How the miracle might be realised

On Rugby:Okay, amid all the doom and gloom let's be positive for one day. There might not be much chance of Ireland obtaining four tries and a win by eight points or more against the comparatively in-form Pumas, but Eddie O'Sullivan may as well cast his innate conservatism to the winds by giving Ireland every chance of performing a miracle.

This is not to say that Ireland should approach this game à la the Fijian sevens side. It will be all about building pressure through dint of keeping the ball or regaining it in the opposition half, à la Munster. So there have to be sound basics. But while the lineout has been one of the planks of this team's relative success over the last few years, it had been malfunctioning before last Friday night in Stade de France.

Given he is probably Ireland's most productive lineout and restart performer of all time, and we had to wait until the 72nd minute of a lost cause last Friday night for his introduction, you have to wonder why Malcolm O'Kelly is out here. A big-game player, he has to start on Sunday, and perhaps his recall when the team is announced today might even prompt the occasional variation from the percentage restarts, kicked long into the opposition 22 for field position.

There ought also be a place, at least on the bench, for Alan Quinlan. He supposedly forced his way into the squad as a lock-cum-backrow by his performances in Argentina, and he is something of a good-luck totem against the Pumas.

This time the bench has to be picked with a strategy in mind of real impact. This is all the more apparent given Friday's performance after an adrenalin-fuelled start added more evidence that the players are, for whatever reason, suffering from overtraining syndrome.

Even with an improved lineout and the ballast that Quinlan might provide either from the start or in the last half hour, it's unlikely Ireland's maul is suddenly going to spring into life against the Pumas. Furthermore, if Ireland seek to take on these Pumas around the fringes, they're liable to run into a brick wall.

Eddie O'Sullivan opted for trench warfare with Quinlan at openside four years ago in Adelaide. Only when Ronan O'Gara was introduced and tore up the playbook that had confined David Humphreys that day, by releasing Brian O'Driscoll and the outside backs, did Ireland break free.

There is a persuasive argument for omitting O'Gara on the grounds that he has been understandably upset by all the rumourmongering about his life, but the publication of said rumours may even prove cathartic for him and he'll know he owes his team a big performance, so to speak.

Quick ball will be of the essence if Ireland are to cherish any notions of scoring four tries, and while Eoin Reddan probably deserves another start, it would be preferable to have the vastly quicker service of Peter Stringer on the bench than that of Isaac Boss.

A key contributor in any gameplan designed to score four tries must be the fullback. Girvan Dempsey has hardly hit the line in three games, save for his try along the touchline against Namibia.

He needs to be brought into the line and then either release the wingers or kick along the tramlines to chase, putting Ignacio Corleto and the Argentinian wingers under pressure and offering the hope of regaining possession.

A number of former players have also pointed out to this writer that Dempsey's counter-kicking is too long. Shorter kicks, chased hard, would also offer the opportunity of regaining possession in opposition territory.

All of this is part of Geordan Murphy's repertoire for Leicester, and there might well be an argument for recalling him to the starting line-up and interchanging him and Dempsey, as Ireland have done before.

At the very least, the Ireland coach has to put his obvious prejudices against Murphy aside and recall him to the bench with, again, a clear intention to release Murphy in the last half-hour when the game opens up.

Furthermore, Ireland's counterattacking has been non-existent. Save for one counterattack when Brian O'Driscoll dropped deep to align himself with his Leinster outside three against Georgia, the only other counterattack of any wit in three games was sparked by the loosehead prop Marcus Horan.

Retrieving a loose kick from the Georgians, Horan seemed to be heading into a brick wall before he fired a long pass across his body to O'Gara which suddenly put Irish runners in space. It was a rare example of heads-up, or "high risk", rugby.

Only twice did France look like opening up Argentina in the first half on opening night, and both times were from turnovers or broken play deep in their territory.

They looked set to score from one when Horacio Agulla then picked off Remy Martin's pass for Corleto's try; almost certainly a 12-point turnover.

It also goes without saying that if Ireland are to have any hope of scoring tries from distance Denis Hickie must be recalled to the starting line-up.

An occasional blitz defence might also give Hickie the chance to avail of one of his trademark intercepts.

All of this would be predicated on there being a true openside to provide continuity. David Wallace remains the best option of the five backrowers here.

While the back row could do with a shake-up, there's no obvious alternatives at openside, though one could see Wallace being shifted to eight to accommodate Neil Best and Denis Leamy being sacrificed.

Recalling the number of times O'Driscoll, almost on his own, has sought to keep the ball alive by offloading in the tackle, only to see the ball go to ground - that's the kind of support Keith Gleeson does in his sleep when playing with O'Driscoll for Leinster. But, of course, neither he nor Jamie Heaslip is here. Oh well.