RUGBY:The wounds are almost exclusively to their egos and confidence, and with Shane Horgan's expected return for the Georgian game next Saturday when the team is announced today, Ireland can at least choose from a full bill of health. But the fallout from the nearly cataclysmic performance against Namibia was still being felt.

One of the consequences is that for some or all of Eoin Reddan, Brian Carney, Gavin Duffy, Frankie Sheahan, Bryan Young, Alan Quinlan and Stephen Ferris, today's team announcement could bring bad tidings. Just as four years ago, exclusion from even the bench against Georgia could signal a very long and relatively inactive Coupe du Monde.

Unsurprisingly, Eddie O'Sullivan gave an inkling into his thinking yesterday when commenting, "I want to look at things in a bit more detail again, and I want to talk about it and think long and hard about it. If we're going to make changes, what advantages are we going to get from it?

"I wouldn't say change is out of the question but again I'm not going to go in and slash and burn on that performance. I think it would be the wrong message to give the players."

That depends on which players, and for those who would again be excluded the message isn't exactly a ringing endorsement. Fourteen of those who started against Namibia (and all bar three played until the 80th minute) starred in that epic win over England at Croke Park and the eight-try romp against Italy in Rome and were subsequently given an extended summer in being rested from the tour to Argentina.

There is a malaise in the Irish performances since the Six Nations that now raises questions about the two-tiered preparation of this squad, but regardless, the Irish coach's policy is seemingly to remain loyal to his frontliners until they find their form.

By contrast, despite rumblings of discontent within the camp and a fatalistic debate in the French media about the consequences of becoming the first host country not to qualify for the knock-out stages, the French will at least be true to their mantra: On gagnera à trente (We will win with 30).

That looks as hollow as Ireland's claims on the trophy after the opening weekend, but all the signals are that Bernard Laporte will make 13 changes in personnel and two positional for their rendezvous with Namibia on Sunday in Toulouse. Yannick Jauzion will move to inside centre, and might therefore see the ball occasionally, while Cedric Heymans will revert from an ill-fitting fullback to wing.

One of the few Irish positives to emerge from Sunday's 32-17 win was that at least there were no attempts to put a positive spin on the debacle.

There was frustration and anger within the squad, and a review of the tape confirmed O'Sullivan's worst post-match impressions.

"We had 39 turnovers," he said. "We play ball in hand so there was always going to be some turnovers, but that's probably double our average, it's sad to say. They were mainly passing errors out of contact or prior to it, and there were some kicking errors as well. Thirty-nine errors can be catastrophic. It's like shooting yourself in both feet. We had ourselves in good positions to score tries and make line breaks but we coughed up the ball.

"We need to break out with a good performance on Saturday against Georgia. I don't think we can play that badly again, to be honest. I hope not.

"We want to keep a steady ship here. There's no point in making wholesale changes all of a sudden. The team that took to the field is not a bad Irish team, it just played badly."

Aside from the handling and kicking errors, O'Sullivan maintained, "There isn't much wrong. We scrummaged well, we did well at the lineout. Probably at the breakdown we needed to be efficient. We were trying to force the offload off slow ball."

Skills coach Brian McLoughlin, dubbed the Brigadier of the Breakdown in the official (if limited-edition) World Cup media guide, attributed the poor work there to an overt emphasis on the offload, prompting players to go into contact too upright.

Forwards coach Niall O'Donovan admitted the lineout operated at about 75 per cent efficiency but maintained he was not unduly concerned about the sudden impotence of the maul, which the Namibians defended well.

Defensive coach Graham Steadman said, "There were some good aspects but we've certainly got to improve on space and reset. We certainly can't give the stronger teams in the pool the kind of space we did yesterday and off the back of that we've got to be a little bit smarter."

As for medical bulletins, O'Driscoll hyperextended his right elbow but the injury settled down overnight and will not rule him out of selection for Saturday's game. Likewise Ronan O'Gara (bruised left foot) and Marcus Horan (back), though the latter will sit out training today.