Maggs out and Bishop is doubtful

The Irish management have an injury crisis in the wing positions after Kevin Maggs was ruled out of consideration for Ireland's second Six Nations championship game at home to Scotland next Saturday and Justin Bishop was considered very doubtful.

Maggs pulled a hamstring in Bath's victory over Bedford last Saturday, further aggravating an injury that had been troubling him for some weeks.

Bishop, meanwhile, was sent to hospital for X-rays on a jaw injury which was sustained against England last Saturday week and which ruled him out of London Irish's game last Saturday. "He's in trouble," said Ireland manager Donal Lenihan.

Although Dennis Hickie had already been promoted to the senior squad, in the event of Bishop being ruled out further options on the wings are limited by the rash of injuries in that position, with both James Topping and Niall Woods currently sidelined, as is Leicester's Geordan Murphy.

The alternatives in the A squad are Sheldon Coulter and Tyrone Howe, who have spent much of Ulster's campaign on the sidelines, while the provinces haven't provided many alternatives, unless the management go for John Kelly, ostensibly a centre, or John McWeeney.

Girvan Dempsey has played there before, but this would mean either moving Mike Mullins to fullback - a position he has relatively little experience of - or recalling Conor O'Shea. There is of course, a ready-made capped replacement in Saracens' Darragh O'Mahony, but he has been largely ignored in recent years.

Of some consolation to the management is that Jeremy Davidson took a full part in yesterday's closed training session at Dr Hickey Park in Greystones after recovering from a couple of minor elbow operations which had sidelined him for the last three weeks.

The squad, now down to 24, will be pruned to 22 today, when the team and replacements will be announced after this morning's open session in Greystones, along with the Irish A team for Friday evening's match in Donnybrook. The Scots, meanwhile, look like losing their newly appointed captain John Leslie, who injured his hip in the Italy game. Although Graham Shiel has been promoted to the senior squad, James McLaren is the likely replacement.

Meanwhile, Gordon D'Arcy returns at full back to the Irish under-21 side which will play their Scottish counterparts in Ravenhill next Friday night while John Skurr, a blindside flanker with Jewson National League Division One leaders Otley, replaces the injured Des Dillon (fractured finger) in the back row, with Chris McCarey moving to number eight.

IRELAND UNDER-21 (v Scottish Under-21s, Friday, Ravenhill 7.30): G D'Arcy (Lansdowne); J Norton (UCD), P Wallace (UCD), S Moore (UCD) capt, S Keogh (Old Belvedere); J Staunton (Garryowen), K Campbell (London Irish); N Foxe (St Mary's), A Flavin (London Irish), N Treston (Blackrock), D O'Callaghan (Cork Constitution), P O'Connell (Young Munster), J Skurr (Otley), C McCarey (Ballymena), A Hughes (Dungannon). Replacements: A O'Brien (UCD), B Urqhart (Dublin University), F Roche (Shannon), A Kear- ney (UCD), K Lewis (Dublin University), M Lawlor (Shannon), D McCombe (Kircaldy/Dundee Univ).

SCOTLAND UNDER-21: B Irving (Glasgow Caledonians); B Ruthven (Melrose), I McInroy (Glasgow Caledonians), R Stewart (Hull University), K Davidson (Hawick); C MacRae (Melrose), R Blake (Bristol); E Murray (Glasgow Southern), D Hall (Hillhead-Jordanhill), B Douglas (Heriot's FP), A Hall (Moseley), T Palmer (Leeds), A Brown (Dundee HSFP), S Taylor (Heriot's FP), D Macfadyen (Glasgow Caledonians) capt. Replacements: W Jones (Harlequins), R Mathieson (Harlequins), A Welsh (East Kilbride), R Maxton (Stewart's-Melville FP), D Irving (Langholm), A Henderson (West of Scotland), R Couper (Boroughmuir).

SCOTLAND A: D Lee (Edinburgh Reivers); C Moir (Northampton), D Officer (Harlequins), J Stu- art (Glasgow Caledonians), A Bulloch (Glasgow Caledonians); C Paterson (Edinburgh Reivers), G Beveridge (Glasgow Caledonians); P Johnstone (Bristol), S Brotherstone (Brive), G McIlwham (Glasgow Caledonians), J White (Glasgow Caledonians), A Lucking (Edinburgh Reivers), C Mather (Edinburgh Reivers), D Mackinnon (Northampton), S Holmes (Northampton) capt. Replacements: S Scott (Edinburgh Reivers), B Stewart (Edinburgh Reivers), S Campbell (Glasgow Caledonians), C Hogg (Edinburgh Reivers), G Burns (Edinburgh Reivers), M McKenzie (Bourgoin-Jallieu), C Joiner (Leicester).

Lamaison out of England Test