RUGBY/Six Nations Championship: Eddie O'Sullivan was not inclined to hail it as a changing of the guard, with a distinct glance toward the 2007 World Cup, but yesterday's announcement of the 22-man Irish squad for the opening RBS Six Nations game at home to Italy on Saturday week certainly felt like it.

It's still been a long time since there was such a cull of relatively experienced players from an Irish squad. For the tournament opener, Shane Byrne and Guy Easterby have joined autumn omissions Reggie Corrigan and Anthony Foley in failing to make the cut when the squad was trimmed from 35 to 22, although O'Sullivan maintained the door was still ajar for those more experienced players who have been omitted,

Other prominent, Test-proven players to miss out were Girvan Dempsey and, most controversially, Ireland's leading try scorer, Denis Hickie.

Along with the inevitable battery of high-profile backrow absentees, the selection highlights how the Irish coach is picking from a far greater position of strength than was the case in the autumn. And, bearing in mind how Shane Jennings joins Keith Gleeson on the fringes, it's not just choice in numbers but of players in a rich seam of form as well.

Some make way for the likes of Wasps scrumhalf Eoin Reddan, the only uncapped player in the squad, and the extremely mobile as well as upwardly mobile Jerry Flannery, while the return of cause celebre David Wallace will be greeted warmly.

"I think you've always one eye on the World Cup, but the Six Nations is our benchmark for the year," maintained O'Sullivan during yesterday's Six Nations media launch in Fulham, London.

"It's the biggest tournament of the year, it's our bread and butter, so you don't muck around with it. The younger players who have forced their way into the squad have done so on performances, not because they're young. Some of those calls are very difficult, but if the guys are good enough you've got to pick them.

"That's a good place to be. These guys now have to deliver, and we know that we have that experience there in the wings if they've got to come back in.

"But there's been some very hard calls along the way. I know some of these guys are disappointed, but it doesn't mean that they're not going to be involved. It's a long tournament, eight weeks of hard work if you take this one, and we'll need everybody come the end of it, I think."

O'Sullivan acknowledged the recent improvement and more expansive styles of Munster and Leinster, describing the latter's backline as "probably the best in Europe at the moment".

Yet, when push came to shove, he picked only three of that backline, along with three from the less potent Ulster backline.

All told, there are nine from Munster, five from Ulster, four from Leinster and four from across the Irish sea.

A rejuvenated Dempsey has never been playing better, while Hickie remains a world-class finisher, not to mention one of the team leaders, who showed plenty of his customary attacking potential on the ball against Bath. Sure, he missed a late tackle on Sunday, but with another outing for Leinster against Borders this week, he could have started against Italy and would have been well primed for the trek to Paris.

"Denis, to be fair to him, is coming back from a nasty injury and only has a couple of games under his belt, and I don't think is back to his top form yet," maintained O'Sullivan. "But I think the more he plays the better he'll get.

"Girvan has been playing very, very well, but again, Geordan has been on fire in Leicester, so they're extremely difficult calls. I mean if Girvan or Denis come back into the squad, I'm not going to lose any sleep over it."

O'Sullivan also acknowledged that Guy Easterby has been playing some of his best rugby, despite losing out to Reddan in another tight, if less contentious, call.

"To be fair to Eoin, he's played very consistently. His passing is very good, his kicking game is very good and he's sniping around the sides; he's just playing a very balanced game and a very accurate game.

"He's playing at a very high level in the Heineken Cup and he's holding off one of the best scrumhalves in the Six Nations, and you have to respect that and you have to reward that if I'm going to be consistent in picking form players."

When asked if Wallace had done something differently to merit a recall, the Irish coach answered: "Yeah, he's made the Munster team. For all the furore about him when we picked the autumn squad, he wasn't in the Munster backrow; Alan Quinlan was. But Alan got hurt, unfortunately, and David came in and has played magnificently since then. And credit where credit is due, we spoke to him about what he needed to do and he's done that," explained O'Sullivan.

He also cited the example of the "unfortunate" Keith Gleeson in maintaining that he could have selected any three from a dozen backrowers.

As interesting as any selection will be how Ireland go about this year's campaign, ie, take a leaf out of the Welsh manual by giving a freer rein to the crop of in-form and recently successful players - especially those from Munster and Leinster. Although Hickie is arguably the quickest of them all, and the sharpest finisher out wide, there is a pacier look to the squad, and O'Sullivan said: "We're trying to play the game at a higher tempo, but that's just one step in your development, I guess, at the end of the day."

Clearly mindful of the perception he has not given the talent at his disposal sufficient freedom to exploit their skills, the Irish coach spoke of "transitioning our game in the autumn", but maintained it was still about getting the balance right.

"Give players their head, but at the same time play the game that we need to win the games in the Six Nations."