It is widely expected Eddie O'Sullivan will have a primary coaching role with the Saturday "Test" squad on the Lions tour next summer.

O'Sullivan's role

Clive Woodward will announce his 25-man back-up staff, yes 25, at some point early next month and the ex-England World Cup-winning coach confirmed in an interview with Stuart Barnes on Sky Sports' Rugby Club during the week that Scotland's Ian McGeechan will be the head coach of the "midweek" side.

Woodward's opinion is that the main lesson to be learned from the Lions tour to Australia in 2003 was the relative dearth of hands-on coaching for the midweek side sparked the many grumblings of discontent which emanated from those disaffected players. The addition of an extra midweek game in the week of the third Test, against Auckland, should also help to keep minds focused throughout the squad.

There has been a body of opinion that Woodward intends overseeing two distinct and separate playing squads as well, but this is far from the case. While there will be two separate coaching teams, Woodward maintained there will be player traffic between the two squads.

Woodward spoke with characteristic enthusiasm for the task ahead, making those rumours of his imminent sacking by the Lions committee two weeks ago seem faintly ridiculous, and spoke of his eagerness to avail of Mike Ruddock's invitation to attend a Welsh training week and "wear a Welsh hat" at the Millennium Stadium when they play the All Blacks in the autumn. He will also be with the Italians in the week they play New Zealand.

Encouragingly, he also spoke of his desire to be a fan of Scotland and Ireland, as well as England, this season, and a similar invitation will surely be extended by O'Sullivan at some juncture. At one point when referring to "the British Lions", in the same breath Woodward quickly corrected himself and stated: "British and Irish Lions. Sorry."

Perth and Melbourne in Super push

The rich get rich, and the poor get poorer. The "Big Three" of the Southern Hemisphere having selfishly stabbed the Pacific Islands yet again by agreeing to carve up two additional places among themselves in an expanded Super 14, the jockeying for a new franchise is most intense within Australia.

Perth and Melbourne are the favourites, with the Western Australia capital seen as the front runner due to its geographical location, roughly halfway between South Africa and the rest of the franchises currently playing in the Super 12.

Perth has also hosted Test matches successfully and has a sizeable South African population.

But Melbourne's case has been boosted by the unexpected support of rugby league's Melbourne Storm, who reckon that a coexisting rugby union Super 14 franchise would give Melbourne greater clout in pushing for additional state government funding in upgrading the existing 18,000 Olympic Park to a 25,000-capacity ground.

Whoever gets it will no doubt pillage the islands for playing reinforcements.

Wasps wagon

The leading lights of rugby may enjoy increased wealth and va-va-voom in the professional era, but the chasm between them and their footballing counterparts can be readily gauged by the following headline on the official website of the current European and English champions Wasps: "For sale: Mark van Gisbergen's VW van. London Wasps full back Mark van Gisbergen is selling his 1972 VW bay window camper van. The van has 85,000 km on the clock, but has recently had the engine, interior and bodywork reconditioned. Mark would like £6,500 for this classic, tax-exempt van but is willing to negotiate . . ."

What price Thierry Henry selling any of his chosen carriages?

Connacht's contribution

In maintaining our campaign to keep the Irish Rugby Football Union enlightened and Connacht in existence, although it was a disappointing weekend for the province, their contribution as a feeder to the other provinces has surely never been more pronounced.

In this weekend's round of Celtic League matches, there were seven one-time Connacht players appearing for the other provinces: James Norton, Des Dillon and Victor Costello with Leinster, Eoin Reddan and Jerry Flannery for Munster, and the Ulster pair of Rowen Frost and Ronnie McCormack. Surely a record? And not to mention Gavin Duffy with Harlequins and Damien Browne at Northampton, whose performances have been earning rave reviews.

O'Callaghan bulks up

Planet Rugby's website has a plentiful supply of lookalikes, featuring rugby players alongside famous people who could be their doubles. But if you hadn't seen Donncha O'Callaghan's supposed alter ego, then you would hardly have believed it. Kind of apt too, seeing as the sometimes Munster and Irish lock seems obliged to spend a good deal more time bulking up in gyms than he does on the rugby pitch.