Injured Bell is doubtful starter

Jonathan Bell has emerged as a doubtful starter for this Saturday's Five Nations rendezvous with England at Lansdowne Road. The Ulster centre suffered a reaction to a leg injury he sustained during Dungannon's win over Old Belvedere last Saturday and missed training yesterday.

A decision on his fitness for this game will probably not be delayed beyond today, although Irish manager Donal Lenihan gave no indication yesterday as to what Bell's chances are. Suffice to say that if Bell is ruled out, Lenihan confirmed that Rob Henderson would take his place, with Killian Keane (who won his only cap as a substitute against England last year) being promoted from the A team to the bench.

For the time being, as expected, the Irish management have made two changes to the side which beat Wales. Girvan Dempsey has replaced Niall Woods and Victor Costello returns at number eight in a straight exchange for Eric Miller.

According to Lenihan this was something of a horses-for-courses selection. The Irish manager said: "The four lads in the back-row have all performed superbly but we just feel that Victor Costello's bulk and ball-carrying abilities might suit the needs of this match. But I've no doubt that you'll see Eric at some stage of the match."

To which Warren Gatland mischievously added: "He can run at Mike Catt all day long."

Lenihan conceded that Andy Ward didn't have his best game in an Irish shirt against Wales, but added the rider that the Ulster flanker's enforced three-week layoff beforehand was probably a contributory factor. Far from upping the ante in the build-up to this eagerly awaited encounter, the Irish management seemed intent on killing their opponents with kindness. Statistics at the ready, Lenihan made some valid points in defusing the post-Wembley hype surrounding Ireland's Triple Crown chances.

Lenihan pointed out that the English pack contained six of the forwards who contributed to the Lions' Test series win in South Africa and that only two years ago, on their last visit to Lansdowne Road, England beat Ireland by 466 "in one of the low points of Irish rugby. Even last year they beat us by 18 or 20 points so we regard this as a good measure of how much we've come on in the last 12 months."

Both Lenihan and Warren Gatland agreed that England will have benefited from a first and somewhat rusty outing against the Scots last Saturday week, and the Irish coach added that England remained the team to beat in the Championship.

However, Gatland maintained that all the evidence so far supports his pre-Five Nations assertion that this year's championship would be more competitive. Primarily he attributed this to the progress made by the Celts, as opposed to England coming back to the pack.

"Thanks to the advent of professionalism we're a lot fitter and stronger than we were 12 months or two years ago," he said.

While happy with the progress made by Ireland in his year in charge, Gatland countered this by bemoaning Ireland's traditional inability to put two big performances together.

The Irish coach also re-iterated his post-match assertion at Wembley that Ireland had played better against France than they did against Wales. "We need to improve certain aspects of our play. We made more turnovers against Wales than we did against France and I wasn't particularly happy with that. . .

"A lot of it's to do with confidence," added Gatland. "When we do get an opportunity to finish a team off we've got to learn how to take it. For example we didn't take the three points on offer at the end of the game against Wales, and that disappointed me. But that's to do with the confidence factor, we need to believe in ourselves more."

Ireland (v England, Lansdowne Road, Saturday): C O'Shea (London Irish); J Bishop (London Irish), K Maggs (Bath), J Bell (Dungannon), G Dempsey (Terenure); D Hum- phreys (Dungannon), C McGuinness (St Mary's); P Clohessy (Young Munster), K Wood (Harlequins), P Wallace (Saracens), P Johns (Saracens, Capt), J Davidson (Castres), D O'Cuinneagain (Sale), A Ward (Balynahinch), V Costello (St Mary's). Replacements: R Henderson (Wasps), E Elwood (Galwegians), C Scally (UCD), E Miller (Terenure), M Galwey (Shannon), J Fitzpatrick (Dungannon), R Nesdale (Newcastle).