O’Driscoll takes captaincy as Quins pair and Mullins get call

ALTHOUGH currently on the injured list and a doubtful starter for the game against France in Paris on February 14, Brian O’Driscoll has been named as captain of the Irish team for the duration of the RBS Six Nations Championship.

While O'Driscoll is no stranger to the captaincy he has carried out the role on nine occasions with an impressive eight successes to his name there is a view abroad that his overall impact as a player can be impaired by the added responsibility.

However, coach Eddie O'Sullivan doesn't see things in that light, although he has taken the unusual step of picking as many as five vice-captains, Reggie Corrigan, Anthony Foley, David Humphreys, Paul O'Connell and Ronan O'Gara.

The squad of 34 will be reduced to 22 on Tuesday next and the team to meet France in Paris on February 14 will be finalised from that panel on Tuesday, February 10.

"I haven't seen any evidence that the captaincy has affected Brian O'Driscoll's performances in the past," O'Sullivan said last night. "In fact, he's the most successful captain in the history of Irish rugby.

"He's 25 years of age and the ideal long term choice for the job. As for his injury, I just don't know how he's fixed where the French game is concerned. But he is one of the best players in the world and I would be very silly to rule him out before I absolutely have to.

"It will be very tight and it will also be a consideration that he won't have had a game for more than a month if he were to play in Paris. He's in full-time rehab at present and we'll have a better idea as to his prospects in seven to 10 days."

There are a few highly interesting names in the squad, not least those of the Harlequins pair Gavin Duffy and Paul Burke. Duffy's inclusion is an indication of the management's concerns about the full-back position given the continued absence of the gifted Geordan Murphy and the poor current form of Girvan Dempsey.

Dempsey is clearly under pressure for the number 15 jersey from both Duffy, the former Connacht regular, and Leinster's Gordon D'Arcy.

"Gavin has been holding down his place in a good Harlequins team while Paul is on top of his game at present and, of course, he was also third choice out-half for the World Cup," O'Sullivan said.

Burke seems to have been around for a long time but in actual fact won't be 31 until May. He won the first of his thirteen Irish caps against England in 1995 and the most recent as a substitute against Samoa last summer..

Full-back isn't the only position worrying O'Sullivan. Outside centre with the doubts over O'Driscoll making the inclusion of Mike Mullins all the more noteworthy.

This is probably the first time that O'Sullivan has paid serious attention to his claims but Mullins is now surely in the thick of things.

The coach said: "Mike has been doing very well in the European Cup."

Should Mullins fail to measure up to O'Sullivan's requirements, Ireland are looking at a centre partnership of Rob Henderson and Kevin Maggs, both far more accustomed to performing in the number 12 jersey and with which there appears to be a very clear imbalance.

There is no place for the likes of Johnny O'Connor, the exciting young Wasps open-side, Leinster scrum-half Brian O'Meara and Munster's Jeremy Staunton. O'Sullivan referred to "the nine or ten back-rows vying for places and I can't pick them all."

The coach stressed he was confined to three scrum-halves, with an inevitable casualty in the selection process. He has gone with the World Cup trio of Peter Stringer, Guy Easterby and Neil Doak, meaning there was no room for O'Meara, who has good reason to feel aggrieved considering his excellent form at the base of a fragile Leinster eight.

As for Staunton, his failure to hold down a regular place with Munster proved his undoing after being included in the squad that travelled to Lanzarote and for the Dublin camp immediately afterwards.

There will be even more upset players once the number is whittled down by another twelve on Tuesday which, of course, makes it all the more disappointing that the A internationals have been abolished.

Eddie O'Sullivan clearly regrets this and said: "We had forty players on view in each international weekend. That was ideal. Now we'll probably have to go on the form of those involved in the Celtic League."

The squad is: Forwards (17): S. Best (Ulster/Belfast Harlequins), S. Byrne (Leinster/Blackrock College), R. Corrigan (Leinster/Greystones), V. Costello (Leinster/St. Marys College), S. Easterby (Llanelli), A. Foley (Munster/Shannon), K. Gleeson (Leinster/St. Mary's College), J. Hayes (Munster/Shannon), M. Horan (Munster/Shannon), B. Jackman (Connacht/Clontarf), G. Longwell (Ulster/Ballymena), E. Miller (Leinster/Terenure College), D. O'Callaghan (Munster/Cork Con), P. O'Connell (Munster/Young Munster), M. O'Kelly (Leinster/St. Marys College), F. Sheahan (Munster/Cork Con), D. Wallace (Munster/Garryowen).

Backs (17): P. Burke (Harlequins), G. Darcy (Leinster/Lansdowne), G. Dempsey (Leinster/Terenure College), N. Doak (Ulster/Belfast Harlequins), G. Duffy (Harlequins), G. Easterby (Rotherham), R. Henderson (Munster/Garryowen), A. Horgan (Munster/Cork Con), Shane Horgan (Leinster/Shannon), T. Howe (Ulster/Dungannon), D. Humphreys (Ulster/Dungannon), J. Kelly (Munster/Cork Con), K. Maggs (Bath), B. O'Driscoll (Leinster/Blackrock College), M. Mullins (Munster/Old Crescent), R. O'Gara (Munster/Cork Con), P. Stringer (Munster/Shannon).