Coach keeps fans guessing
It was only during the morning training session that we realised that the back-row was about to be drastically altered and not just because Anthony Foley couldn't be considered because of injury.
O'Sullivan lined up his A team with Victor Costello in Foley's number eight position with Alan Quinlan at number seven and Simon Easterby on the blind side.
And that's the formation he subsequently opted for. No place then for Keith Gleeson (even among the replacements), the only recognised open side among the six back-row forwards brought to Australia, nor for Eric Miller, who must have been fancying his chances after scoring two tries in Sunday's victory over Namibia.
"It's going to be a physical encounter with Argentina," O'Sullivan reasoned. "We are lucky to have players in the back-row that we can mix and match.
"Victor Costello can do a very good job for us at six or eight, he does a very good job as a ball carrier, especially off the base, and he's very effective in broken play but his work rate has also gone up in defence."
O'Sullivan will sink or swim by the success or otherwise of this selection. However, O'Sullivan is adamant the extra "devil" he sees in Easterby and Quinlan will be of greater benefit to Ireland than the athleticism of Gleeson and Miller.
"It was a tight call which is a reflection of the quality of the players we have," said O'Sullivan.
"Eric is on the bench for that reason. And Keith Gleeson is aware his omission has more to do with the make-up of the back-row.
"When you have quality depth, it's judicious to pick horses for courses. Irish rugby hasn't been in this position for a while. It's now a 22-man game, it's not always the team that starts a game that wins it, more often the team that finishes the game wins it," he said.
Although O'Sullivan continually stresses how little there is between David Humphreys and Ronan O'Gara for the out-half position, he invariably comes down in favour of the Ulsterman for the bigger matches. That trend continues.
"This is like a broken record but at the moment David is in the driving seat by the skin of his teeth," he said.
"Over the two games, it could have gone either way. We're just going with the guy in possession who is showing good form."
The Irish management and the squad to a man would like to rid themselves of the memory of their defeat by Argentina in the last World Cup four years ago. They don't like the subject of Lens being raised and O'Sullivan was at pains to play down the revenge element associated with Sunday's game.
"It's strange we're still dealing with Lens," he mused. "It's four years ago. I wasn't involved and a lot of the present team weren't involved.
"Things have changed dramatically since then for both teams. Argentina, arguably, are the most improved rugby team in the world, just as we are a better team as well. I look back to November when we all said our game with them would throw down a marker for the World Cup.
"We performed very well that day in difficult conditions and delivered a good performance and won. We didn't run away with it, but it was a good solid performance. We need an even better performance than that on Sunday and it's going to be a very tight game," he said.
O'Sullivan accepted the intensity in preparation has gone up a few gears from the previous fortnight: "The next two weeks are absolutely huge and this week especially. If we win, we're into the quarter-finals. That's our goal. It's exactly where we wanted to be.
"The Pumas are very clear about the way they want to play the game. There is a Puma style that everyone recognises and they know that if they execute that style well that they can beat anyone.
"They'll do what they do best. They'll be very aggressive at scrum time and maul time and in attack. It will be a bruiser, hand-to-hand combat, and not for the faint hearted," said the coach.
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