O'Gara injury remains cause for concern

Ronan O'Gara remained the Irish management's biggest concern after the first day of the 25-man squad's two-day get-together in Dublin yesterday. The uncapped Cork Constitution and Munster out-half's knee injury has improved considerably but he was only able to take a light part in non-contact work yesterday afternoon.

Although O'Gara is expected to have fully recovered by next Sunday, nevertheless as Irish manager Donal Lenihan last night pointed out this means that the in-form 22-year-old will have effectively missed eight sessions, which "creates difficulties".

"We will monitor his progress, and although he can't kick the ball at the moment he does seem to be improving rapidly," added Lenihan. Although others didn't train, namely Bob Casey (knee), John Hayes, who sustained a mild leg injury in the morning session, and Girvan Dempsey (dead leg), they are not a source of concern.

Some of the English-based players were released for midweek club duty - Paul Wallace and Kevin Maggs, along with Guy Easterby and Geordan Murphy from the A squad. A variety of injuries in the latter squad, to David Wallace (dead leg), Alan Quinlan (shoulder), Reggie Corrigan (flu) and Eric Miller (flu) may mean the postponement of the anticipated announcement of an A selection on Thursday, when the test squad is likely to be reduced to 22 or 23 before the team is finalised next week.

Meanwhile, the captain of Ireland's World Cup winning under-19s of two seasons ago, Shane Moore, will lead the Irish under-21s in their opening Six Nations match at Banbury RFC on Friday week. Moore is one of six members of that under-19 team, and one of six UCD players in the 22-man squad.

It is a relatively experienced team for this level, with Kieran Campbell and Jeremy Staunton at half-back. There are only five debutants, one of whom, Gordon D'Arcy, bypassed this age group when moving into the Ireland A team last season and the World Cup squad.