RUGBY Ireland v Georgia:Form is temporary, selection is permanent? Eddie O'Sullivan has been wont to say "this is a form selection" over the last six years and 70 matches, but he could not justify such a comment yesterday when he unveiled his first-choice team to play Georgia this Saturday. In fact, this is a non-form selection, or, at any rate, a selection to find form.

All bar Shane Horgan, who returns from injury for his first game since May 11th, played against Namibia last Sunday, and a dozen of them played in that below-par and fortuitous win over the Italians in Ravenhill.

With the ultra-pressurised set-to with the French looming only six nights after the Georgia game, it is a gamble.

"It was a little bit influenced by the Namibia performance," the coach said. "It was such a bad performance that I think the team needs another game together. Had we hit the ground running on Sunday night, we might have had more wriggle room in terms of changing things."

Maintaining that the team has always repaid his confidence, O'Sullivan added: "If you create an environment where players feel that after one poor performance players are dumped on the trash heap, you don't create any confidence around that. You try to build confidence in a team.

"You can call it overreliance or over-loyal, I don't know, but that's the way I like to work it."

This makes some sense. but Ireland, for the time being, have lowered the bar. "Let's get out of the pool first," said O'Sullivan when asked if his frontline players could play five, six or seven games. "There's no point in planning for a quarter- or semi-final if we're not out of the pool."

Fair enough, and, drawn in the toughest group, their best chance of going where no Irish side before them has gone is by winning the pool of sharks.

But if the poor performances against Italy and Georgia have forced O'Sullivan's hand, this is in part the by-product of the preparation, tactics and mindset of the frontliners going into Ireland's World Cup opener.

So, Ireland are set to reprise the exact mistakes in selection policy of four years ago. For by O'Sullivan's own belated admission, drawing on the same core of players four years ago - including in the opening pool games against Romania and Namibia - ultimately caught up with the team in the resounding quarter-final defeat to France.

The lines clearly have been drawn. These are the 15 players (795 caps between them, an Irish record) who were excused duty in Argentina to be granted a longer pre-season. Suddenly, there is little or no mention of "the squad". The coach talks of the team, and so too do team members. This is clearly not good for competitiveness within the squad, a prerequisite of any team sport, not least in an ultra-intensive and protracted World Cup.

In adhering to his conservative instincts - as manifest through much of the last four years - O'Sullivan again made reference to this World Cup being akin to a Six Nations, and that the games are at least six days apart.

The difference is, of course, that Namibia and Georgia are hardly Scotland and Italy - even if Georgia's performance last night puts Saturday's game in sharper focus - and there are no built-in rest weeks.

Ideally, there should have been the "mix and match" selection policy that O'Sullivan outlined in August. Not only would such a strategy have made everyone for once feel he was a part of the odyssey, it would have kept the 15 untouchables on their toes.

O'Sullivan admitted that, ideally, he would like to have played everybody, "but if it doesn't work out, they have to take it on the chin. It's not easy on players because they're competitive and ambitious, and the trick is to keep them like that. But they're made of stern stuff."

Nevertheless, Alan Quinlan and the other six unused players must be tearing their hair out. For Frankie Sheahan, this is a familiar experience, as he was one of five players never named in the five match-day 22s four years ago. If he ever wants to get his hands on a World Cup Irish jersey, it looks as if he may as well go to Elverys.

Consider the treatment of Geordan Murphy, who has shown more form than Andrew Trimble or Girvan Dempsey in the warm-ups, yet was confined to a laughable 30 seconds last Sunday.

This World Cup is the culmination of four years' work and is the ultimate level playing field.

So it was that Australia and South Africa were building toward this tournament during their defeats in Dublin last November. By contrast, opportunities to develop the Irish squad on tours to South Africa, Japan, New Zealand and Australia, and autumn series at home, have not been used to the same extent.

Consider, too, the treatment of Eoin Reddan. Arguably the form scrumhalf in England and Europe over the last year, and with a European Cup medal to back it up, he had been confined to one cameo on the wing in eight selections over two years, before starting the second Test in Argentina. Why he's not even on the bench is a mystery.

There are still at least one or two big performances in this "team", but this has not been the best route to travel.