Gatland brings out big guns early on

Recognising the need to hit the ground running for the pivotal tour opener against Boland at Wellington Stadium, 50 miles from Cape Town, on Saturday, Warren Gatland has pretty much opted for the strongest side available to him.

The starting XV falls along predictable lines, with nine of the side that played against England at Twickenham while, all told, 14 internationals have been selected. The exception is on the blind side of the back-row, where the South African born Dion O'Cuinneagain has been chosen ahead of David Corkery.

Aside from O'Cuinneagain's local knowledge - the 26-year-old Cape Town native of Irish parents has been something of a tour guide for the players these first few days - it is hoped that the Sale number eight will add the dynamic and pacey presence he is showing in training to a big Irish back-row.

An equally interesting selection is that of Jonathan Bell. The injury-plagued Northampton centre has played only seven games this season, but is a class act and has also looked sharp in training. He will partner Mark McCall while another Ulsterman, James Topping, might be considered more of a gamble ahead of Richie Wallace after a relatively indifferent season.

Generally, Gatland has opted for experience, with Conor O'Shea returning to the side while Peter Clohessy and Gabriel Fulcher play in the absence of the injured Paul Wallace and Malcolm O'Kelly.

The "subs to tog", as Donal Lenihan quaintly put it, feature a quartet of uncapped players namely: the Terenure scrum-half Derek Hegarty, Shannon prop John Hayes, Clontarf hooker Bernard Jackman and the St Mary's flanker Trevor Brennan, despite the latter turning an ankle in training yesterday.

Another mild source of concern is Denis Hickie. Ireland's most potent runner this season became ill overnight and spent the day in bed, but Lenihan maintained "he'll be okay". "It's only a 24 hour thing. There's no question of him not being fit for the game."

Yesterday's contact session adhered to the impressive benchmark set on Tuesday and fell along similar lines; concentrating on close-in driving and variations of ruck ball with some scrumagging work for the first time since arrival.

This necessitated a switch to the less scenic surrounds of Bellville, although admittedly not even Table Mountain was in view for much of a colder, more damp day until the clouds broke up a little in late afternoon. Thus, the squad's planned excursion by cable car to the mountain peak was aborted.

However, another advancing high pressure front ought to provide further opportunities, as well as similar conditions to the first two days of the tour. Today's and tomorrow's sessions have been closed to prying eyes, primarily the result of Boland province sending along a trio of spies on Tuesday, including their coach and their captain.

That coach, Mike Bayly, has announced his strongest selection of the season, following the return to arms of virtually all their Super 12 players. In all, their starting line-up will feature eight players who took part in this season's Super 12s, and this despite resting that competition's joint leading try-scorer, winger Stefan Terblanche.

Indeed, another Super 12 winger, the Northern Bulls' Jan Ackerman, has been left on the bench. This is due to the surfeit of quality wingers at Bayly's disposal. The coach has kept favour with right-winger John Daniels, generally regarded as the find of the VodaCom Cup series with 15 tries in 12 games. Hence, their Springbok and Northern Bulls winger McNeill Hendricks switches to left-wing.

With full-back Marius Goosen also pushing the out-of-form Percy Montgomery and Andre Joubert for the Springbok number 15 jersey, it is clear where Boland's strengths lie. Pieter O'Neill is a running out-half and inside him Polla Roux, though not regarded as the quickest runner, has reputedly a very quick service.

Added to these expansive strengths are a quick and mobile back-row. Although first-choice lock Julien Barnard is sidelined, they have a couple of experienced props in Pierre Marais at loosehead and 34-year-old Tommy Laubscher at tight-head. Laubscher came out of retirement a couple of months ago, and like hooker Dale Santon, is a one-time Springbok.

Boland are generally regarded as being in the top five or six South African provinces after narrowly missing out on the Currie Cup semi-finals last season and are likely to be strong contenders again this season for the last four. It is fairly evident that the hosts anticipate a home win, although understandably Bayly is cautioning against an innate superiority complex.

"They (Ireland) are an international team. I don't know how people can simply write them off. They have players who have been there at the highest level. The greatest test for my players will be to lift their game to the standard one expects from an international side."

Looking further ahead, England's Ed Morrison (who didn't do Ireland too many favours in the Welsh game at Lansdowne Road) has been chosen to referee the first test against the Springboks in Bloemfontein on June 13th, while Joel Dume of France will take charge of the second test and tour finale in Pretoria on June 20th.

As for the third game of the tour against Western Province, referred to by some as the "third test", it is not clear whether the Currie Cup holders will have their Springboks available to them.

Their availability will perhaps become clearer over the weekend when Springboks coach Nick Mallett, instigator of Boland's rejuvenation over the previous two seasons, names his 24-man squad for the two tests against Ireland following Saturday's tour opener involving his former charges.

Terblanche may be Boland's only selection in that squad, although the likes of Hendriks and Goosen will have the additional motivation of playing themselves into the 'Boks squad. As if they needed it.

Ireland: C O'Shea; J Topping, J Bell, M McCall, D Hickie; E Elwood, C McGuinness; R Corrigan, A Clarke, P Clohessy, P Johns (capt), G Fulcher, D O'Cuinneagain, V Costello, Replacements - D Hegarty, K Keane, K Maggs, J Hayes, B Jackman, M Galwey, T Brennan.

Boland: M Goosen; J Daniels, R Lubbe, E Wolfaardt, M Hendriks; P O'Neill, P Roux; P Marais, D Santon, T Laubscher, J Swanepoel, C Holwill, J Coetzee, F Bleuler, H de Kock.

Assistant coach John Rutherford, believes weak backplay was responsible for Scotland's 51-26 mauling by Fiji but believes they will bounce back ahead of next month's matches with Australia.

"Basically we played too flat an alignment," he said. "What we have to do is vary our angle of attack and ensure that there are players forming a second wave of attack," said Rutherford.

"It's difficult to get over a defeat but the good thing about Scots players is that they can pick themselves up again." The Scots next take on Victoria in Melbourne on Saturday and have delayed naming the team until later today.