Of all the head-to-heads in tomorrow's World Cup warm-up match between Connacht and Ireland, the duel at scrum-half is liable to end up in a figurative beheading. The way the expected two World Cup slots at scrum-half are panning out, it looks to be a straight fight between Conor McGuinness and Brian O'Meara.
Most probably no two people enjoyed watching the Irish tour matches in Australia less than this pair. Free of injury, they may well have gone on tour in tandem. Instead, they were obliged to stay at home, and for O'Meara, that was arguably the more galling given the Cork Constitution player had one foot on the plane but for a thumb - if that doesn't sound too Irish.
"I had a sore thumb in the (AIL) semi-final against Buccs and then in the final I intercepted a pass and broke a tackle, but Jeremy Staunton crashed into my thumb, and fractured it. It was swollen at the time so the doctor said leave it a while."
In the intervening week, O'Meara was named as one of the two scrum-halves in the Irish squad to tour Australia, completing a year-long route to the senior squad which had been derailed by injury and Munster's embarrassment of riches at scrum-half.
However, the ensuing Xray revealed a fracture. "It had just popped out of its joint so it needed pins to stabilise it. It was devastating after working my way back the whole way up, and then to be knocked down again."
O'Meara had returned from the previous summer's tour of South Africa frustrated by one and a half midweek games and what he saw as limited opportunities to stake a claim to add to his four caps.
Nonetheless, he saw the knee injury which sidelined him at the outset of last season as a blessing in disguise. "I was tired after two years of competitive rugby," he explains. "It was a good way of starting all over again. When I came back I was fresh and really looking forward to it. I just missed out on the end of the Munster campaign, but with Con doing so well it was a really good season for me to work my way back up.
"Then I played in the two A matches, which I did reasonably well in to earn a place on the tour, only to get injured," he concludes. His loss was Tom Tierney's gain, the fellow Munster scrum-half coming in as a late replacement and returning as the Irish incumbent.
O'Meara watched all four games, though admits he did so on his own. "You didn't really enjoy watching the games too much in those circumstances, but I thought they did marvellously in the second Test and had a good chance of winning." As for Tierney? "He went very well and made the most of it certainly. So all the best to him."
The thumb injury only prevented him from doing weights, so O'Meara knuckled down, stayed fit and approached the season confidently, always hoping that he would get some kind of opportunity with Munster.
"I got one and a half games so far, which isn't great but this Saturday is a great chance to prove that I can play at this level again."
Mind, however tough it is for O'Meara, the one you really feel sorry for is Peter Stringer. Many a judge, and not all of them from Munster, maintain that the province has arguably the best three scrum-halves in the country. But despite being one of the key players in turning Munster's season around last term, Stringer finds himself now third choice in the province without even the now defunct A interprovincials to display his skills.
"Even though you mightn't be on the Munster team, you might be on the Irish team, that's the way you look at it," admits O'Meara.
"It's hard for us. There's three good scrum-halves there and only one of us can play at any one time. The one thing I don't want is a revolving door all season. That's not going to benefit any of us. So I think Declan Kidney is going to have to make a choice for one of us soon enough, or else no one's going to really improve throughout the season."
Indeed, with every performance or even a little cameo seemingly magnified by the onset of the World Cup, it adds unenviable pressure, and O'Meara admits he was very nervous when replacing Tierney for the second-half of Munster's win over Leinster at Temple Hill.
"We were into the wind and up the hill, it was 10-6 and I was thinking, 'jeesus, what a lousy time to be coming on, thanks very much.' But I was delighted with the way I played, and then I got four minutes against Connacht," he says wryly. "I didn't get on at half-time and we were beating them about 60-0, so I was disappointed with that," he adds laughing.
Like almost every Irish player, even at 23, O'Meara's career has already had its ups and downs. It's worth remembering that he was only 20 when he first broke into the Irish team. Technically, he's always been as good as any scrum-half around, but like his half-back partner at Con, Ronan O'Gara, O'Meara has come on a ton in the last year or so.
He accepts that his decision-making at the base of the scrums, rucks and mauls has improved. "I've learned a whole lot over the last year and a half, not just physically but in decision-making as well. Obviously with Brads (Michael Bradley) at Cons, he's helped me; nothing much differently I'm just playing a bit more simply really. If there's a gap there I go for it, if not I just use different options. I suppose the more you play, the more experience you have."
An added problem for O'Meara though is that Tierney returned from Australia as the first-choice scrum-half. And somehow you suspect that McGuinness' greater involvement in the squad over the last two seasons (since returning to the team at O'Meara's expense for Warren Gatland's first game in Paris) gives the Connacht man an edge.
Yet O'Meara remains palpably self-confident. "I just have to concentrate on myself really. I know if I play to my ability I'm as good an anybody if not better so once I get myself right I know I'm in with a shout."
