Irish sharks must devour group minnows

TOMORROW’S Pool A game in Sydney has always looked like Ireland’s World Cup turkey-shoot, and any reasonable assessment of Namibia’s performance against an Argentine second string only reinforces the perception.

While the Africans were occasionally gritty and always determined during their thrashing by the Pumas on Tuesday, they showed very little else of substance and, at times, their attempts at going forward were naive beyond belief.

Of the minnows in this fifth rugby world cup, only Uruguay and Georgia match their spectacular inadequacies. As amateurs playing a professional sport, they truly look out of place on the world stage.

Which does nothing to help Eddie O'Sullivan. It's damned if you do, damned if you don't for the Irish coach on Sunday and doesn't he know it. He's been talking up the challenge of Namibia all week long, perhaps to convince himself they will really test his side to some extent. They won't.

Yesterday's withdrawal of Reggie Corrigan from the starting line-up means this particular Irish front row combination won't have played a game together for 12 months, and heading into what is sure to be the mother of all front-row tests against Argentina in eight days time, that's scarcely ideal preparation.

As Marcus Horan moves up from the bench to win his 14th cap, his place amongst the replacements goes to thrice-capped Simon Best of Ulster and Belfast Harlequins.

"Reggie was nearly there but not quite right and we did not want to take that risk," O'Sullivan said. "If we had gambled and Reggie took another knock, it would put him out for a while."

Horan himself proved he had overcome a leg strain by taking a full part in yesterday's training, in which Brian O'Driscoll also reported fully fit.

The only other players on the injured list are Gary Longwell, with an on going calf strain, and Anthony Foley, who has a knee injury.

Despite Horan being named as the Leinster prop's replacement, the coach made it quite clear the battle between these two for the loose-head spot was far from settled as everybody seems to imagine.

"Marcus has started at loose-head before and to be fair, he's one of our front-line props who's been rotated around a bit," said the coach.

"John Hayes coming back in means a choice between Reggie and Marcus at loose-head, but there's not a lot in it, to be honest. They've both been heavily involved and with the substitution situation, you'll always use three props during a game anyway."

Besides the forced change in the front-row, O'Sullivan has been slow to wield the axe for the Namibia game, unlike Argentina who made 14 changes for their pool game against the Africans.

However the changes made by the management team are astute, pitching hungry players into vital positions just as Ireland's two biggest test games in recent history appear on the horizon.

In the back-row, Alan Quinlan, Eric Miller and Simon Easterby should impress against a side that has huge problems retaining ball at the break-down, while at out-half, Ronan O'Gara will hardly be holding back against a defence which conceded elementary tries on Tuesday.

"We have three good ball carriers and three good defenders in the back-row so there's a lot of bulk there," said O'Sullivan of his selection.

"It may not be as explosive as the other back-row we have, but they're certainly more physical and a heavier-hitting unit. With the players we have in that department we're in the luxurious position of being able to pick horses for courses, without actually weakening the back-row."

As for the No 10 shirt, a keen-as-mustard Ronan O'Gara will be simply itching to get his backline moving in some kind of harmony.

There is a sense in some quarters that if the Munster out-half can really shine tomorrow, he might dislodge David Humphreys for the Argentina game.

Only time will prove how true this might be, but O'Sullivan's has admitted O'Gara has nothing to prove to him, he simply wants to assess what kind of form the 26-year-old is in.

"It's not about proving anything," said the coach. "I'm well aware of Ronan's capabilities, I'm well aware of David Humphreys' capabilities, and 'proving' would be the wrong way to look at it. I just want to see how his form is, how he performs, what kind of game he puts out there.

"David Humphreys had a fine game last week in difficult conditions against a tough, aggressive, motivated team and I think he acquitted himself pretty well. It's a different game on Sunday and we'll see how things unfold."

Namibia should pose little threat to Ireland bar a stormy first 20 minutes, but after that, it really should be a tryfest. Argentina's 53 point, ten-try victory was slightly inflated by two pushover, and two penalty, tries, and that's an area where Ireland will fail to dominate like Los Pumas.

But a backline containing the rapier thrust of O'Driscoll, Hickie, Maggs, Horgan and O'Gara, should eventually run rings around their Namibian counterparts, and a scoreline in the seventies is certainly not out of the question.

O'Sullivan has been stressing all week that the final score doesn't matter but as a statement of intent, surely a big figure would make the world sit up and take notice.

An injury free victory with a bonus-point would be Ireland's ideal scenario at the Aussie Stadium tomorrow, but something a little bit extra would set everyone up nicely for Argentina on October 26th.

Ireland (v Namibia): Ireland: G. Dempsey; S. Horgan, B. O'Driscoll, K. Maggs, D. Hickie; R. O'Gara, P. Stringer; M. Horan, J. Hayes, K. Wood (capt), P. O'Connell, M O'Kelly, E. Miller, A. Quinlan, S. Easterby.

Replacements: S. Byrne, S. Best, D. O'Callaghan, V. Costello, G. Easterby, D. Humphreys, J. Kelly.