Only a few spots still up for grabs

A INTERNATIONAL England Saxons v Ireland A: DECODING THIS Ireland A – soon to be Wolfhounds – selection is not straightforward. Just exactly what Declan Kidney is hoping to extract from the meeting with England Saxons at The Rec tomorrow is more convoluted than usual.

It is one of those games where the scoreline, normally the only thing that matters, is secondary to how individuals perform.

In that light, there is a mix of players, some coming back from injury, some tried and trusted and a scattering of new names that have been brought in to see how far they have developed.

Each player will also measure himself up to the player in situ, or the players who not playing today. And while the management have stated that nobody involved in this match is excluded from selection for Ireland’s opening Six Nations match against Italy next weekend, the likelihood is that only a few names will make it to Croke Park next week, and most of those are in the frontrow.

Prop Marcus Horan and hooker Rory Best have recovered from injury and now seek match fitness and sharpness. Along with tighthead Tony Buckley they will be hoping for an opportunity to impress the coach.

They’re up against an English frontrow of Nick Wood, David Paice and former Trinity prop Paul Doran-Jones, and Horan, in particular, wants a match that will demand Kidney to put him straight back into the starting pick, where the resting Cian Healy will also make a strong claim.

Best, who has returned from a neck injury months before expected, is more chronically short of match practice, with a recent AIL game for Banbridge his only dry run before this weekend.

Wingers Fionn Carr and Ian Dowling will be thinking of what they must do against the pacey duo of Noah Cato and David Strettle to nudge aside luminaries such as Shane Horgan, Tommy Bowe, Andrew Trimble and Keith Earls, who, based on the assumption that Brian O’Driscoll and Gordon D’Arcy are picked in the centre against Italy, are already scrambling for the starting wing places.

England’s Shane Geraghty has been given a chance at outhalf to redeem himself after a below-par display for Northampton against Munster in the Heineken Cup. Ulster’s Paddy Wallace is chosen there for Ireland to stifle his running game.

The bigger question is whether this week’s outhalf and last season’s inside centre, Wallace, can do anything to unsettle the incumbents, Johnny Sexton and Ronan O’Gara. Peter Stringer at scrumhalf is a 91-cap known quantity, while in-form and soon-to-be Leinster scrumhalf Isaac Boss sits on the bench with a few of his current provincial colleagues, Ian Humphreys, Darren Cave and Ryan Caldwell.

Ireland won the last meeting 49-22 during the summer in the Churchill Cup final in Denver. So, for those with a revenge fixation, there it is.

IRELAND A: G Duffy (Connacht); F Carr (Connacht), F McFadden (Leinster), K Matthews (Connacht), I Dowling (Munster); P Wallace (Ulster), P Stringer (Munster); M Horan (Munster), R Best (Ulster), T Buckley (Munster); M O'Driscoll (Munster, capt), D Toner (Leinster), S Jennings (Leinster), S O'Brien (Leinster), J Muldoon (Connacht). Replacements: J Fogarty (Leinster), M Ross (Leinster), R Caldwell (Ulster), N Ronan (Munster), I Boss (Ulster), I Humphreys (Ulster), D Cave (Ulster).

ENGLAND SAXONS: A Goode (Saracens); D Strettle (Harlequins), D Waldouck (Wasps), B Barritt (Saracens), N Cato (Saracens); S Geraghty (Northampton), B Youngs (Leicester); N Wood (Gloucester), D Paice (London Irish), P Doran-Jones (Gloucester); D Attwood (Gloucester), G Skivington (Wasps, capt); T Wood (Worcester), A Saull (Saracens), P Dowson (Northampton). Replacements: T Mercey (Saracens), R Webber (Wasps), G Parling (Leicester), L Narraway (Gloucester), M Young (Newcastle), J Clarke (Northampton), M Benjamin (Worcester).