Ireland squad ripe for change

Crisis, what crisis? One of the more endearing features of Irish rugby fans is that, as someone once remarked, by the time they've reached Jury's they have forgotten about the result.

Nights like last Friday's in Donnybrook, followed up by the more anticipated (though no less satisfying) Munster victory over Pontypridd the next day, would support the notion that all is well after all.

In truth, the post-World Cup malaise lingers still, while it is early days yet in the

European Cup and a couple of home wins can't disguise the deep-rooted problems in Irish rugby.

Nonetheless, it shows that the Irish teams have no need to be fearful of the French and especially the English, whose Allied Dunbar League, no less than its footballing equivalent, is far bigger on hype, money and reputations, than on substance.

Plenty of long-suffering Irish and Leinster rugby fans I know had contracted the prevailing post-World Cup hangover (not to mention Leinster's abysmal effort against Munster) and not bothered to attend last Friday's match - although impressively 4,500 did turn up. Sod's law got them good.

It got us forecasters good as well. But on the prevailing evidence, it was nigh on impossible to forecast a Leinster win, even allowing for the unique one-off nature of this game - the Irish underdog psyche, and the red-rag-to-a-bull of English fancy dans. We've been down this road before, literally with Leinster and Leicester, not to mention Ireland-England (1993), as well as Munster against Wasps and Harlequins. The bottom line is that Leinster and Munster recorded home wins in a competition where two-thirds of the games have traditionally gone to the home side, and an away wins was beyond Ulster (and Connacht in the Shield).

Only two of the nine European Cup games went to the away side, leaving Toulouse's win at Bath as the most significant. Heaven knows what this big-game hunting of the Tigers might henceforth do for Leinster, but if they don't now win at Glasgow to give themselves a real chance of progress, it will diminish much of Friday's good work.

Credit for the Leinster transformation, as Mike Ruddock later stressed, must in part go to the new names on the Leinster ticket, namely their Australian assistant coach Matt Williams and captain Liam Toland. Yet in many ways it was Mike's night, and you could hardly blame Ruddock for embracing three of his backroom staff simultaneously at the full-time whistle, the broad Welshman seemingly intent on carrying them onto the middle of the pitch.

Not only had his in-house rollocking and application of the selectorial guillotine helped to transform Leinster, in the first half he had read the game and the French referee better than his counterpart Dean Richards.

"I told them to keep the ball more and cut down on the silly errors, to carry the ball on," he later explained. "The referee was rewarding the side in possession and taking it forward. I felt we had been penalised a bit too much in the first half and had kicked the ball away too much."

Undoubtedly, the World Cup hangover isn't confined to Ireland. It was evident in the relatively flat performances of several of Leicester's English contingent, for example, and perhaps also for others in the Bath and Saracens losses. As an aside, intriguingly in all three cases the respective English scrums were in trouble.

Closer to home, in the front-row area for example, Emmet Byrne and Gary Halpin were originally selected ahead of World Cup squad members Reggie Corrigan and Angus McKeen, and Byrne was outstanding on Friday night.

Likewise, Declan O'Brien has now supplanted Trevor Brennan on the blind-side of the Leinster back-row, and will clearly retain the position on merit for the time being. While still giving the team an abrasive edge, even when he was yellow-carded after exchanging a flurry of punches with Neil Back, the kickable Leicester penalty was reversed. Now that was a neat trick.

O'Brien, 14 minutes later, would have the pleasure of a try-saving tackle on Back but aside from his physical presence, the athletic flanker also showed what a good ball-player he is.

In addition to the unfortunate David Corkery, Andy Ward was ruled out with injury on Saturday while Dion O'Cuinneagain looks utterly "flahed" as well as carrying injuries. Could you blame him, after carrying the captaincy of Ireland on his shoulders and playing with injuries during the World Cup?

By contrast, the rejuvenated Victor Costello and Anthony Foley are having spells of excellent form, and along with the eternally enigmatic Eric Miller are liable to make the number eight position the most competitive when the Six Nations comes around.

Continuing with the World Cup hangover theme, it's also interesting to note how Peter Stringer has supplanted Munster's World Cup duo of Tom Tierney and Brian O'Meara. Alongside him, at this higher level, Ronan O'Gara's form continues unabated and he is now beginning to look the form out-half in the country, ahead of David Humphreys and Eric Elwood. An extended European Cup campaign is just what he needs now, to give that likeable cockiness some more substance. Out wide, Matt Mostyn's unexceptional form for Connacht has obliged Glenn Ross to try him at centre - which apparently met with an improvement - whereas Dennis Hickie has rebounded well from his unlucky exclusion from the World Cup. His work-rate was much improved on Friday night, while at one point he disdainfully left Back for dead.

All of this doesn't necessarily show that the Irish management made a host of wrong calls in the selection of their World Cup squad. There was always liable to be a loss of form and/or injuries amongst the chosen 30, whereas the excluded ones were always likely to be more motivated individually and fresher.

Nonetheless, with the slate wiped clean, the available evidence is pointing to a number of changes for Ireland's Six Nations campaign. Ironically, the 30-man World Cup squad and management met for a World Cup review yesterday morning, followed by an afternoon looking ahead to the Six Nations. Perhaps for their final huddle they sang Auld Lang Syne or We'll Meet Again. . . don't know where, don't know when?