RUGBY/Pool D: When push came to shove, Eddie O'Sullivan unveiled his strongest available selection to start Ireland's World Cup opener against Namibia in Bordeaux on Sunday.

The acid test of how much he will rotate his squad and rest his frontline players in this World Cup will come in next week's selection to play Georgia. If he retains a strong core after the six-day break it will mean they are destined to play every game while half a dozen or more of the squad can brace themselves for a tedious stint in France.

O'Sullivan's rationale for the opening game is not unexpected or by any means unique, for it echoes what most of the heavyweights have done. There is an understandable desire to hit a World Cup running, and though he denied it was a factor, Ireland's slow march to France in the warm-up games probably intensified that desire.

"There's no real mystery to it," he said. "The players themselves are keen to get started so I thought at the end of the day let's get a good start to the tournament."

Brian O'Driscoll is the most obvious embodiment of the frontliners' eagerness to play, all the more so after an injury-curtailed mid-March end to last season and a truncated preparation for this World Cup.

Word from the camp is that attempts to protect O'Driscoll in training by making him more identifiable with a yellow bib were, literally, tossed away by the Irish captain. He is, by all accounts, hot to trot.

If he needs games, the same is true for the rest of the frontliners, and especially David Wallace, who last played on May 4th and last started a game at the end of March, and Peter Stringer, who has had two starts since the end of March, not to mention the one first-choice absentee, Shane Horgan, who hasn't played since May 11th but is still on course to return next week against Georgia.

Denis Hickie missed training yesterday with tonsillitis but is expected to be fit for Sunday.

A little surprisingly, O'Sullivan said deciding on his strongest team was "fairly straightforward".

There's also the issue of the group conceivably coming down to a three-way tie, in which case points difference could determine the pecking order.

"I like making selections based on having all the information in front of me," he said. "I think it's dangerous to set out your stall and stick to it no matter what happens, because you only back yourself into a corner. I've got to base my selections on what's best for Ireland, to get out of this pool and if possible win the pool. That's the target."

Of the eight quarter-finalists four years ago, Ireland made the least use of their 30-man squad. Five didn't play one minute and another four were confined to one or two bit parts as subs.

Somewhat ominously for those deemed to be fringe players here, O'Sullivan conceded, "There's always a possibility that some guys won't start games, but I think we're not unique in that. I don't understand why you would pick a weakened team just to put guys on the pitch. If you think this is the best team to do a job you've got to go with that team. And in that, if some people don't start a game or they come off the bench at some point in the tournament, then that's the way it is. It's for the greater good; that's why you have a squad. We do the same in the Six Nations all the time."

Be that as it may, Namibia and Georgia are hardly Scotland and Italy. O'Sullivan cited the example of Lawrence Dallaglio, an ever-present for England four years ago, but there's also the issue of intensifying squad spirit and unity of purpose among the 30. Hence the French mantra: "On gagnera à trente" - We win with 30.

In stating that Ireland's opener was an opportunity to "throw down a marker in a tournament early on", O'Driscoll admitted, "we haven't hit where we wanted to be," but added that the first two games were an opportunity to get there.

"Obviously the squad is going to come into that; you're not going to play the same team for five, six, seven weeks in a row. You have to have a little rotation.

"We probably learned a little bit from the last World Cup in that respect. We'd like to show a few of not just the other pool opponents but everyone in the competition, even against perceived weaker opposition, what we're here to do."