Ireland should just shade it in stiff test

This one should be about courage. At some point in this afternoon's meeting with South West District Eagles in George, the Irish players are probably going to have to put their necks on the line in a big way.

They're going to have to keep on making the hits and prevent the Eagles from building up a head of steam. If they can do that, then they may have enough class to win it, but it might still be very close.

The PW Botha trial here over these past couple of days has awakened an otherwise sleepy out-of-season holiday resort; to a degree the resilience and the strength in depth of our squad are also on trial. Not to mention the South African players' willingness to play it cleanly and their officials to play it fairly.

The same degree of relative confidence in Saturday's more proven shadow Test team cannot be applied to this untried mid-week line-up. The backs are all internationals, but in certain areas - the 10-12-13 axis for example - they don't have the experience of the Elwood-McCall-Bell combination, nor, apart from Rob Henderson, the physical presence.

It will also be very interesting to see if the real Ciaran Clarke re-emerges after an unsure Five Nations comeback, and if it will be an authentic, self-confident David Humphreys, who can lead the line defensively and offensively in the Warren Gatland way. He has more innate flair than Elwood (or any other Irish player), though not the proven mental strength and tactical acumen Elwood so assuredly brought to the tour opener.

No-one will find this more fascinating than Gatland himself, given seven of this side have never started a game under his command before. And up front there is a certain greenness about the pack - half of them (Justin Fitzpatrick, Bernard Jackman, Trevor Brennan and David Wallace) are uncapped.

For that quartet, this will be a step into the unknown. Not that you'd doubt the hardness of them, especially Brennan: he doesn't tug the forelock to anyone. But he's going to have to be disciplined as well as fearless.

Nevertheless, this pack of evergreens and greenhorns will have a less streetwise look to them if Mick Galwey pulls out with the back spasm that seriously limited his movement around the hotel yesterday. It's not that a Gabriel Fulcher-Malcolm O'Kelly partnership looks weaker - au contraire - it's more a question of horses for courses and Galwey is a horse you'd like for this course.

South West are a mean bunch of hombres when they get going. Doddie Weir's Lions tour was curtailed when Marius Bosman stamped on his knee: the latter only makes the bench today. In his place is Thys Stoltz, recently exonerated by a disciplinary committee when cited for elbowing an opponent on the grounds that he was attempting to free his arm.

Their 32-year-old coach Heyneke Meyer (the youngest in the 14 provincial teams) vows that they will play a more expansive game, but theirs is an old-style South African game. When their pack was reduced to six in number against Western Province in this season's Vodacom Cup, they declined the referee's offer of an uncontested scrum and duly steamrollered the WP eight. Yikes.

Two years ago, they would have been ideal second servings on a seven-match tour, conceding over 100 points in three successive games. But in recent times the Eagles have been transformed Though less all-embracing a threat than Boland, they are ranked slightly above them after edging them out of the Vodacom semi-finals.

Even their half-backs and centres look like locks, hardly surprising given that Thys Stoltz's brother, Conrad, plays in midfield and is regarded as a potential Springbok by both Meyer and Nick Mallett, the Springbok coach.

As in the opening 20 minutes on Saturday, the Irish are clearly going to have to get down and dirty; and tackle big, hard and often.

When asked what areas of Saturday's performance he wanted to see improve, Gatland was his cryptic self. "Keep our turnovers down, keep the penalty count under 10 and just be a bit stronger around the rucks defensively." Also, he was unimpressed with the set-pieces. Another concern must have been the occasional porousness out wide or in midfield, resulting from the wingers not squeezing in, and the ability of the Boland pack to rumble over from five yards out from scrums or line-outs. Because by popular consensus, whatever Boland's pack can do, the SW forwards can do better.

It's probably the third most winnable game of the tour. If there are no weak links in the chain, and a few have big games, then they should just shade it.

Ireland: C Clarke; R Wallace, K Keane, R Henderson, K Maggs; D Humphreys, B O'Meara; J Fitzpatrick, B Jackman, P Clohessy, M Galwey, G Fulcher, T Brennan, A Foley (capt), D Wallace. Replacements: J Bishop, M McCall, D Hegarty, J Hayes, A Clarke, M O'Kelly, D Corkery.

South West Districts: T van Rensburg; M du Toit, C Stoltz, C Corff, B Vorster; J Benadie, F Roberts; S Wagner, T Webb, J Espagd, T Stoltz, J Kapp, F van Zyl, L Hattingh, D Frans.