Missing stars must hit ground running

Johnny Wattersonon how Ireland's injured front-liners will be up against it to be match fit for big pool tests

Yesterday Paul O'Connell was asked to talk about the process of transferring fitness gained on the training paddock into international matches. Inadvertently, the likely Ireland captain for Ireland's first match of the World Cup, against Namibia, illustrated a problem Eddie O'Sullivan might encounter when he fields his strongest side.

With Brian O'Driscoll an unlikely starter until the second game, against Georgia, and Shane Horgan and David Wallace still struggling with injury, O'Sullivan may not have his front-line players available to play in the early pool tests. A justifiable concern will then centre on what condition those players will be in for the critical matches against France and Argentina.

"You rely on the work you have done pre-season," said O'Connell before yesterday's morning training session. "But then in the games you can definitely feel where you are in terms if fitness, whether you are bringing it out on to the pitch.

"I think that once you get those two or three games under your belt, then you can see how fit you are. No matter how much you work during the pre-season you always struggle a little bit in those games. After that you see where you are. You either start feeling very good or you start feeling 'maybe I need to do a little bit more here'."

Those players, such as O'Driscoll, who are coming into the side after a four-week lay off will be asked to hit the ground running. That may be an unrealistic demand.

If the Ireland captain steps out for the Georgian match, then by O'Connell's reckoning he may only be really finding his feet, in a physical sense, for Ireland's last match of the pool campaign, against Argentina.

The same applies to Wallace and Horgan, who injured a knee during the warm-up before Ireland played Scotland two weeks ago.

For now, the players have already reverted to the Six Nations-type preparation for Namibia. Test week means the same routine as if they were playing England at Lansdowne Road. The minnow tag attached to Namibia has been airbrushed out of the picture and O'Connell will lead a side intent on rectifying a few things and soothing the nerves of those who have expressed concern over the team's current form.

"It is going to be the first match of the World Cup," says the Ireland secondrow. "So there is going to be a lot of hype surrounding it because it's the start of the competition. Guys will be very focused and will treat it like any other Test match.

"That's what you've got to do. Guys will be going around the same as a normal Test week in the Six Nations. Your biggest game is your next game and for us that is Namibia."

"Getting up" for Namibia may be all very well in theory. This is a team South Africa recently hit for 105 points. As O'Connell points out, the scoreline is not the only thing that is important, and with injuries, players will be looking to catch the eye of the coach. But is there more work to do inside the head to prepare for what is expected to be a dramatically one-sided match?

"In a World Cup, I don't think so," he says. "Maybe in a different situation there would be. It's the first game and guys are playing for places . . . there is massive hype surrounding it. I think it automatically happens. It is not one you have to work hard to get yourself up for."

If, as expected, O'Connell takes the side out as O'Driscoll recovers from his fractured sinus, he will follow the centre's style of leading by example. He'll be bedding in for the stiffer challenges ahead but as captain he will also want to make some points on the pitch.

"It (captaincy) puts a small bit more pressure on you, a good kind of pressure, but you've got to be given the job first," he says, wedged into a small wooden throne that has a carved cross on the back, a chair one would swear once graced the inside of a confessional box. "I think you have to lead the team and that is an important thing."

He's done it before, but next week O'Connell must also lead Ireland from indifferent form to the sort of effort that will worry France and beat Argentina.