Adamant Wood fails to sign

The die had already been cast over the weekend and, as expected, when pens were put to paper and the IRFU international contracts for overseas players were signed last night, there was one notable omission. Keith Wood will not therefore be included in the 26man Irish squad for the forthcoming World Cup qualifiers against Georgia and Romania on November 14th and 21st.

Hoping to have all contractual matters done and dusted before the countdown to these games begins, the Irish management's stance remained unaltered, olive branch et al. "The contract remains in place and as soon as Keith Wood signs it he will be considered for selection," said Irish manager Donal Lenihan.

For his part, last season's 17-times capped Irish captain spoke, ironically, from the Twickenham area yesterday by phone and reiterated that "I will definitely not be signing that contract as it stands."

Lenihan conceded that he "did have sympathy for him as an individual. He's also a world-class player. But he seems to have backed himself into a corner. I don't know who he's been listening to or who's been giving him advice, but at the end of the day, 87 players will have been offered contracts and 86 will have signed them."

Lenihan, seemingly at a loss to understand Wood's strong stance, also said: "We wouldn't have a problem with him going to one of the five main sponsors separately if they wanted to do a specific campaign with him."

Having taken an active role in the overseas' players' negotiations at their behest, Lenihan confirmed that the biggest bugbear, that of the primacy of contract issue, had been resolved with the players and the English clubs.

As regards Wood's "intellectual rights" a slightly exasperated Lenihan pointed out that "the outline of the contracts was sent to the players last July and a full copy of the contract was sent to them in August. They were then given three written reminders."

Wood himself maintained it was "the principle of the thing" that prevented him from signing the contract and reiterated his offer "to play for Ireland for nothing." A potential solution, as he saw it, was for him to not have a contract and receive only training and match fees, along with win bonuses.

"When Jim Staples was captain of Ireland he didn't have a contract. What's the difference? It's one clause in the contract. If that wasn't there, I'd have no problem with it."

Wood's stance and non-appearance hung like a cloud on another rain-sodden Cork day as the current 28-man Irish squad, excluding Wood and the injured James Topping, and including late call-up Allen Clarke as well as David Corkery (invited to attend yesterday) assembled in the Kingsley Hotel by the River Lee.

Although seven players took no active part in either the morning or afternoon work-outs in the Mardyke as the increasingly intensive provincial campaigns took their toll, the palpable commitment (Jeremy Davidson and Eric Miller want it back badly, and are busting a gut) and high spirits remained intact.

The morning work-out, which concentrated on tightly confined drills, was the slicker though the afternoon session (both lasted for about an hour and a quarter to an hour and a half), amid a heavy downpour, was notably more expansive.

The emphasis was on developing variations on target runners off the half-backs and creating second and third phase options, with forwards and backs intermingling. Though the Irish international roadshow (which moves to Belfast next week) has still to catch on, there was a bigger attendance yesterday, with the extended invitation to schoolchildren even inducing plenty of sodden autographs.

Ballincollig is today's destination, after which the squad will be trimmed by two to 26 for those Georgian and Romanian qualifiers, in keeping with the squad size for the World Cup finals themselves next October.

The selection process is complicated by the spate of injuries to the loose forwards, with Trevor Brennan, Alan Quinlan and Victor Costello all sidelined yesterday, as were Mick Galwey and Peter Clohessy, while Malcolm O'Kelly (flu) and Daragh O'Mahony (domestic reasons) were excused from attending.

Begles-Bordeaux have cited Angus McKeen for stamping during their European Cup clash with Leinster in Bordeaux last Saturday. The disciplinary committee of European Rugby Cup Ltd will review video evidence and make a ruling within the next few days.

Scott Quinnell was last night suspended for 14 days after being sent off for a late tackle on Lawrence Dallaglio at Wasps two weeks ago. Quinnell's ban means that he misses Wales' Test against South Africa on November 14th. Wales are considering Anthony Sullivan for the South Africa match even though the Britain and St Helens rugby league wing has yet to play a game of union.