Paul O'Connell is an excellent player, full of pride, passion and aggression with lots of skill and great physical strength. At 24 years of age he can, and will, go on to be an even better player. I believe he could have done without the burden of captaincy today. I don't agree with the proposition that your best player is your best captain.

The decision to give him the job would be more understandable if the Irish side was an inexperienced one and selected with a view to the future, in particular the next World Cup. That is clearly not the case, however. Maybe Eddie O'Sullivan is hoping the new captain's pride will keep himself and the rest of the team going if things get desperate.

Hopefully it will not come to that but I do have a bad feeling about this afternoon's game. It's a long time since there has been so much pessimism before the opening game of the championship.

This first game is traditionally the time new caps make their appearances. There are none in sight on this occasion. In fact, I was wondering during the week where the next generation of internationals is hiding?

The IRFU have been running a rugby academy for quite a number of years now, since even before the game became professional. There seem to be very few young players knocking on the door. One would have expected the number of injuries to so many players would have resulted in new players emerging.

At full back, Girvan Dempsey is probably wondering what he has to do to get off the Irish team. I take no pleasure in criticising players but Girvan got an extension to his international career in the World Cup as a result of the injury to Geordan Murphy and he probably thought the quarter-final against France was his last appearance. He didn't play particularly well in that tournament and his form since then has deteriorated.

The obvious alternative would appear to be Gavin Duffy. O'Sullivan appeared to be thinking this way by bringing him into the squad a few weeks ago. Id like to know what has happened in the meantime that he hasn't been selected. Duffy was exceptional playing for the Irish Schools for three years and immediately made the step up to the senior ranks with no difficulty. By all accounts he is performing very well at the highest level in England. Is it because he is playing over there that he is not being selected?

Tyrone Howe has been given a number of chances in the past and has never managed to establish himself as a regular. What a pity there isn't some young winger that could have been given the opportunity to show his potential.

In the past Irish selectors had four potential teams available to them who where all available to play for Ireland. If one excludes the foreign players there is probably now closer to two full potential teams from which to picked the national side and that is far too small a pool.

Ireland clearly need a new full back, but by signing Christian Cullen Munster are not doing anything to solve that problem. The quest for provincial success, and the willingness to employ non-Irish players to achieve it, is damaging the long-term interest of the Irish team. It has clearly damaged the club structure; some would say irreparably.

We also have the ridiculous situation where three of our provincial coaches are foreigners while the talent of Declan Kidney would appear to be wasted at the moment. It is good, however, to see Michael Bradley doing so well in his first season as Connacht's coach.

Bernard Laporte, the French coach, complained after their comprehensive defeat by England in the World Cup semi-final they didn't have enough real world-class players available to him. Maybe he should be asked to come and coach Ireland, Scotland or Wales for a while to make him realise just how lucky he is.

France have numerous players available to them in every position and while they may not all be up to the standard of Olivier Magne or Fabien Pelous, they are very good players.

The Irish back row will be in for a rough afternoon and we don't need any reminding of the try-scoring potential of the French back row if their front five create a platform for them. Their back line, as always, has plenty of scoring potential either through their power in the middle of the field or through the blistering pace on both wings.

Ireland, on the other hand, look distinctly short of choice on try-scoring potential. Gordon D'Arcy has been creative for Leinster but he will find there is a lot less space in Paris.

O'Sullivan has always said he picks players on form. You will have to explain that one to Donncha O'Callaghan. O'Callaghan must be wondering what he has to do to be selected.

Today is our first match on the road to the World Cup. The Irish management won't be thinking too much about that, they will be more concerned about getting through this afternoon without suffering too much damage.

Realistically, the best we can hope for is a good performance from Ireland, and hope their heads will still be up at the end of the game.