Fringe players get chance to tango in Tonga

AFTER the disappointment of defeat to Australia last Saturday, the pressure is now on the remaining members of the tour party to ensure that Ireland revert to winning ways with a victory over Tonga.

With nine of the original party now safely back on Irish soil, Eddie O'Sullivan will look to his fringe players to put the show back on the road. That shouldn't be too difficult against the struggling Tongans.

The nations have only met once before, in the inaugural World Cup in 1987. Given the recent focus on the demands made on the modern player, it is rather interesting to recall the scenario which Ireland faced 16 years ago.

Having played Canada in lashing rain in Canterbury, deep in New Zealand's south island, we were forced to play Tonga in Australia's sun drenched Ballymore Stadium in Brisbane, two time zones and three days later.

And they think things are tough now!

Tonga recently played the New Zealand Maoris and were hammered 4712, conceding seven tries. Therefore Ireland's biggest obstacle this weekend is likely to be the heat and the hard ground.

Meanwhile, all of the other home nations are involved in major tests against southern hemisphere opposition this weekend. The pick of these games is England's clash with New Zealand. Anyone present in Lansdowne Road for the Grand Slam decider will know the might of this England outfit. Their encounter with the All Blacks will be compulsive viewing.

Recent form in the Super 12 suggests that the All Blacks are the current favourites to win the World Cup. With a plethora of outstanding backs, given a decent supply of ball, they could be devastating. However there are considerable doubts about the ability of their front five to provide quality ball. The battle up front should be very revealing from that point of view. England's big, experienced forwards will certainly test them.

In last Monday's opening tour game against the New Zealand Maori, England's second-string pack completely destroyed their counterparts. It is also a measure of England's strength in depth that their reserve side contained nine Lions.

While Ireland were forced to travel severely understrength, England surprisingly, given the workload their players had to endure in the domestic season, have a full strength squad. In this respect, Clive Woodward is taking a gamble exposing all his front line players against the top two sides in the game. Victory against New Zealand and Australia will raise expectations to an all time high for the World Cup but equally defeat could cause other problems.

History is certainly against England given their track record in the southern hemisphere. On the seven occasions they have played New Zealand, they have succeeded only once. More surprisingly, after ten tests against Australia, they are still awaiting their first victory. As this will be New Zealand's first test of the season, England have an excellent chance of victory.

ON Saturday, in Johannesburg, Scotland play South Africa for the second time in a week. Unbelievably, the Scots led the Springboks by 13 points with ten minutes to go in last Saturday's game.

Scotland, having scored two outstanding tries, were superior in all facets of play with the exception of the scrum. However, they couldn't quite believe the position they were in and lacked the killer instinct to put the South Africans away.

It is a measure of the disarray that prevails in the South African game at present that their coach, Rudi Straeuli, selected only one player from the 22 who participated in their most recent international against England. No international side can sustain that level of player turnover.

In truth, the South Africans were appalling and played a brand of rugby that was outdated 20 years ago. It is amazing how far the Springboks have fallen in recent times, but with so many of their players now plying their trade overseas, they are obviously finding it difficult to cope.

However, as Saturday's match will be played at altitude in Ellis Park, Scotland may have missed the chance to record a famous victory.

Australia are in action again when they play Wales in the first game of their tour. No doubt Eddie Jones will be pleased with the performance from a number of his fringe players last Saturday and will be keen to continue their winning sequence prior to the test with England the following week.

Wales, who were whitewashed in the Six Nations Championship, will find it difficult to compete with the Aussies on the basis of last Saturday's performance.

Of more interest to Eddie O'Sullivan will be the encounter between Argentina and France on Saturday evening. Given that Argentina are in Ireland's World Cup pool, their progress will be monitored very closely over the coming months.

As the majority of their players are now based in England and France, the South Americans have suffered from a lack of training opportunities in recent times. Given that they will now spend the next four months together in the build-up to the World Cup, there is huge scope for improvement in what is a very experienced and talented squad.

In the corresponding fixture last season they beat a French team that had just captured the Grand Slam. They are a very difficult side to beat in Buenos Aires, and now enjoy the fanatical support that one previously only associated with their national soccer team.

With the exception of the Ireland test, all of these games are live on Sky. I'm afraid cutting the lawn may just have to wait another week.