Davidson is ruled out until next year

Jeremy Davidson has been sidelined until next year. The results of the player's secondary scan on damaged knee ligaments have revealed that Davidson must undergo surgery on his left knee, which would rule him out of Ireland's games against the All Blacks, Canada and Italy this autumn, as well as jeopardising his availability for the Five Nations Championship.

It is a cruel blow for one of the Irish stars of the Lions tour to South Africa, not to mention both his club and his country, and emphasises the sometimes fickle nature of sport. Davidson sustained the injury in the early minutes of London Irish's defeat at Gloucester last Sunday and though he had been hopeful of recovering in time for the All Blacks game he is now resigned to a lengthy absence.

Coming hard on the heels of injuries to Jim Staples, Simon Geoghegan and David Corkery, it also further diminishes Brian Ashton's options for the forthcoming international friendlies, with the All Blacks at Lansdowne Road on November 15th looming large.

Judging by yesterday's weekly squad session at the ALSAA complex near Dublin airport, it would seem that the favoured second row pairing in the absence of Davidson will be Malcolm O'Kelly and Paddy Johns.

All told, Ashton gave the strongest hint yet as to what the team to play the All Blacks on November 15th might when a seemingly first choice XV which was kept together for practically all of a mini practice match.

There were, admittedly, some notable absentees or injured onlookers, aside from the unfortunate Davidson. Also obliged to take a sedentary role were Jonathan Bell (rendered inactive since mid-August save for a try-scoring cameo as sub for Northampton against Connacht due to a recurring hamstring problem) and James Topping.

In addition to all the aforementioned casualties the one absentee whom the selectors might have deemed a front-runner for the All Blacks' game was Richard Wallace. The Saracens winger has missed his club's last four outings since scoring a hat-trick of tries in the Conference win over Neath and Irish manager Pat Whelan admitted that "Richie is rapidly running out of time now." The same must also be applied to Bell.

The selectors are still geared toward picking and announcing the team next week. "We haven't decided yet. We'll have another meeting now," said Whelan. "We're further down the road but we won't be in a position to commit ourselves to a date probably until after the weekend. We would hope it would be next week."

Ashton said they were "fairly close" to their preferred XV. Hence, there may still be one or two grey areas but it looks like being something similar to the team which was kept together for the finale to yesterday's session.

That saw Conor O'Shea at fullback, with Dennis Hickie on the right wing and John McWeeney on the left. The partnership of Mark McCall and Rob Henderson, with the latter used as an outside centre, strongly suggested that McCall is the favourite ahead of Kevin Maggs to partner Henderson should Bell be ruled out. Eric Elwood was partnered at half-back by his Connacht team-mate Conor McGuiness.

Up front, Nick Popplewell, Keith Wood and Paul Wallace formed the front-row with Malcolm O'Kelly and Paddy Johns in the second-row, hinting that Johns may be ahead of Gabriel Fulcher in the pecking order in light of Davidson's absence. Interestingly, the back-row saw David Erskine on the blind side and Eric Miller at number eight joined by Kieran Dawson on the open side.

Ashton said afterwards: "The focus was a bit different today. We focussed on working through scrums and back-rows last week and what we did today earlier on was refresh people's memories about the contact area, and what happens next after the tackle.

"Today we focussed really on working from line-outs. It was the first opportunity we had to work in any great detail from a back's point of view exactly the area of their (All Blacks) defence we're looking to get in to; and what we need to do as backs and forwards to get in there. We also did a little bit of kick-off receipts (sic), and we've a little more work to do on that."

Also in attendance for the first time were the A coach and manager, Davey Haslett and Ray Coughlan.

Ashton expressed no surprises about the make-up of the All Blacks' squad of 36 announced last week. "They're fairly strong and have all the faces we've come to know over the years."

Sean Fitzpatrick returned to action at the weekend though Canterbury's surprise, all-kicked 21-15 defeat of champions Auckland, coupled with Counties' stunning 43-40 comeback win over Waikato means that only six of the touring party will be contesting next weekend's National Provincial Championship final.