O’Sullivan to give O’Gara all time he needs

NO rush, no panic. That’s clearly the course of action being taken by Irish coach Eddie O’Sullivan.

It has been O'Sullivan's trademark since he took over from Warren Gatland. He gave captain Keith Wood all the time he needed to make it back in time for the World Cup and yesterday intimated he would do the same with Ronan O'Gara.

The Munster and Ireland out-half has been excluded from the 22-man squad to take on Italy at Thomond Park on Saturday week and, indeed, faces a medical examination on a broken bone in his thumb on Monday.

O'Gara, who initially thought he would be in contention for this particular match, will have to wait. But if he might feel just a little frustrated, the coach is not.

"He is one of the front-line players and it makes sense not to rush him back too soon," O'Sullivan said. "It is one of those injuries that can only be fixed by time and it makes no sense whatever trying to get him back before that time. Ronan is to have another medical examination next week and we will know then whether he can go back to full training.

"Up to now he has been doing everything except full physical contact but that was down to medical advice. If he came back too soon he could be knocked out for several more weeks.

"I am confident he will get the all-clear early next week and he will be fit to play in a couple of matches before the World Cup. I'm sure his target will be to declare himself fit for the game with Scotland but he still has other opportunities to play for Munster if that doesn't work out."

Clearly then, O'Sullivan is prepared to give O'Gara every opportunity to continue his ongoing battle with David Humphreys, one of just three players who survived the cut from the victory over Wales in Dublin last weekend.

Humphreys, Geordan Murphy and Brian O'Driscoll are the only survivors from the team which lined out against Wales, but O'Sullivan made no apologies for making such sweeping changes.

"We have been working off a 40-man squad and the aim right from the start was to give everyone, wherever possible, an opportunity to press their claims for places in the much smaller (30-man) World Cup squad.

"We have to be fair to everyone. I suppose there will be further changes for the match with Scotland in Murrayfield. Ideally, I would like to think that the team selected in that would be close to my ideal team but people have an opportunity to fight their way into the side.

"At the moment we are fairly happy with the way things have gone. Our injury problems aren't that bad and players have come bang slap into top form.

"It makes selection difficult but that's the way I like it. From our perspective, we're now approaching a situation where we have a bigger squad to choose from. People like John Mitchell in New Zealand and Clive Woodward in England have been much more used to that than Irish coaches in the past so, overall, I'm pretty happy at the moment."

Ireland's front row problems of last week may take a turn for the better against the Italians. It's likely that both Marcus Horan and John Hayes will be back to challenge for places. Both, said O'Sullivan, are likely to play some part in Munster's friendly game against Rotherham on Friday.

Shane Horgan, who withdrew from the Irish squad last week, is still nursing his thigh injury but O'Sullivan believes he will be in a position to play some role against Scotland in Murrayfield.

The Irish team will be announced in Limerick on Tuesday next from that panel of 22, which includes Victor Costello, a late withdrawal from the Welsh match with a calf injury. Also back is winger Denis Hickie, who missed the summer tour to Australia, Tonga and Samoa because of a groin injury.

Ireland squad: Backs G Dempsey (Leinster), D Hickie (Leinster), J Kelly (Munster), G Murphy (Leicester), J Bell (Ulster), B O'Driscoll (Leinster), R Henderson (Munster), D Humphreys (Ulster), G Easterby (Rotherham), B O'Meara (Leinster).

Forwards J Fitzpatrick (Castres), S Byrne (Leinster), P Shields (Ulster), M Horan (Munster), J Hayes (Munster), G Longwell (Ulster), L Cullen (Leinster), D O'Callaghan (Munster), E Miller (Leinster), K Dawson (London Irish), V Costello (Leinster), S Easterby (Llanelli).

Additional players for training: R Corrigan (Leinster, Greystones), G D'Arcy (Leinster, Lansdowne), T Howe (Ulster, Dungannon), A Horgan (Munster, Cork Constitution), P O'Connell (Munster, Young Munster), A Quinlan (Munster, Shannon), P Wallace (Ulster, Ballymena).