Cranfield becomes Pope's saviour

At about 5.30 yesterday evening, St Mary's College were able to unearth a player to help solve the injury jinx which has sidelined a quintet of props in the build-up to the televised opening defence of their AIB League title against Young Munster at Templeville Road today.

Richard Cranfield, formerly of Blackrock who played for Brent Pope on several occasions in Division Two with Clontarf a few seasons ago but hasn't played for a couple of years, answered the champions' distress signals.

In the absence of Emmet Byrne, Peter Coyle, David Clare, Noel Foxe and Pat Duggan, he will pack down at loose-head, while Jock O'Connor will oppose Peter Clohessy at tight-head. Teddy Moran has been drafted in from the club's under-20 squad to fill the vacancy on the replacements' bench.

"In fairness to the union they gave us a bit of dispensation to register Richard," said Pope yesterday. "It's not ideal but at least the game will go ahead. All I can hope for is that they give 100 per cent and if they could squeak a win it would be absolutely brilliant."

The champions' difficulties are likely to be exacerbated during the season due to having 14 contracted players, a dozen of them with Leinster. Already resigned to missing the influential Malcolm O'Kelly for the start of their campaign, and for further matches given the Irish management's desire to rest players during December and the Six Nations Championship, the bookies' commonly held view of St Mary's as co-favourites with Shannon (between 7 to 2 and 9 to 2) looks particularly bad value.

Indeed, it is this uncertainty about representative player availability - compounded by the possibility of Munster and/or Leinster reaching the knockout stages of the European Cup, with the semi-finals at the end of April and the final in May - which makes this year's expanded first division of 16 clubs the most unpredictable to date.

All bar a few have the top four play-offs as their stated objective, and while you can make a case for most of them, you can also make a case against all of them. Furthermore, the provincial league and cup form, such as it is, could be more meaningless than meaningful.

Looking at the records over the last five years (see inside) it's clear that there is a kind of two-tiered structure within the first division, or at any rate an elite within the elite. In which case the contenders for the play-offs are liable to come from the established powers such as Shannon, St Mary's, Cork Constitution, Garryowen, Lansdowne, Terenure and Ballymena, though a dark horse such as, say, Galwegians, with their raft of contracted players but few apparent call-ups or distractions, could well upset the applecart.

As if to underline their menacing presence, the Irish management yesterday named a 40-man squad for a day-long training camp at the ALSAA complex by Dublin Airport next Monday. An eye-catching inclusion is Swansea's 28-yearold South African centre/winger/full back Shaun Payne, whose grandmother comes from Easky, Co Sligo. He has scored six tries in nine games for Swansea.

Fifteen players were not asked to attend because of injury. Kieron Dawson, though initially ruled out of the Six Nations because of the need for a neck operation, has confirmed that he will seek a second opinion. Rob Henderson underwent a shoulder operation yesterday but, like Girvan Dempsey, should be back in about four to six weeks. Others not asked to attend are Paul Wallace (groin), Anthony Foley (shoulder), Gordon D'Arcy (ankle), Ronan O'Gara (hand), Anthony Horgan (rib), Jonathan Bell (hamstring), Jeremy Davidson (wrist), Paul Burke (arm), Girvan Dempsey (ankle), Emmet Farrell (knee), Guy Easterby (leg), Simon Easterby (ankle) and Tyrone Howe (groin), while Kevin Maggs may be unable to make it because of a prior family commitment.

Notable exclusions are Trevor Brennan, seemingly no longer ranked in the top 10 among Irish back row players, and the unlucky Peter McKenna.

Ireland Training Squad: Backs - P Stringer (Shannon), B O'Meara (Cork Constitution), T Tierney (Garryowen), D Humphreys (Dungannon), J Staunton (Garryowen), E Elwood (Galwegians), S Horgan (Lansdowne), M Mullins (Young Munster), B O'Driscoll (Blackrock), J Kelly (Cork Constitution), D Hickie (St Mary's), J Topping (Ballymena), M Mostyn (Newport), J Bishop (London Irish), G Murphy (Leicester), D Crotty (Garryowen), S Payne (Swansea); Forwards - P Clohessy (Young Munster), J Hayes (Shannon), J Fitzpatrick (Dungannon), S Byrne (Blackrock), K Wood (Harlequins), F Sheahan (Cork Constitution), E Byrne (St Mary's), M Horan (Shannon), M O'Kelly (St Mary's), M Galwey (Shannon), G Longwell (Ballymena), P Johns (Dungannon), B Casey (Blackrock), M O'Driscoll (Cork Constitution), L Cullen (Blackrock), E Miller (Terenure), A Ward (Ballynahinch), D Wallace (Garryowen), A Quinlan (Shannon), V Costello (St Mary's), J O'Connor (Galwegians), T McWhirter (Ballymena).