Gatland promotes entire bench

When the Irish management do make changes, it is presented in such a way that there really isn't anything radical about it all. Thus while the team to play Italy on Saturday week shows seven changes from the starting XV in Murrayfield, the 22-man squad shows only two changes.

Basically, Warren Gatland has promoted the entire bench from the game at Murrayfield, four of whom have already served as replacements during this Five Nations campaign. So it is that Rob Henderson, Eric Elwood, Ciaran Scally, Justin Fitzpatrick, Ross Nesdale, Trevor Brennan and Victor Costello will all start, with Peter Clohessy and Dion O'Cuinneagain switching to tighthead and open side to accommodate two of the changes.

"This was always the game we had earmarked as a chance to throw a couple of new combinations together and promote players who had been sitting on the bench this season, on top of which there's been a couple of injuries," he said.

At face value it could be interpreted differently. Woody, Wally and Wardy for the chop, etc etc as Gatty wields axe. However, it was not, the Irish coach said, a reaction to the performance in Murrayfield. Accordingly, the two changes to the 22-man squad from that day are both injury-enforced, and see the promotion of the great white hope of Leinster and Irish rugby, 19-year-old UCD centre-cum-out-half Brian O'Driscoll, as well as David Corkery, who replace David Humphreys and Eric Miller.

More radical altogether is the composition of the A team to face their Italian counterparts in Donnybrook next Friday. Here, there are eight changes, amongst them three new Antipodeans; the centre pairing of Matt Mostyn and Mike Mullins, and hooker Shane McDonald.

Mostyn, a 23-year-old Australian with Irish grandparents, currently plays for Begles/Bordeaux but has played for New South Wales in the Super 12s as well as the Australian sevens team for three years from 1996 to '98. Mullins and McDonald are both New Zealanders currently playing with West Hartlepool. Mullins is a 28-year-old centre from North Harbour whose father was born in Limerick, while McDonald is a 27-yearold of Irish extraction who played 110 times for Taranaki, and also played for the New Zealand Barbarians as well as the Auckland Blues. In all three cases the players concerned have given an indication that they would like to play within the Irish provincial structure next season and although Gatland didn't say where they were headed, it is believed that they maybe Connacht bound.

In addition, there have been recalls for James Topping, Dennis Hickie, Mick Galwey (who is A captain) and Alan Quinlan, while youth has also been given its head here with the promotion of Garryowen's 18-year-old out-half from the Irish under-21 team, Jeremy Staunton.

Injuries were a factor in the makeup of both squads, with the following players ruled out: the three young Lansdowne backs Gordon D'Arcy, Shane Horgan and Barry Everitt, and their team-mate Reggie Corrigan, Killian Keane of Garryowen, Niall Woods and Kieron Dawson of London Irish, as well as the aforementioned Humphreys and Miller.

Clearly the Irish management now have the World Cup in mind; hence too, the resting of Paul Wallace and Keith Wood, along with the promotion of Fitzpatrick and Nesdale.

"Looking ahead to the World Cup, we're conscious of the fact that we won't be able to field the same team for every game. Keith Wood has had a good run in terms of injuries and fitness, but we have to also be aware of his history with injuries and have a player who can step into the fold who's been getting some exposure to Test match rugby."

With regard to Wallace, there is an additional factor in that he is carrying a groin injury and has been playing too much rugby. The best way of resting him is to pick him on the bench, especially as Saracens have a game that day.

Trevor Brennan, after four caps as a replacement, finally wins one from the start and both temperamentally and technically is probably better suited to that. Ciaran Scally was always likely to start the Italian game given his lack of exposure this season. The Henderson-Maggs midfield axis may not excite people unduly, but Henderson deserves a start after his excellence as a replacement.

Besides, midfield options are not plentiful with Shane Horgan injured and O'Driscoll untried. The latter, potentially the one new cap, is as much out-half cover as anything else given the other backs' subs are Conor McGuinness and Jonathan Bell.

O'Driscoll himself has been disarmingly dismissive of much of the hype that has accompanied his first forays into senior rugby. Nonetheless, good judges have been raving about this guy since before the Leinster `A' campaign in early August. Strong and quick, he straightens the line superbly, has a low sense of gravity and is cussedly difficult to stop. He can seemingly switch seamlessly between 10, 12 and 13, though those in the know seem to think of him ultimately as an inside centre.

"We've been impressed with him for a long time," said Gatland yesterday. "He looks like a good player and we've been very impressed with him in the games we've seen him play. He looks to have a good future in Irish rugby. We don't want to hold him back but at the same time we don't want to drop him in at the deep end either."

IRELAND (v Italy): C O'Shea (London Irish); J Bishop (London Irish), K Maggs (Bath), R Henderson (Wasps), G Dempsey (Terenure College); E Elwood (Galwegians), C Scally (UCD); J Fitzpatrick (Dungannon), R Nesdale (Newcastle), P Clohessy (Young Munster), P Johns (Saracens) capt, J Davidson (Castres), T Brennan (St Mary's College), D O'Cuinneagain (Sale), V Costello (St Mary's College). Replacements: J Bell (Dungannon), B O'Driscoll (UCD), C McGuinness (St Mary's College), D Corkery (Cork Constitution), A Ward (Ballynahinch), P Wallace (Saracens), K Wood (Harlequins).

IRELAND A (v Italy A): S Mason (Ballymena); J Topping (Ballymena), M Mostyn (Begles-Bordeaux), M Mullins (West Hartlepool), D Hickie (St Mary's Colllege); J Staunton (Garryowen), B O'Meara (Cork Constitution); J Screene (Buccaneers), S McDonald (West Hartlepool), M Cahill (Buccanneers), M Galwey (Shannon) capt, G Fulcher (Lansdowne), A Quinlan (Shannon), E Halvey (Shannon), A Foley (Shannon). Replacements: M Murphy (Galwegians), R O'Gara (Cork Constitution), G Easterby (London Scottish), D Wallace (Garryowen), G Longwell (Ballymena), J Hayes (Shannon), A Clarke (Dungannon).