RUGBY:Eddie O'Sullivan has indicated that despite his natural conservatism as a coach he may make significant changes to the side that starts against Argentina next Sunday. O'Sullivan, who will select the Ireland team tomorrow in Bordeaux, has also admitted he could have made changes earlier during Ireland's loss to France in Paris.
The forward substitutions in Stade de France came after more than 70 minutes, which left too little time for the players to make any impact on a match Ireland were desperately chasing.
The coach is also aware that despite growing public dissatisfaction with Irish efforts he has used only 24 of his squad of 30. Three backs - Paddy Wallace, Gavin Duffy and Brian Carney - and three forwards - Alan Quinlan, Stephen Ferris and Bryan Young - have had no pitch time in the three pool games.
O'Sullivan was speaking on Saturday night after Argentina easily earned a winning bonus point against Namibia to ensure Ireland would have to beat them by more than seven points while scoring four tries in order to progress. In terms of tries conceded, Argentina also kept a third successive clean sheet and are the only team in the finals not to have conceded a five-pointer.
"We're waiting until Tuesday morning to name, so I will think long and hard about that tomorrow, but it's certainly a possibility," said O'Sullivan on the issue of making personnel changes.
L'Équipe, France's biggest sports newspaper, awarded no Irish player more than five-and-a-half points out of 10 for Friday's game.
Shane Horgan was awarded a paltry two points, Ronan O'Gara three and Denis Leamy, Marcus Horan and Paul O'Connell three and a half.
Fullback Girvan Dempsey scored highest with L'Équipe.
The Irish repeatedly did what they expressly set out not to do, which was make mistakes and hand France a platform. But the bench remained largely seated.
"Yeah, that's a reasonable point," O'Sullivan replied when it was pointed out the Irish substitutions were made in the 72nd and 78th minutes and that had they gone on with, perhaps, 25 minutes remaining they might have had a greater impact on the outcome.
"But I suppose I would be regarded as a conservative coach in terms of substitutions," he added. "What I would do is look at the guys individually and see if they are tiring and if they are gelling.
"I think there is always a risk of putting guys in off the bench, that if a unit is working well - it could be a secondrow unit or a backrow unit - that you know you can disrupt it more than enhance it.
"People will disagree with that, I know that. People have a different view on substitutions. I would be a little more conservative. I always look at the unit and see if the unit is functioning."
It was evident on Friday the lineout was not functioning, while Irish indiscipline gave France 13 penalties and three free kicks during the 80 minutes.
In sharp contrast, when Ireland played France in Croke Park last spring, they conceded just five penalties in total.
Team critics would also point out that once again Brian O'Driscoll and Gordon D'Arcy, who would have been seen as the two main Irish threats, were almost invisible, while O'Connell was eventually sinbinned for repeatedly fouling.
There were unit malfunctions on numerous fronts.
"We didn't run into trouble there (the scrum) actually until we lost Paul O'Connell in the sinbin, and at that stage I felt yeah, it was time to start making the changes," said O'Sullivan. "But I wanted to probably make them closer to Paul coming back on with fresh legs then. So that was the thinking at the time.
"Retrospectively . . . you see maybe you could have put somebody in there a bit earlier - but I don't know if it would have made a ton of difference at the end of the day at that stage. But that was my take on it anyway."
The reluctance to use bench players despite the obvious frailties of the team suggests O'Sullivan is continuing to hope his key men will find some sort of decent form with which to confront Argentina in seven days' time.
The apparent chinks of self-doubt also suggest, however, that he is losing patience with his normally reliable core. So far his loyalty has not been fully repaid.
Eoin Reddan didn't do badly at all when brought in for Peter Stringer, while the dropping of Denis Hickie shows there is little selectorial sentimentality.
Tomorrow will tell how radical O'Sullivan can be in what has been an uncompromising three weeks.
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