sullivan said the 58-14 scoreline against Wales at the weekend didn't do Fiji justice, stressing "a turnover try at a crucial time in the first half was the killing point in the game. But looking at them as a team, their players are playing professionally, their continuity is very good, they're very physical at the breakdown and in the tackle, they've solid set-pieces, so I feel Fiji will be very disappointed with the Welsh result and will come at us with all guns blazing."

The world's finest exponents of sevens rugby, the Fijians are also renowned entertainers and thanks in part to the packaging of ticket sales for the two matches and the high of last Saturday, 33,000 tickets have already been sold, including all stand tickets.

Meanwhile, because of injuries, the Development XV to play the Argentinian midweek side in Donnybrook next Wednesday contains many who have yet to play at A level, but rewards a number of in-form players with a chance to put down a marker. 15 G Murphy (Leicester); 14 S Horgan (Leinster/Lansdowne), 13 B O'Driscoll (Leinster/Blackrock, capt), 12 K Maggs (Bath), 11 J Bishop (London Irish); 10 D Humphreys (Ulster/Dungannon), 9 G Easterby (Llanelli); 1 M Horan (Munster/Shannon), 2 F Sheahan (Munster/Cork Constitution), 3, J Hayes (Munster/Shannon), 4 L Cullen (Leinster/Blackrock), 5 M O'Kelly (Leinster/St Mary's), 6 A Quinlan (Munster/Shannon), 7 K Dawson (London Irish), 8 A Foley (Munster/Shannon).

Replacements: 16 S Byrne (Leinster/Blackrock College), 17 R Corrigan (Leinster/Greystones), 18 M O'Driscoll (Munster/Cork Constitution), 19 E Miller (Leinster/Terenure), 20 P Stringer (Munster/Shannon), 21 R O'Gara (Munster/Cork Con), 22 G D'Arcy (Leinster/Lansdowne)

IRELAND DEVELOPMENT XV v Argentina (Wednesday, 7.0 p.m., Donnybrook)

15 B Cunningham (Ulster/Dungannon); 14 T Robinson (Connacht/Bucanneers), 13 G Duffy (Connacht/Galwegians), 12 D Quinlan (Leinster/Blackrock), 11 M Lawler (Munster/Shannon); 10

M McHugh (Connacht/St Mary's), 9 B O'Riordan (Leinster/UCD); 1 S Best (Ulster/Belfast Harlequins), 2 P Shields (capt) (Ulster/Ballymena), 3 P Bracken (Connacht/Galwegians), 4

D O'Callaghan (Munster/ Cork Constitution), 5 A Kearney (Leinster/Dungannon), 6 A McCullen (Leinster/Lansdowne), 7 J O' Connor (Connacht/Galwegians), 8 D Dillon (Leinster/UCD) Replacements: 16 J Flannery (Connacht/Galwegians), 17 R McCormack (Connacht/Bucanneers), 18 D Browne (Connacht/Galwegians), 19 N McMillan (Ulster/Ballymena), 20 K Campbell (Ulster/Dungannon), 21 S Moore (Connacht/UCD), 22 S Young (Ulster/Ballymena)