Ireland boost as O’Gara available

THE 22-strong Irish squad for the game against France at Lansdowne Road tomorrow week will be announced today.

And it will include the name of Ronan O'Gara who came through a panel session in Dublin yesterday. Provided he shows no adverse reaction he will turn out for Cork Constitution against UL/Bohemians in the AIB League at Thomond Park tomorrow.

"Ronan has been involved in physical work over the past few days and has come through very well," said Irish manager Brian O'Brien last night. "Unless there is a negative reaction and there doesn't seem any reason why there should be Ronan will play for his club on Saturday and we'll see how things are after that. In the meantime, he will be included in the 22-man squad for the French game."

O'Gara and Frankie Sheahan have their first outings of the season for Constitution, who also include Brian O'Meara at scrumhalf and Mick O'Driscoll and Jim Williams in the second and back rows respectively.

Donncha O'Callaghan has had a lot of rugby of late and so will not play at the request of Irish coach Eddie O'Sullivan. John Kelly is also ruled out reason while Anthony Horgan is a week away from returning to action.

"Anthony is 95% fit and we expect him back for the Munster Cup game against Sunday's Well next week," said Constitution coach Chris Cantillon.

Con aren't the only club in receipt of good news from the Irish management. The way has been cleared for Marcus Horan and Alan Quinlan to line out for Shannon against Blackrock College at Stradbrook.

Whereas Quinlan is almost certain to remain on the bench against the French, at least until some stage of the second half, Horan will line out at loosehead prop from the start of that game as a replacement for the injured Reggie Corrigan. With few other apparent back-up props available, it could be argued it is quite a risk to involve Horan in a very competitive fixture a week before such a crucial Six Nations engagement.

"The way we see it is that Marcus could do with a match," reasoned O'Brien. "He had half a game against Italy but was more or less idle for the few weeks before that. Indeed the guys on the A team have had more rugby than Marcus and the other subs. It's a case of trying to man-manage the situation as best we can. We will pick the team on current form and the only way for that to be gauged is for the players to get competitive action."

Accordingly, Sheahan with Cork Con, Horan and Quinlan with Shannon, Leo Cullen with Blackrock College, Rob Henderson with Young Munster and Guy Easterby with Llanelli, are being encouraged to turn out for their clubs over the weekend.

On a more negative note, Paul O'Connell's anticipated return has been put back another fortnight although he took a full part in the squad's latest session. He will have a scan today on the injured hand that has kept him out of the game for the past couple of months.

Likewise, David Wallace, who played three successive AIL games for Garryowen, injured an ankle during the Charity Cup final a couple of weeks ago and will miss tomorrow's clash with Lansdowne at Dooradoyle.