Lions Tour: Lions coach Ian McGeechan is in Cork today to pick the brains of Declan Kidney in advance of selecting his squad for June's grueling tour of South Africa. High on the agenda will be the issue of captaincy, where a shortlist of two - Brian O'Driscoll and Paul O'Connell - has emerged.
O'Driscoll led by example as Ireland lifted their first grand slam for 61 years. His four tries made him joint-leading try-scorer with England's Riki Flutey, he made the difference in the key moments and is likely to be named player of the tournament for the third time.
O'Connell was equally vital in the second row and has surely the powerful presence that encouraged McGeechan to make captaincy rookie Martin Johnson his 1997 leader.
Both men have something to prove for the Lions following the woeful 2005 trip to New Zealand when O'Driscoll's involvement ended a minute into the first test after Tana Umaga and Keven Mealamu's spear tackle and O'Connell struggled to impose himself at all.
Both look certain starters but elsewhere, McGeechan has a host of good and very good players, but precious few who would walk into a world XV.
Gavin Henson, Tom Shanklin, Jamie Roberts, Gordon D'Arcy and Flutey give plenty of options at centre while Lee Byrne and Rob Kearney are high quality fullbacks.
Shane Williams should secure one of the wings but the other berth looks wide open, with Tommy Bowe, Paul Sackey and Luke Fitzgerald in with a shout.
Grand slam hero Ronan O'Gara and his Welsh counterpart Stephen Jones are likely to fight it out at outhalf, though the shadow of Jonny Wilkinson, should he ever return to action, and Danny Cipriani, who McGeechan mentors at Wasps, hovers over them.
Wales could provide two scrumhalves in Mike Phillips and Dwayne Peel with Tomas O’Leary and Peter Stringer also challenging.
The need to challenge South Africa's peerless lineout might give an opportunity for athletic forwards such as Nick Kennedy and Tom Croft, but moulding a successful Lions team is all about balance, combinations and chemistry, so McGeechan will not stint on power and bulk via the likes of Gethin Jenkins, Euan Murray, Andy Sheridan and tackler-supreme Joe Worsley.
