Injury again sidelines Davidson

There's bad luck, there's rotten luck and then there's the kind of luck Jeremy Davidson seems to get, and it certainly ain't very "Irish". The Castres captain and Irish lock has been forced out of consideration from this Saturday's set-to with his adopted countrymen due to a fractured knuckle sustained while playing for his club last Saturday.

The 30-times-capped, 26-yearold Davidson has been replaced in the Irish 22-man squad by Gary Longwell, with the domino effect seeing his place in the Irish A squad taken by Leo Cullen.

Sitting at home in Castres with his hand in a bucket of ice, Davidson reflected on Saturday night's events and was almost moved to laugh, so ridiculous is the run of injuries which afflicts him when an Irish international crops up.

"I broke my hand at the start of the match but I kept on playing. But I had to come off when I twisted my knee and it was only then that they realised that my hand was broken," he recalled.

"It's a fracture of the knuckle but the good news is that it only takes three weeks to heal. I can still train and so I'll come back really fit and eager as hell. I'm so gutted to miss this game particularly. I'd have loved to play against France but I just have to keep the head up. There's nothing else I can do."

The Irish team trained yesterday afternoon in Greystones, and the starting XV and replacements will be announced around lunchtime. It will be surprising if there are more than two changes from the starting line-up which played against Italy, namely the return of both Brian O'Driscoll and Denis Hickie, all the more so with Davidson now out of contention.

Another luckless Irish player to be confined to the sidelines again is Niall Woods. The 29-year-old Harlequins winger cum full back, who won the last of his eight caps in the win over Wales at Wembley two years ago, has been forced to undergo another knee operation after relaunching his career at the Stoop this season following a year's absence due to a ruptured cruciate ligament.

This latest operation means he will miss out on Harlequins' English Cup final showdown with Newcastle at Twickenham on Saturday week.

Meanwhile the Irish under-21 selectors have predictably named the same side which beat their Italian counterparts 61-10 for next Friday's meeting with the French under-21s in Templeville Road (2.30). Amid the continuing and somewhat puzzling exclusion of Leinster squad member James Norton on the wing, the Galwegians winger Ger Brady has been called into the squad in place of Fiachra Baynes.

Meanwhile, Wales coach Graham Henry unveiled a team which showed only two changes from the England debacle for Saturay's clash with Scotland at Murrayfield.

Wales's two changes see the 21year-old Mark Jones come off the bench to replace Gareth Thomas on the wing for his first start in an international as Henry looks for pace, and Andy Moore takes the place of Chris Wyatt in the second row. Scott Gibbs has been chosen in the centre having recovered from a rib injury he sustained against England.

IRISH UNDER-21s: G D'Arcy (Lansdowne); A Maxwell (Ballymena), K Lewis (Dublin University), M Lawlor (Shannon, capt), G Browne (Blackrock College); G Duffy (Galwegians), P McCarthy (Dolphin); R Flanagan (Bruff), G Hickie (St Mary's College), N Treston (Blackrock College), M McCullough (Dublin University), N Breslin (UCD), A Hickie (Dolphin), D Dillon (UCD), N McMillan (Leicester). Replacements - H Bourke (Old Belvedere), S Philips (Saracens), D Browne (Galwegians), C Hartigan (Garryowen), B O'Riordan (UCD), B Lynn (UCD), G Brady (Galwegians).

IRISH STUDENTS SQUAD (v French students, Mardyke, Friday at 7.00): J Cunningham, J McVeigh, J McWeeney, M Moynagh, S Moore, P Bracken, D O'Sullivan; J Campbell, J Norton, R McCormack, D Hegarty, A Kearney, E Reddan, P O'Connell, M McHugh, T Hogan, D Crotty, D O'Callaghan, J Fogarty, A McCullen, C McMahon, D Quinlan.

WALES: S Jones (Llanelli); M Jones (Llanelli), M Taylor (Swansea), S Gibbs (Swansea), D James (Llanelli); N Jenkins (Cardiff), R Howley (Cardiff); D Morris (Swansea), R McBryde (Llanelli), D Young (Cardiff, capt), I Gough (Newport), A Moore (Swansea), C Charvis (Swansea), M Williams (Cardiff), S Quinnell (Llanelli). Replacements: G Jenkins (Swansea), S John (Cardiff), C Quinnell (Cardiff), G Lewis (Swansea), R Moon (Llanelli), A Bateman (Northampton), G Thomas (Cardiff).