O'Sullivan opts for Wasp to provide Scot sting

WITH Eddie O'Sullivan holding out hope that Brian O'Driscoll and Gordon D'Arcy may still be available to face Scotland at Murrayfield on Saturday, the return of Jonny O'Connor at open-side wing-forward in place of Denis Leamy will hardly receive the attention it merits.

While the treatment of Leamy will be seen as harsh in some circles, O'Sullivan had hinted before the team travelled to Rome that he was likely to operate on a 'horses for courses' basis for the No 7 shirt.

And when Leamy performed moderately against the Azzurri, it was likely the coach would turn again to the 24-year-old Wasp from Galway.

"Jonny's inclusion would have been the big story were it not for the injuries to Brian and Gordon," said O'Sullivan.

"Denis had a pretty solid game in Rome, while not making as big an impact as he would have liked. He's not dropped because he played badly.

"We felt a groundhog like O'Connor would be important for us against the Scots, so it's not been a complete change of mind. It's probably the one area in the team where we can play horses for courses with the quality of players we have there."

Like every other back-row forward in the Six Nations, O'Connor will have to be careful where the new breakdown laws are concerned.

"It's a scary situation that they weren't refereed at the weekend," said O'Sullivan.

"John Kirwan and I spoke to (referee) Paddy O'Brien before Sunday's game. He was being careful and you can't blame him ... he said he wouldn't penalise guys unless there was obvious protection of the ball.

"I don't know if they're going to get hauled over the coals about doing that. They'll be assessed and may get hammered for not being more stringent. Maybe this week, they will be."

It hardly seems the fairest way in which to treat international players so O'Sullivan and no doubt, his opposite number, Matt Williams will instruct O'Connor and co to be vigilant until they see how French referee Joel Jutge is interpreting the rule.

To watch the training session at Naas RFC in yesterday morning's heavy rain, one gained the impression that Marcus Horan might be getting a starting place ahead of Reggie Corrigan at loose-head prop, but O'Sullivan stuck with the Leinster captain.

However, another poor forward performance against the Scots could have repercussions for several forwards for the all-important game against England two weeks later.

For this game, though, there is the positive news that the controversial Mitre ball that clearly troubled Ronan O'Gara in Rome will be replaced this time by the more familiar Gilbert.

"The Italians kicked it better than we did because they're used to it.

Ronan certainly didn't strike it well out of hand and he missed a lot of touches and strangely enough, that had a big effect on the first-half. We stole three of their line-outs but we couldn't find touch, otherwise it would have been more, as it was an area where we wanted to put them under pressure.

"Italy played very well and are as good an Italian side as I've seen but we kept them in the game in the first-half by not finding our touches. That gave them a toehold on the game and we didn't get our first attack until 20 minutes in."

As for Scotland, he feels while they will be disappointed at not winning in Paris, they will take a lot out of it.

"They held on to the ball well, they used the corners to keep the ball behind the French. Their set piece functioned and they had a very good line-out."