RUGBY:THE RIDDLE will be resolved at lunchtime when Declan Kidney confirms his line-up to confront Wales in the RBS Six Nations opener at the Aviva Stadium on Sunday, but one of his assistants, Mark Tainton, yesterday dropped the broadest hint yet that Keith Earls will again have the onerous task of filling the number 13 jersey in the absence of some bloke called Brian.

“Whoever plays 13 on Sunday, he just needs to believe in his ability to fill that role,” said Tainton. “Whoever it may be would have been playing in that position this season for his province, or for his club, so he doesn’t need to do anything different from what he’s doing. The step up is going to be there, we all know, but he doesn’t need to try and be somebody he’s not.”

For starters, Tommy Bowe has played on the wing for the Ospreys all season, whereas since his return to the Munster team in December following a knee injury, Earls has played all five games at outside centre, his best performance coming in the most recent of them away to Northampton. In that time, Fergus McFadden has partnered Gordon D’Arcy at outside centre on three occasions, as well as one outing at inside centre and one on the right wing.

However, if ever there was a coded message to a young player who seems to have almost as much self-doubt as ability, yet seemed to think in the August friendlies that he had to come up with a vintage O’Driscoll-like play every time he received the ball, then this was surely it. And in the only three Tests O’Driscoll has missed under the Kidney regime, Earls has deputised every time.

Tainton, whose own role as kicking coach has been expanded to encompass working with Les Kiss on Ireland’s attacking game, also vowed that Ireland would not be trimming their sails.

“We’ve got a good idea of how to play against Wales, and what their strengths and weaknesses are. They don’t have many weaknesses so we’re going to have to find them. But we’re not going to go into our shell and think we need to hammer this game out with just point to point rugby. We’re trying to be a bit more expansive than that and open up opportunities for players in every position,” said Tainton.

Such has been Conor Murray’s remarkable rise since the end of last season it’s easy to forget he will be making his Six Nations debut on Sunday. “It is a bit daunting but the games in the summer and the World Cup might help confidence-wise. I learned a lot, and playing with Munster in the Heineken Cup [has helped]. I’ll just hopefully take it in my stride, I have a bit of experience now, and hopefully have a bigger role in the team or the squad, whatever way it works out,” said Murray.

That Ireland’s first game since the World Cup comes against the team who evicted them from the competition ought to concentrate minds. “There is a lot of talk about revenge, but it is a new competition, a new start, a new game plan and a lot of new players,” said Murray. “You’d be lying if you said you didn’t think about it and you were not hurt by it. Wales were the better team on the day but we were bitterly disappointed. We had high hopes going into that game, but you can’t focus on it too much. We’ve a lot more to worry about.”

All of the 32-man Irish squad trained yesterday, after which new manager Mick Kearney admitted that Luke Fitzgerald’s neck injury had been more problematic than when first diagnosed. “It is an issue with a disc,” Kearney admitted, but he maintained that an operation would not be necessary and that Fitzgerald had started light training with a view to being available for selection in the next week or two.

By contrast, Wales could be without as many as seven of the team that played Ireland, with Warren Gatland delaying his team announcement until Friday to afford Dan Lydiate, Rhys Preistland and Jamie Roberts every chance of recovering. But backs coach Rob Howley yesterday admitted that all three remain doubts and talked up the credentials of the uncapped 22-year-old Ospreys inside centre Ashley Beck.

“I have no qualms at all,” said Howley in reference to pitching Beck into Sunday’s game. We have always said about the Heineken Cup being a measure of a player’s quality, and Ashley has performed really well in that tournament.”

IRELAND(probable team): Kearney; Bowe, Earls, D'Arcy, Trimble; Sexton, Murray; Healy, Best, Ross, O'Callaghan,, O'Connell, Ferris, O'Brien, Heaslip. Replacements: Cronin, Court, Ryan, O'Mahony, Reddan, O'Gara, McFadden.