JOHNNY WATTERSONfinds the Leinster number nine in an eerily similar position to four years ago: playing well and hoping to get to the World Cup

ALREADY EOIN Reddan has just about had his fill of the scrumhalf issue. That he is one of five in Declan Kidney’s Ireland squad draws questions today in great avalanches. Scrumhalves are usually not that large and Reddan, like the golfers scrambling across the Montgomerie Course at Carton House for cover as a biblical shower of rain sweeps across, is seeking respite.

Three weeks ago it was all about the five scrumhalves. Yesterday we called him back to the issue. What you really want him to say is something wilfully divisive: “I’m the best nine” or “I hate Tomás O’Leary” or “Peter Stringer is past it”.

But if Declan Kidney has taught his players anything at all it is self- restraint. They plug in. They work the training, the camp, Test matches. They come out the other side with perhaps a ticket for New Zealand in their pocket.

But the feeling is if you testily asked Reddan about performance-enhancing drugs in the game or the salary he is paid by the IRFU, he’d gleefully launch into an answer if only to get away from the five scrumhalves issue.

“There’s the added bit that if you get in the team you know you’re doing well,” he says a little wearily. “You want to earn that jersey and I think that’s the way it should be for any international team. It’s certainly the case for Ireland at the moment and it’s a proud day, particularly at scrumhalf, if you get the nod.”

Reddan, O’Leary, Stringer, Conor Murray and Isaac Boss have not been guaranteed anything in the August run in. Kidney has not told them they will be given equal game time to play in Test matches. The coach, under a severe time constraint, isn’t in the business of promoting equal opportunity. Kidney wants the best to emerge even if they consume each other. Regardless of how well training is going, game time over the next three weeks is the currency.

“Of course,” says Reddan. “I’m sure Declan’s aware of getting players on the pitch. That stuff will be more obvious at the end of the four weeks but at the moment whatever you’re dealt that day you get on with. You trust in the system, train hard and enjoy the set-up.”

In his mind the stiff competition has not sowed any seeds of doubt. That strength of mind has been his saving over the years and has brought more success than many in the squad.

Warren Gatland signed Reddan for London Wasps in 2005, where he succeeded Matt Dawson to become first choice scrumhalf, winning both a Heineken Cup in 2007 and the 2008 Guinness Premiership. He also captained the side during the absence of Lawrence Dallaglio. With Leinster another Heineken Cup fell his way. Using his ability to milk opportunity has brought him a long way since captaining Crescent at school. He is a player who never lets up.

“I’m still focused on one spot,” he says. “I want to be playing. That’s the goal for anyone here, to play for Ireland in the World Cup. I don’t think it complicates it. There’s still only one jersey and that’s what you’re aiming for.”

He sensibly won’t say where he thinks he ranks in the pecking order. But he remembers four years ago when the circumstances were eerily similar. He had just won a Heineken Cup, his tail was up for pre-season training and he was facing a World Cup with a strong Ireland team.

“It’s hard,” he says. “I haven’t really sat down and analysed how I felt four years ago. I am still pushing to play and I think I was back then as well.

“There are different circumstances. We’ve got four games now, we’re not on tour. Possibly at the last World Cup, when 15 guys didn’t go on the tour it possibly changed the dynamic a bit. But I don’t think that was Eddie’s (O’Sullivan) fault. The tour was on, what could he do?”

It’s not that there is more caution in the squad but there is less hype four years on. Being far from the city and couched in the home of a wealthy land owner from another century may play a part. While there is tension and anxiety, Reddan knows, even now before the selection begins, there is also privilege.

“Yeah, absolutely. It’s unbelievable, it’s great. We’re all very lucky,” he says. “You’re obviously looking forward to it starting but you also have to stay in the moment.

“It’s a joy and it’s why you play the game. It’s the pinnacle. It’s high-pressure. It’s all the things you want,” he adds, even if there are, still, five scrumhalves.