Rugby World Cup countdown: A medical bulletin without any injuries? For what seems the first time since the invention of penicillin, the Irish management have been able to declare a clean bill of health - even if Eddie O'Sullivan must be nervous doing so.

Thirty players to choose from and even two full teams to train with.

Shane Horgan, John Kelly and John Hayes are all back in harness, but, mindful of how Hayes tore his calf in the build-up to the warm-up game against Italy, the management have decided to keep him out of scrummaging practice for the time being.

So Hayes's carefully managed return might mean just a place on the bench for Ireland's World Cup opener against Romania in Gosford on Saturday (kick-off 5 p.m. local time, 8 a.m. Irish) when the team is announced tomorrow.

Otherwise it is likely to be at full strength: Girvan Dempsey; Horgan, Brian O'Driscoll, Kevin Maggs, Denis Hickie; David Humphreys, Peter Stringer; Marcus Horan, Keith Wood, Reggie Corrigan, Malcolm O'Kelly, Paul O'Connell, Victor Costello, Anthony Foley and Keith Gleeson.

More difficult to anticipate is the make-up of the replacements, especially the choice of cover in the back row from Alan Quinlan, Eric Miller and Simon Easterby.

Otherwise, in addition to Hayes, Shane Byrne, Donncha O'Callaghan, Guy Easterby, Ronan O'Gara and John Kelly look likely to make the cut.

O'Sullivan has never been inclined to experiment with selections, and he isn't going to buck the trend now.

"I've used the old cliché of taking one game at a time, but there's four hurdles to be jumped in this pool and you can bet your bottom dollar that if you're looking at the third hurdle when you're jumping the first one you'll fall on your face. And that ain't going to happen."

Whatever about playing the same team, "you cannot play the same gameplan in every game", admits O'Sullivan, who says one of the biggest challenges facing coaching staffs at this World Cup will be to continue playing to one's strengths while not showing one's full hand, mindful that every team is "just going to be analysed to death".

His assistant coach, Declan Kidney, concurred. "You'll try and hold back something. You'll see what you have to use to get to wherever you have to go, and then see what else you have up your sleeve after that. But I don't think that makes us different to any other side."

Acknowledging that defences are improving all the while, Kidney suggested that "the key" might be penetrating those defensive lines.

"It will still come down to whoever defends the best, but the referees will obviously have a part to play in that as well. The penalty count in all matches now is reducing. I think on average it is now about 22 to 24 penalties a match, so if eight of those are shots at goal then it might be the side who is scoring the tries that's going to come out on top."

As to why penalty counts are falling, Kidney ventured: "Well, probably better management of the game on the referees' part in just setting out their stall. They're quite consistent now, there's only going to be a certain number of referees (16) refereeing the matches, right through to the final stages, so everybody is going to get to know what to expect of them and we're not going to go out testing referees like we used to before. As a result, that will probably reduce the penalties."

As much as the World Cup is about the successes and failures of "teams", thankfully much of the impetus still comes from moments of individual brilliance. The Wallabies, admittedly, almost gave the lie to that notion by winning the World Cup four years ago with their highly patterned and structured, multi-phase game. Even then, however, Tim Horan, especially, shone like a beacon.

Asked about the world-class status of Brian O'Driscoll and Keith Wood, O'Sullivan ventured that if you picked a team of the tournament at this juncture, there's a good chance the Irish pair would be in it. The key will be to find one or two more, with O'Sullivan understandably declining to speculate on the likely contenders.

"We'll always struggle to produce 10 world-class players, but there was a time when Ireland struggled to produce 15 international players. Now we know we can produce 20 or 25 international players, and sprinkled among those you're going to get a handful of world-class players. And that's what has probably made Irish rugby step forward in the last number of years."

However, when looking at potential winners of the William Webb Ellis trophy, Nick Farr-Jones recently revealed that on the eve of the 1991 tournament Bob Dwyer told the then Wallabies captain that you needed five players in the team of the tournament when it's all finished to have a chance of becoming world champions.

"Yeah, I think that's reasonable," agreed O'Sullivan. "If you could put five players on what would be the team of the tournament, it would put you a good way down the road toward winning the World Cup. Yeah, that's a reasonable statement. I wouldn't argue with that. It makes sense."