O'Kelly raring to go

The three changes in the Irish starting line-up to face Australia in Perth this Saturday all tell the tales of comeback kids. But whereas Trevor Brennan and Girvan Dempsey return after a fortnight's absence, this is Malcolm O'Kelly's first start since the fateful day of January 31st.

That it comes in a Test match away to the Wallabies might be considered extreme for any normal player, but either on or off the pitch Big Mal is anything but the norm. He often lives in a world of his own, although it seems like a nice world. As for his innate fitness, which is not exactly the product of Daley Thompson-like dedication, it drives his team-mates to the depths of frustration.

Aside from his exceptional speed and natural fitness levels - "it's the long legs man" - he also comes with a heart the size of a lion. His fellow players have looked on with the incredulous faces as O'Kelly, at first fearful of physical contact following his rehabilitation from a shoulder injury, has gradually inched his way to a full-scale return after two outings as a substitute.

Not that the easy-going manner hides the pain he went through. He well remembers the day, January 31st, he ruptured his shoulder while playing for London Irish against Harlequins. "I won't forget that date."

He doesn't recall the date he went under the surgeon's knife, February 20th, but O'Kelly well remembers the day. "It was the Saturday of the Welsh game. I watched the first-half, and then for the second-half I was under anaesthetic. It was a grim day, an all-time low."

The road back, he says, "wasn't that bad physically. It's not the hardest rehab. More than anything else it's the frustration and the waiting and watching the Irish team. To just have to sit there and watch it all go by, and have to accept it, not being a part of it. "Doing the required work wasn't difficult, but at London Irish you had to clock in every day. I was part of everything, yet I wasn't part of it. You take in all the atmosphere and you're just dying to play again."

Called aboard as a replacement in the New South Wales match last Saturday week, with typical fearlessness his first tackle was on Willie Ofahengaue. "He wasn't too happy," Malcolm says with a big smile, "because I grabbed him by his headgear." A far scarier moment came in one of his first rucks. "My left arm was caught under a body just as my right arm had been on January 31st. But I managed to pull it out this time and I haven't looked back."

After another even more no-holds-barred comeback game as a substitute in the second Test, throwing himself into tackles and restarts, and athletically snaffling one-handed line-outs under pressure from two jumpers, now comes his 14th cap on Saturday.

"It's a good step and my first game back. It's a huge honour to be actually selected from the start and get back into rugby again. I don't have any fear of my shoulder and it'll be interesting to see if I can last 80 minutes given the speed I like to play the game." Knowing him, he possibly will.

O'Kelly's place in the starting line-up was copper-fastened by Jeremy Davidson's swollen hand (accidentally trodden on during the first Test), although O'Kelly would probably have started anyway. Nonetheless, Davidson's injury (which ruled him out of last night's training in the Subiaco Oval and also today's last fullscale session) has obliged the management to leave a vacancy on the replacements' bench.

In a team which holds no real surprises and two other changes from the first Test, Brennan comes into the back row to the exclusion of his St Mary's team-mate Victor Costello, while Dempsey returns at full back for the injured Conor O'Shea.

If Davidson is declared fit in time for Friday's run-out, he will fill that last place on the replacements' bench. If not, then the management will presumably choose either Victor Costello or Robert Casey.

All in all, this constitutes quite a kick in the derriere for Costello, who has gone from first choice in the Five Nations to not even making the bench on a touring Test team already missing Eric Miller. His omission would seem to send out a message to all prospective Irish internationals about basic fitness levels and work-rate. It's up to Costello now, and being the person he is, you hope he responds to the challenge.

Ireland: G Dempsey (Terenure College); J Bishop (London Irish), B O'Driscoll (Blackrock College), K Maggs (Bath), M Mostyn (Buccaneers); D Humphreys (Dungannon), T Tierney (Garryowen); P Clohessy (Young Munster), K Wood (Harlequins), P Wallace (Saracens), P Johns (Dungannon), M O'Kelly (St Mary's), D T Brennan (St Mary's), D O'Cuinneagain (unat- tached) capt, A Ward (Ballynahinch). Replacements: J Bell (Dungannon), E Elwood (Galwegians), C Scally (Blackrock) D Corkery (Cork Constitution) R Corrigan (Lansdowne), R Nesdale (Newcastle), AN Other.