Irish ready for the long haul

Boldly or otherwise, Ireland will go where no Irish team has gone before when they head off on a 10-hour trek to Siberia tomorrow for Saturday's World Cup qualifier against Russia. And it is the logistics of the trip and conditions awaiting them as much as the match itself which make this such an awkward one.

There are many advantages in opting for a quick, in-and-out sortie to Siberia, but the flip side is that the squad must leave their Greystones base for a 5.30 a.m. check-in at Dublin Airport. After a pit-stop for the IRFU's charter flight in Moscow, the second leg will be even longer before the squad arrive late tomorrow night locally. Saturday's kick-off is 6.0 local time, 11.0 a.m. Irish, less than 48 hours after arrival.

"It's about being focused when we get there. It will be a very different environment, which is the first thing, and the trip is a very long trip," said Irish coach Eddie O'Sullivan yesterday. "There'll be a seven-hour time difference. I think it's as far as we've ever travelled to play a Test that soon after arriving.

"There are issues about fatigue and jet lag which we're trying to address on the way in terms of players' sleeping patterns and when they eat and what they eat, and when they change their (body) clocks. They're all the details which you have to make sure that everything is in place to play.

"But come 6.0 in Krasnoyarsk on Saturday we've got to go out and play for 80 minutes, regardless of the environment, regardless of the conditions, and that's what we're aiming to do."

The stadium itself is a fine, 60,000-seater complex, though reports of the playing surface vary. "The pitch, I think, is level. I don't think it might be the type of turf or grass we'd normally expect, but they're on the same field as us, so that doesn't make any difference," said O'Sullivan.

A recent cold snap in the region brought with it some sub-zero temperatures and snow, but the forecast for the weekend is a return to the end-of-summer temperatures in the 20s.

In making only one change, and the predictable return of Keith Wood actually means a reversion to the original selection for the Romania game, O'Sullivan has made a statement of faith in his team despite the poor showing last Saturday week in Limerick, though presumably this comes with the rider that they buck up.

"It wasn't that difficult," admitted O'Sullivan, who nevertheless was clearly stung by the critical reaction to that laboured win over Romania. "We wouldn't have been totally happy with the performance in Thomond Park, but it was, after all, the first game of the season. I don't think there's any reason to read too much into what went wrong. By and large it wasn't the most difficult selection we've ever had."

Shane Byrne reverts to the bench and Paul Shields drops out, while Alan Quinlan returns to the bench in place of the injured Victor Costello. Eric Miller was also ruled out, while Mark McHugh, Justin Bishop, Marcus Horan and Donnacha O'Callaghan will travel to provide extra cover.

The competitive element of this fixture, and the partisan atmosphere, should concentrate the minds more.

"I'd hope we'd play better for the 80 minutes," admitted O'Sullivan. "The disappointing thing about Romania was the second-half performance; we didn't build on our first-half lead. But this is a different game, with a different environment and a different challenge for us.

"We've never been to Russia before. I think it's going to be a fairly hostile environment. We expect 30,000 people, who'll be fairly partisan I think, and it'll be a good test of character."

Given his famed attention to detail and work ethic, it would take a team playing its home games in an even more obscure rugby outpost than Krasnoyarsk to avoid some video analysis and homework by O'Sullivan.

"They've performed pretty well in the European pre-qualifiers. They have a South African coach (James Stoffberg), they have a strong South African influence in their forwards and they have tested Romania in very tight games, and also Georgia, who would have been regarded as above them in the pecking order. So they're right in that bunch of hard-nosed, Eastern European sides at the moment.

"They'll be quite physical and well-organised. They have an extra incentive in that if they qualify for the World Cup they'll get quite significant backing from the government, and I think it's all to play for, for them. So I would expect nothing less than a pretty difficult day out."

IRELAND: G Dempsey (Leinster and Terenure); J Kelly (Munster and Cork Constitution), B O'Driscoll (Leinster and Blackrock), K Maggs (Bath), D Hickie (Leinster and St Mary's); R O'Gara (Munster and Cork Constitution), P Stringer (Munster and Shannon); R Corrigan (Leinster and Greystones), K Wood (Harlequins) (capt), J Hayes (Munster and Shannon), G Longwell (Ulster and Ballymena), M O'Kelly (Leinster and St Mary's), S Easterby (Llanelli), K Gleeson (Leinster and St Mary's), A Foley (Munster and Shannon).

Replacements: S Byrne (Leinster and Blackrock), P Wallace (Leinster and Blackrock), L Cullen (Leinster and Blackrock), A Quinlan (Munster and Shannon), G Easterby (Llanelli), D Humphreys (Ulster and Dungannon), R Henderson (Munster and Young Munster).