No one dare mention the Triple Crown, even though Saturday's Twickenham protagonists are the only teams still in contention and it's as close to a decider as makes no difference, given Ireland face the daunting prospect of playing the world champions.

But that also adds to the allure of this week's biennial trek to London, and is the prime example of why England beating Australia in the World Cup final last November was the preferable, more positive outcome for Irish rugby.

One ventures that, unlike never before, the majority of the Irish rugby fraternity were pinching themselves in the distinctly unusual position of rooting for England in that decider.

Eddie O'Sullivan had no such qualms, having sent a good luck telegram to his English counterpart and prospective Lions' comrade, Clive Woodward, with this week's scenario very much in mind.

Citing last season's wins over the then world champions Australia and France at home, O'Sullivan admitted: "This would be the real cherry on the cake if you could turn over the world champions, absolutely.

"This is the game everyone wants to win, whether you're from the Southern Hemisphere or the Northern Hemisphere. We now get to have a crack at the world champions every year, and that's very good for Six Nations rugby."

As for the team O'Sullivan has decided to take into the Twickenham furnace, one imagines the selectorial debate didn't take much longer than the time it took for manager Brian O'Brien to read out the 22 names yesterday, all the more so given he read out the casualty ward also.

One enforced change sees Malcolm O'Kelly regain his customary starting place for the injured Donncha O'Callaghan, with Gary Longwell restored to the bench. The areas of debate? "There wasn't really any to be honest," said O'Sullivan after a pause.

"Obviously you'd look at the midfield, and Kevin Maggs coming back in, but we're happy with the way Brian (O'Driscoll) and Gordon (D'Arcy) played as a pair (against Wales), that was probably the only thing. As always the outhalf is a discussion, but Ronan (O'Gara) did pretty well overall, so it wasn't the most difficult selection meeting we ever had to be honest."

Indeed, there was never much chance of O'Sullivan making a change at outhalf, though it must be encouraging for the coach that David Humphreys has seemingly overcome niggling injuries judging by his excellent display for Ulster against the Celtic Warriors in last Saturday's Celtic League game.

As for considering the calculated gamble of sacrificing the experience and reliability of Girvan Dempsey by switching Gordon D'Arcy to full back and potentially providing more variety in attack, O'Sullivan seemingly gave even less thought to this notion than he did when it was brought up yesterday.

Asked if he had debated this option, O'Sullivan replied tersely: "No." End of discussion.

One relative surprise is the identity of the 23rd man, as such. None other than Trevor Brennan, who was invited along for training this week and will stay along for an extra day as cover for Victor Costello, though the latter should overcome a slight ankle strain.

Brennan hasn't figured in any match-day squad of O'Sullivan's, last played for Ireland in the consecutive wins over Wales, England and Samoa in the autumn of 2001, though he would have travelled to New Zealand the following summer but for injury.

"Trevor has been playing at lock in France and doing a good job," said O'Sullivan.

"He's also got the flexibility of going to the back row. Trevor has been there on the radar screen. I know people felt he mightn't have been as involved, but we know where he is, we know what he's doing, we watch him regularly and he's playing good rugby over there.

"Trevor's never too far from our thoughts. We know what he brings to the party."

O'Sullivan conceded that Martin Johnson and Jonny Wilkinson would be a loss to any team, but cited the list of eight injured Irish players who "would normally be in the frame".

While England won't have been happy with their opening two performances, ominously for everyone else they beat Italy and Scotland comfortably, O'Sullivan venturing, "They are probably saving their best wine until Saturday with the homecoming of the William Webb Ellis Trophy."

A World Cup homecoming "will add an extra spice to it", he said, adding therefore: "I don't think we're going to catch England on the hop on Saturday.

"We're going to have to play very well to beat them."

Asked if Irish supporters might be justified in travelling to Twickenham with their innate optimism, O'Sullivan said: "I suppose we always live in eternal hope in Ireland. It's part of what we are. It's a big task and it hasn't been a happy hunting ground for us for a long time.

"But every game is different and every team goes in to win a game, and we know that if we achieve certain things on Saturday, we'll win the game, and if we don't we won't.

"There's no magic wand in my pocket that I can wave at 2.30 on Saturday.

"It's down to certain things being done properly and executed well. Against the better teams they're hard things to achieve.

"They're things like quality possession, good go-forward, keeping possession, putting them under pressure, and when you don't have the ball, defending really, really well; not making silly errors.

"And the big teams draw silly errors from teams at times because of the pressure they put you under when you are defending.

"So it's a simple game when it goes well but it's always harder to get it to go well against teams like England."