Victor Costello and Ciaran Scally were the two biggest losers when Ireland's 34man preliminary World Cup squad was announced yesterday. Both players missed out and given the cut-off date for the 30-man World Cup panel is just 12 days away, they look unlikely to make the final squad.
Irish coach Warren Gatland did, however, stress that the World Cup squad would not necessarily be drawn from just the existing 34 currently training in Limerick, and that "there is a chance for a couple of other people to force their way in".
However, opportunities are limited, and realistically the only outlet for Costello and Scally appears to be Leinster's game against Argentina next Tuesday, which is sandwiched between Ireland's warm-up match against Connacht in Galway and the Test at home against Argentina over the next two Saturdays.
Although Costello seemed to play well against a relatively subdued Eric Miller and the star-studded Ulster back row last Friday night, especially in the physical stuff around the fringes and with the ball in hand, opposition defences are increasingly cottoning on to the tackle-him-low-and-early tactic, thereby negating his biggest strength.
Now clearly out of favour after 17 successive Test caps up until the second test in Perth, Costello clearly hasn't convinced the Irish management about his fitness levels, nor his general work-rate about the pitch, a fact reflected by the speed of O'Cuinneagain and Ward last Friday night. Nor would it appear that Scally has caught the selectors' eye. Besides four scrum-halves into three was always going to leave one of the capped number nines of the last year on the outside looking in (and that number will probably be trimmed to two on Sunday week).
As Gatland explained: "We just felt that we've got four reasonable scrum-halves and at the moment this three just got the nod. The two scrum-halves who didn't go to Australia (Brian O'Meara and Conor McGuinness) were original selections for that tour."
The third player amongst the 28 to tour Australia not included this week is Jeremy Staunton. He and Shane Horgan were the only players not considered because of injury. As neither is likely to return before the squad is announced, it seems that both will miss out playing in this year's World Cup. Horgan is the unluckiest of all. An ever-present for Leinster and for Ireland A in the championship last season, Horgan was unquestionably the best player of both campaigns, but was overlooked for the Australian tour - one of the few contentious selections for that tour.
By all accounts, Horgan was Ireland's outstanding performer in the recent under-21 FIRA World Cup in Argentina. Alas, Gatland missed Horgan's first outing against France, the player was unluckily suspended for another game and then had his tournament curtailed by a broken wrist which is still in plaster. All told, nine players who didn't make it to Australia have returned to the squad or have been called up for the first time. James Topping and Denis Hickie, first choice wingers at the outset of the South African tour 15 months ago, return for the first time since sustaining a ruptured shoulder and a broken jaw respectively.
Rob Henderson, omitted for Australia, returns as one of six centres (including the versatile Jonathan Bell), as do the aforementioned pre-Australian casualties, O'Meara and McGuinness, while Ronan O'Gara's continuing good form for Munster earns him a first call-up.
Angus McKeen is added as a fifth prop, while Eric Miller and Kieron Dawson return from end-of-season operations and come into the back row equation. Dawson is still not fully recuperated, but as Gatland explained: "We didn't see a lot of him last season due to injuries, but we've had lots of positive reports about him".
"When we pick a World Cup squad we will be looking to have two genuine number sevens, and although David Wallace has done well he's probably a little bit away from it yet."
The team to face Connacht this Saturday is expected to be announced in Limerick tomorrow. Connacht may be assisted by one or two of the overseas players yet to have a competitive game this season. This is not the problem it used to be, for of the current 34-man squad all but eight are home-based.
A decision regarding the time and venue for the Guinness Interprovincial summit meeting between Ulster and Munster will be made today. The game was scheduled to take place at Ravenhill on Friday September 3rd, but a weed-killing error has meant that the pitch has had to be resurfaced and can't be used for a month.
Ulster Branch chief executive Michael Reid conveyed his recommendations to the branch officers last night and a decision will be ratified by the IRFU today. Three alternative venues have been considered - Cooke, Civil Service and Queen's University, the latter two having the facility to host temporary seating for an anticipated 6,000-plus crowd. The end result could be that the tie will be switched to Saturday September 4th.
