No hard feelings as Wood returns

Sound The trumpet, beat the drums; he's back. Such is Keith Wood's omnipresence that you couldn't even say things were duller without him, but having been the talk of the town in his absence, Wood finally rejoined the Irish squad in body as well as in spirit yesterday.

Wood's rapprochement with the Irish management came at the Glenview Hotel in the Glen of the Downs, Co Wicklow, yesterday after the former Irish captain was called in to Ireland's World Cup qualifying squad prior to signing his vexed IRFU contract last night.

The reason behind Wood's call-up was the none too surprising news that Ross Nesdale's hamstring strain will rule him out of consideration for this Saturday's game against Romania, a tough blow for the Newcastle hooker given he was also forced out of the South African tour.

It will almost certainly mean a place on the bench and likely reappearance for Wood, although Nesdale will remain with the squad in readiness for the Test against South Africa on Saturday week. A vacancy existed in the 26-man squad following Alan Quinlan's withdrawal last week in any case.

Wood himself is bound to harbour an off-the-field grudge with the IRFU over his limited "intellectual property rights", and, defiantly having the last word on the debate, has vowed to donate his match fee of £2,000 to charity.

However within the Irish set-up there is unlikely to be any residual ill-feeling or fall-out from Wood's refusal to sign his contract and his subsequent exclusion from the squad. "I don't think there were ever any personal problems," said assistant coach Philip Danaher.

"We've been in contact with him, despite all the ri-ra," added Donal Lenihan. "I rang him on Sunday night and he was delighted to be considered. I rang him this morning to tell him he was travelling and that's it as far as we're concerned. As far as the management is concerned, the door is closed on that."

All other issues aside, Wood is in better form and shape than the overplayed post-Lions figure of last season. "That was the annoying thing. In the first session we had this season he was a stone in weight down from South Africa. I've never seen him fitter and stronger," said Lenihan.

"I think, as well, Harlequins left him out of a couple of matches at the start of the season and so he probably felt he had a point to prove to them. I mean nobody ever questioned his ability at any stage. His play was never an issue."

The three-man management team sat down to pick the side last night prior to its announcement today. Their overall choice is to strike a balance between treating these two qualifiers as an entity in themselves, and so give all - or virtually all - of the 26-man squad a run-out over the two games or alternatively to fine-tune some of their intended selection for the Springboks Test.

They appear to be leaning more toward the former judging by the "team" which went through much of the cold and rain-swept run-out in Greystones yesterday. The initial line-up used consisted of: Dempsey, Bishop, Maggs, Henderson, O'Mahony, Humphreys, Scally, Fitzpatrick, Clarke, Wallace, Johns, O'Kelly, O Cuinneagain, Costello and Ward.

However, Lenihan pointedly said afterwards: "I wouldn't read too much into this morning. You might get a clearer indication tomorrow morning. We have 25 in the squad and in training everybody must be given a fair opportunity. Closer to the match it'll be fairly evident who will be involved and who won't be."

In any event, the Irish management were not tempted to await their viewing of Romania's encounter with Georgia tonight before finalising their line-up for Saturday. "We had an overview in our minds, but in relation to the team we sat down yesterday we watched the video of the Georgian match and we had a good chat about what we wanted to do. We are clear in our own minds the way we are approaching these two games."

The viewing of the Georgian video prompted Danaher to conclude: "We created some nice aspects of handling and good continuity. There were occasions late on that they (Georgia) were standing so far offside that they conceded penalties when maybe another try or two would have made things look a lot more positive. We obviously know where we made a few mistakes."

Lenihan added: "There were little signs of things that we're trying to do in training coming together on the pitch. But because it was only our first time running that 15 together it does take time."

As regards a viewing of the Wales-South Africa video, Lenihan said: "No. Not interested. Next Monday morning we'll start worrying about them."

Bar the unlucky Nesdale and the commuting Wood, the rest of the squad took a full part in training, with Girvan Dempsey limping off prematurely due to a slight ankle strain, though purely as a precaution.