Ireland squad news: With the anticipated return of Marcus Horan, Donncha O'Callaghan and Geordan Murphy from injury, Eddie O'Sullivan and the Irish management faced a trickier selection meeting last night in picking the starting line-up and replacements for next Saturday's RBS Six Nations Championship match against Italy at Lansdowne Road than they did before the win over England.
Buoyed by that magnificent win in Twickenham, O'Sullivan has a much fuller hand to play with, after the Ireland press officer John Redmond yesterday confirmed Horan, O'Callaghan and Murphy all trained again yesterday and that the management would be picking from the full squad of 31 players who returned to camp on Sunday night.
It seems likely the trio will return to the 22, though it will probably be difficult for the management to make any changes in the starting XV that performed so well in Twickenham. Horan will probably return to the bench in place of Simon Best, and O'Callaghan at the expense of Gary Longwell.
How to accommodate the classy Murphy is possibly the trickiest conundrum, though accommodate him they surely will after assistant coach Declan Kidney watched him come through his third comeback game for Leicester, in a friendly at Northampton on Saturday, after a seven-month absence due to a broken leg.
Murphy could conceivably return on the wing or at full back, and it is this versatility - he has also done service at centre and outhalf for Ireland - which may, at the very least, see him restored to the bench in place of Kevin Maggs, given the latter is more of a specialist centre.
The team and replacements will be announced after training in Naas this morning at the team's base in Citywest Hotel at lunchtime today.
Meanwhile, cementing its place in the Irish rugby calendar, the Irish Rugby Union Players Association yesterday confirmed they will be hosting their second annual awards ceremony in conjunction with O2 Ireland. Once again there will be six categories of awards winners after the huge success of last year's inaugural event, where Malcolm O'Kelly was named as the players' player of the year.
The six award categories are players' player of the year; unsung hero of the year; hall of fame award; young player (under-22) of the year; try of the year; people's player of the year. All professional players who are members of IRUPA will cast their votes in the award categories, the only proviso being players are not allowed to vote for provincial colleagues.
There will be three nominations for each category, except the hall of fame award and the people's player of the year awards. For the hall of fame award, two former greats will be nominated by the IRUPA players executive committee and then approved by all the members. They will then be inducted into the IRUPA Hall of Fame.
The O2 People's Player of the Year Award is a new addition to the ceremony and it gives the public a chance to vote for their player of the year via mobile-phone text in the weeks coming up to the event.
The ceremony will again take place at the Burlington Hotel, Dublin, on May 19th and money raised through the ceremony will go towards the IRUPA Injured Players Fund.
"The players are delighted to be holding such a prestigious event again this year," said O'Kelly, "and are confident that it will become the awards in the rugby calendar. Being voted best player by your peers is the highest accolade for any professional sportsperson and it is an honour I hold greatly."
Niall Woods, CEO of IRUPA said: "On behalf of IRUPA I would like to acknowledge O2's further contribution to the sport of rugby by sponsoring this awards ceremony which is becoming an integral part of the Irish rugby calendar. This event will reward those players who have helped to raise the standards and attain the results which Irish rugby is now achieving."
