Drinking at the last chance saloon

EVERY cloud has a silver lining but the old adage hardly looked appropriate on February 5th, 2000, after England had inflicted a humiliating 50-18 defeat on the Irish rugby team at Twickenham.

If there was a redeeming feature from a feeble Irish performance, it was that England were very good on the day. Jonny Wilkinson was in his pomp, spinning out devastating skip passes to which Brian O'Driscoll and Co didn't have any response, and the tries flowed with embarrassing regularity. Then Irish coach Warren Gatland, as always, sat there quietly, absorbed what was happening and decided only desperate action could remedy a desperate situation.

A few days later, he announced five changes in the Irish back division and three more in the pack for the visit of Scotland. More than half the Twickenham team paid the price, something almost unheard of where the management of the professional game in this country was concerned. Many thought Gatland had gone too far, but subsequent results proved him right, and indeed as many as seven of those who benefited from the English debacle are still members of the Irish squad, while two of those who survived the axe are still very much to the fore.

However, you wonder if all that could change should another humiliating defeat be our lot in the Stade de France on Saturday. In my view, there is every incentive for a large proportion of the side to deliver far more than has been evident in their last four outings, and there will be added interest in the form of many pretenders for their places in Friday night's A international in Limoges. Eddie O'Sullivan, Gatland's successor, has shown commendable loyalty to most of his players and that certainly is one way of building team spirit. It could, of course, also be argued this loyalty is breeding a certain complacency.

The three autumn internationals were dismal affairs but, if anything, Saturday was even worse. You can argue the Italians have improved but the fact remains this was a dismal display and the unthinkable a first ever away win for the Azzurri in the Six Nations might well have happened, were it not for the two decisive try decisions by referee David Pearson.

Brian O'Driscoll may now wish he had never said "play like that the Stade de France and you get obliterated" but there's more than a ring of truth to the words. And should that come to pass, O'Sullivan could well indulge in a selection pogrom similar to Gatland's in 2000 for the clash with Scotland two weeks later.

Six years ago, Gatland decided that full-back Conor O'Shea, wings Justin Bishop and Kevin Maggs, half-backs David Humphreys and Tom Tierney, prop Paul Wallace, second-row Bob Casey and flanker Dion O'Cuinneagain should be discarded and make way for Girvan Dempsey, Shane Horgan, Denis Hickie, Ronan O'Gara, Peter Stringer, John Hayes, Mick Galwey and Simon Easterby. Of that octet, all but Hickie and Galwey were new caps. The results of Gatland's cull were immediate.

Scotland were demolished 44-22 at Lansdowne Road; France were pipped 27-25 at the Stade de France on the day O'Driscoll scored a hat-trick of tries and Italy were annihilated 60-13 in Dublin. Some of the gloss was removed by a shock home defeat by Wales but Gatland had saved his job, in the short term, and made a telling point.

Those who maintained the options weren't available were proved wrong, and should the worst happen on Saturday against a French side smarting from Murrayfield, then O'Sullivan should look at altering and thereby improving his side 20 months short of the next World Cup.

That doesn't necessarily mean introducing a whole raft of new caps. He could still look in the direction of forwards like Simon Best, Bob Casey, Mick O'Driscoll, Trevor Brennan, Keith Gleeson and above all Anthony Foley. As for fresh blood, there's an abundance of it, led by Shane Jennings of Leicester and Ulster's Neil Best and Roger Wilson. It might sound like heresy to contemplate changing the back division but not even the return of Brian O'Driscoll has done much to inject punch and penetration. Apart from Ronan O'Gara's sublime pass that should have led to a Tommy Bowe score in the first half, they hardly produced a line break of note and nothing like that of Ramiro Pez in setting up the Italian try.

Girvan Dempsey and Denis Hickie remain in the equation while Andrew Trimble and Eoin Reddan of the current 22 and Barry Murphy, Robert Kearney, Tomas O'Leary and Kieran Lewis are worthy of consideration.

Friday night's A international at Limoges could open the door for some of the above. As for Paris on Saturday, expect Eddie to keep changes to a minimum when he announces the XV today. It may prove the last saloon for several should the feared French backlash materialise.