THE Victor Costello-Eric Miller set-to in the St Mary's-Terenure match at Templeville Road today is the most salivating head-to-head contest of the weekend.
Their respective performances in the green this season have further polarised opinion of their relative strengths and weaknesses. Given Miller did more in two minutes that Costello did in 65 against England, much of the barroom talk has sided with the former. It's not as cut and dried as that, though.
For starters, this neglects Costello's physically competitive performances against France, England and South Africa (three times) in the last 12 months. Also, outstanding though Miller was at number six against France and for the last half-hour at number eight, and well though Miller played against Wales, it was the introduction of Costello at Wembley which helped to steady the ship.
They are completely different players. As a Lion, arguably Miller has already achieved more and there is more scope to his game. Indeed, for pure skill, there's few in the Irish squad who can surpass him.
He's pacey, has real vision and has the distribution to match, and he even has an eye for a chip into space (remember his creation of Keith Wood's try against the All Blacks). Not a peripheral player by nature, generally the more ball he gets the better.
This can have a flip side, for he can sometimes take on too much. The chip at the death against France wasted Ireland's last crumb of possession. The wide arcing run he took without support against Wales led to a costly three-point turnover. But as the one who goes for more, more is likely to come unstuck.
In comparison Costello can seem ponderous, yet he's no slouch (remember him catching Jeremy Guscott from behind at Twickenham last season). Picking up from the base of the scrum, and attacking the gain line, there are few better number eights in world rugby, while his fitness, work-rate and tackle count have improved immeasurably in the last year (as they needed to).
Admittedly, his pick-and-go yielded little dividend against a well-prepared England though he could have been helped more. For the first scrum and inevitable first charge last week, not only were Kyran Bracken and the back row well poised, but Paul Grayson came up very close to the scrum. The number eight's halves are his eyes and ears at such moments, but not for the first time Costello was left blindfolded.
At club level, Costello has had the bigger impact. The more injury-prone Miller has missed three Terenure games on and off, predictably questioning the wisdom of Terenure's hand-in-pocket outlay on the player from Leicester.
Aside from one vintage matchwinning display against Lansdowne, Miller has been been in and out, his only other winning performance coming last time out against Galwegians. But he'll assuredly be `up' for this one, like all his team-mates.
Costello is a key man and high contributor for St Mary's, his three tries making him their joint leading try scorer. With his massive frame, Costello needs regular games, more than Miller, and missing the last two outings against Shannon and Cork Constitution hurt him as much as them.
To a large degree, the number eights are only as good as their tight fives, but either way, this Costello-Miller head-to-head should be quite a confrontation. And they can argue all they like to the contrary, but this will be a little personal as well. It ought to be worth the admission money alone.
