Eager Wood named in squad

ALTHOUGH he hasn’t played a game in more than a month and may not line out for Harlequins on Saturday, Keith Wood has been included in the Irish squad of 22 from which the team to play Australia in the permanent tsb international at Lansdowne Road on Saturday week will be chosen.

Coach Eddie O’Sullivan explained yesterday that Wood was anxious to lead Ireland against the world champions, and given his status as rugby’s number one hooker, the Irish management are prepared to give him more time to prove his fitness.

On Monday, Wood began the long road back from disc trouble in his neck, and while the odds are stacked against him doing so, he could well make the Australian game, even if he doesn’t play for Harlequins at the weekend.

That is the esteem in which he is held by the coach who, however, is happy to have Shane Byrne and Frankie Sheahan as his alternatives.

While the issue of Wood’s fitness has been making headlines, there is considerable scope for debate about several other areas of the squad.

For instance, Alan Quinlan will almost certainly wear the No 6 jersey against the Aussies.

He is the only blind-side flanker in the squad, with Eric Miller and Simon Easterby on the injured list.

This is a great chance for Quinlan to press his claims for a regular place and he has been showing good form this season with Munster, for whom he fills any back-row berth with equal comfort.Quinlan’s Shannon club-mate, Anthony Foley, will probably captain the side should Wood fail to make it, and that, of course, means one Killaloe man would succeed another in the leadership of the national side.

Interestingly, though, Foley, Brian O’Driscoll and David Humphreys have all been accorded the status of vice-captain in the squad. The back row will be completed by Keith Gleeson, Malcolm O’Kelly and Gary Longwell, both of whom have been in great form and are the automatic second-row pairing, while that appears to be the case also with props Reggie Corrigan and John Hayes.

Corrigan has taken over the mantle of Peter Clohessy at loose head, but in the short term, surely faces a very strong challenge for the number-one jersey from Munster’s Marcus Horan.

Peter Stringer will again fill the scrum-half berth, although it continues to surprise many that Guy Easterby

remains his stand-in.

It is hard luck for Brian O’Meara, especially, and Neil Doak, that they are not getting a look in.Ronan O’Gara will probably edge out Humphreys at out-half, and as the only full-back in the 22, there is no challenge to Girvan Dempsey for the No 15 jersey.

However, the management have some hard thinking to do before deciding on the best formation in the three-quarter line.

Denis Hickie on the left wing and O’Driscoll at second centre are certainties.

The wise money is on Kevin Maggs to slot in beside O’Driscoll, with Shane Horgan edging out John Kelly on the right wing. That one will assuredly be a close call.

Furthermore, it is surprising that Geordan Murphy has been included in a list of eight players who were not considered because of injury, because he returned for Leicester in the English Premiership last Saturday and scored a try and dropped a goal.

Compare his treatment with the manner in which Wood is being given every opportunity to show his fitness in spite of a month’s lay-off and it does not make much sense.

Meanwhile, O’Driscoll has been shortlisted for the International Rugby Players’ Association’s Player of the Year award. The Leinster centre is up against Frenchman Fabien Galthie, Australia’s Stephen Larkham, Jonny Wilkinson, of England, and All Black Scott Robertson for the award.

The awards will be presented at a ceremony at the Royal Lancaster Hotel, Hyde Park, London, on November 13. England, France, New Zealand and Australia have been nominated in the Team Of The Year category.