O’Connell would be a massive loss

IT WILL be another week or so before it is ascertained whether Paul O’Connell’s shoulder injury will prevent him taking his place against Wales at Lansdowne Road on Sunday week.

The Ireland second row will have further treatment over the coming week, although the management admitted yesterday that “the level of strain on the shoulder makes him a doubtful starter.”

Neither the national team nor Munster can afford to be without O’Connell over the forthcoming highly important and busy period while the player himself would be bitterly disappointed to lose any more of the season to injury, having missed much of the pre-Christmas programme because of a broken bone in his hand.

!Meanwhile, after six unconvincing performances since the final match of last year’s campaign in Cardiff, many Irish fans are baffled at what is going on with the national side. They see Munster and Leinster recover from dodgy starts to the Heineken Cup to produce displays of immense character, passion and skill to qualify for the knockout stages. The Ireland management more or less fuse the best elements of both teams and send them out in the confident expectation of a really big performance.

What we get instead is a players who sometimes look like they could be strangers in a rugby sense - note the incredible number of passes that went askew in the Stade de France on Saturday - and there is hardly a sign of the spirit that saved Munster’s and Leinster’s bacon in Europe. They appear to be completely rudderless.

It would be completely unfair to blame the coaching staff for much of Saturday’s ineptitude. Asked to explain how it could have happened, Eddie O’Sullivan replied: “I can’t.” There will, of course, be those who maintain he should be able to come up with an answer and that the buck stops at his door.

O’Sullivan is an intelligent and articulate man who invariably gets across a positive, well-reasoned argument that more often than not silences those trying to get under his skin. It was much the same this time, although I suspect there was a small but significant difference.

He was quiet, thoughtful, perhaps even a little bewildered at the Paris press conference and could only show a thin smile and whisper “next question” when a journalist asked how many points Ireland intended to gift-wrap for Wales on Sunday week.

In spite of what some are thinking and others are hoping, there is little threat to O’Sullivan’s position as head coach, but his style doesn’t sit well with many people and accordingly he is now enduring a barrage of criticism, most notably from one or two who were his greatest adherents in the not too distant past.

Still, you would be closing your eyes to reality if you were to suggest that all is well in the Irish camp. Just as the players have been looking inside their own selves over the past few days, I’m sure Eddie has been doing likewise. The common cause is a successful Irish team and quite patently we don’t have that at present.

The first indication of his intent will come with the announcement tomorrow week of the side to meet Wales. Surely it is now time for O’Sullivan to injecti some freshness into the side. That doesn’t preclude bringing back seasoned players and the first move I would make is to switch Geordan Murphy to the left wing, where he has been operating with great success for Leicester, and recall Girvan Dempsey at full-back.

That, in fact, would be in accordance with O’Sullivan’s stated policy of going with in form players but in all likelihood it would lead to another Irish side without an Ulsterman.

It is inconceivable that a backline of such apparent talent could cock things up again in such a similar manner and I would make no further change behind the scrum. Marcus Horan will make his inevitable return at loose head and while there is no challenge to John Hayes at tight head, it is fair to say that Simon Best’s arrival in Paris improved matters. He could be used after an hour or so on Sunday week to give Hayes the kind of break he never gets during a game.

The likelihood that O’Connell will miss the next game could save Malcolm O’Kelly’s place although in my view that would be a retrograde step. Either way, Donncha O’Callagahan is sure of starting and if O’Connell doesn’t make it, another in-form second-row, Mick O’Driscoll, deserves his chance ahead of O’Kelly or Matt McCullough, who looked out of his depth when afforded his chance in the autumn.

There is plenty of talent in the back-row, it’s getting the shape right that matters most. Denis Leamy had a thundering second half on Saturday. It was like he decided to go back to his natural way of playing rugby, and if that was his strategy, then it paid off in spades. David Wallace was one of the few Irish players to contribute profitably throughout the 80 minutes. Leamy and Wallace will stay and while my preference would be for the return of Anthony Foley at number eight, the greater likelihood is that Simon Easterby will be given one more chance.