Cutting edge in hands of centres

In the heel of the hunt, for all the promise of radical change and new blood engendered by the original 25-man squad, the Irish team which sets its sights on the Six Nations' campaign in Twickenham on Saturday is ultimately likely to bear an uncanny resemblance to the one which lost its focus in Lens.

The untimely injury to Ronan O'Gara, debutant-in-waiting, admittedly robs the team of what would have been the most eagerly anticipated newcomer of all. Nobody has done more to illuminate the post-World Cup gloom than Munster, and O'Gara caught the eye more than anybody. Alas for him and his expanding legion of admirers, the 22-year-old Constitution man will have to bide his time after being ruled out of the equation yesterday, which almost certainly means David Humphreys will start.

As a result, the team announced today could well have 10 or 11 of the side which started against Argentina, a statistic which is liable to disappoint many supporters given the nature of Ireland's premature World Cup exit.

The most disappointing aspect of all, though, is arguably the continuing lack of a real, test-class cutting edge out wide, for the options there are now reduced to two players currently playing (albeit well) in the centre for their clubs, namely Justin Bishop and Kevin Maggs, or one whose favoured and current position is full-back, Girvan Dempsey.

There's hardly a test team on the planet which doesn't have at least one, and usually two, speedsters on the wing who can actually beat a man. In fairness to the much-pilloried Matt Mostyn, he was one of Ireland's better finishers, as his hat-trick in the August friendly against Argentina showed, not to mention a strike rate of eight tries in his nine representative appearances in the green.

While not exactly from the Ken O'Connell school of braveheart big hits, Mostyn ran pretty decent and sometimes effective defensives lines when defending from the outside in. Yet ultimately the tries dried up for him in his last four tests, culminating that night in Lens when he offered little or no threat in one-on-one situations.

The converted centre that is Justin Bishop answered Ireland's clarion call in South Africa at short notice and augmented his understanding of the four-up defensive system by courageously chasing and gathering Eric Elwood's up-and-under for a try on his debut.

A game player and a good tackler, his workrate is arguably the best of any Irish winger, too, and he's rarely let Ireland down. Yet his strike rate has always been inferior to, say, Niall Woods at London Irish and in his subsequent 13 tests Bishop has scored only two more tries, at home to Italy and the USA.

Mind, there isn't exactly a conveyor belt of alternatives. Aside from converted centres, there's been a host of converted full-backs cropping up on representative wings - Gordon D'Arcy, Geordan Murphy, Peter McKenna and so forth. Munster even tried a flanker (Colm McMahon) there. Tyrone Howe's inclusion in the A side underlines the point while even the under-21s are playing a converted scrum-half, Kieran Campbell, on the wing.

Realistically, the only two players available to Ireland who fall into the category of wingers who can take a counterpart on the outside are Woods and Dennis Hickie. Woods' failure to bulk up and convince his doubters about his defence never made him flavour of the month under the current management, and besides he's now injured.

Hickie has impressively continued his rehabilitation from the nadir of the South Africa two summers ago, and his beefed up tackling seems better now than ever. Granted, his work-rate may not be Bishop-esque and the management have a point in wanting Hickie to complete his rehabilitation at home to, perhaps, Scotland or Italy, than in Twickenham, even if that was the scene of his finest hour, the two-try display two seasons ago. But the quicker his return happens the better.

WHATEVER collective groans may accompany the wing selections, though, will be as nothing compared to the reaction if Conor O'Shea is selected, despite his almost predictable prolific form for London Irish. Witness The Guardian yesterday: "O'Shea on this form looks the best attacking No 15 in Britain (sic)."

Perhaps the management should have a pint of black stuff stitched onto his green jersey and tell O'Shea that the men in white are really just Leicester in disguise. Bearing in mind that Dempsey was well poised to assume the number 15 jersey in the World Cup but for injury, it could be that the Terenure man will squeeze into the starting equation. But, injury afflicted this season and even kept out of the Leinster team, he looks tailor-made for the bench.

Judging by Warren Gatland's explanation of Shane Horgan's vexed demotion, Mike Mullins looks a certainty to start. In fact, opting for Mullins was the bigger gamble and goes against all the previous, big-hitting, straight-running inside centre choices thus far. Had Gatland gone for Horgan and it backfired, then the management could have trotted the dog-eared script about blooding new talent and learning curves, and few would have quibbled. By comparison, heaven help Gatland if the Mullins pick goes pear-shaped.

The coach feels that Mullins has looked a little sharper in training and may offer Ireland more going forward. It's the Vicarage Road equation, when Mullins played a key role in five of the game's seven tries - three for Munster and two for Saracens.

It's certainly the most creative 10-12-13 axis in recent times, potentially at any rate. Concerns about Mullins' capacity for missed tackles are legitimate given Mike Brewer was attempting to rectify the problem two years ago. The dismissive "converted Kiwi" tag is totally irrelevant.

The more physical Tom Tierney is likely to be chosen ahead of Peter Stringer for this English back row anyway, while the tight five would seem to pick itself in the light of Jeremy Davidson's withdrawal, and with Trevor Brennan spoken of as an impact player, an O'Cuinneagain-Foley-Dawson back row is logical.

Hence, the team is liable to read something like this: O'Shea; Bishop, O'Driscoll, Mullins, Maggs; Humphreys, Tierney; Clohessy, Wood, Wallace, Casey, O'Kelly, O'Cuinneagain, Foley, Dawson.