O’Connell waiting on O’Sullivan’s crucial call
Two vacancies have been left in the side, as O’Sullivan waits until tomorrow - to give O’Connell every chance of recovering from a shoulder injury. That means O’Connell’s Munster colleagues, Donncha O’Callaghan and Mick O’Driscoll, as well as Malcolm O’Kelly, have to sweat it out.
O’Connell, if he proves his fitness, will be named in the team, while either O’Callaghan or O’Kelly will drop to the bench, leaving O’Driscoll out in the cold. ! The good news is that O’Connell believes he will be fit for the fray, while O’Sullivan believes he has every right to be given the chance to play, particularly given the most up-to-date medical reports.
The circumstances, he said, were different before the Wales game a couple of weeks ago. “We knew on the Tuesday before the game that he wouldn’t quite be ready and we had to make a call.
“It has been an up and down injury; at the moment it’s probably a 50-50 call. The next 48 hours will be important and there was no point in calling it now when we have more time to do so.
“At the same time, I’m anxious to make the decision so that the guys who are involved know where they stand.”
O’Sullivan is determined that he won’t throw O’Connell into the game if he is not quite right, despite the player’s own optimism.
The coach said: “It’s a shoulder injury and you have to be careful. Players like Paul, who takes on the ball a lot, tend to go into collision situations. There have been days when he has made great headway, days when we were very optimistic, maybe too optimistic, so with something like this, rehab is not just about rest, it’s about pushing the injury to the limit to see how it reacts.
O’Sullivan is not looking beyond this weekend - Ireland’s last Six Nations game at Lansdowne Road: “We will take nothing for granted. Scotland’s line out will be strengthened by the return of Scott Murray, but, in any event, it’s going to be a massively difficult game.
“Any side that goes out and beats France and England in the one season have to be respected. Scotland are probably the team of the championship so far in that they were written off at the start and yet came out to beat two very good teams.
“They appear to be very single minded in the way they want to play the game; they’re also playing with a lot of passion and commitment. Frank Hadden obviously knows what he wants and he is getting it out of the players.”
O’Sullivan is also conscious that Scotland will play a different game to Wales: “I doubt if it will be a replica of the Wales game. They’re a different team, they do get into the outside channels. They are more inclined to play a kicking, mixed game, a more balanced game. Wales tend to run an awful lot of ball, if they get the chance, while Scotland will be more varied. They will try to take line out possession off the top, they’ll drive at the opposition, maybe play target rugby up the middle and then, when least expected, will try to shift the ball out wide.
“All of that makes them a bit more difficult to assess and probably more difficult to contend with,” said the coach.
Both coach and captain, Brian O’Driscoll, agreed that Ireland need to be more ruthless in their execution of opportunities this week.
O’Driscoll remarked: “We will give Scotland the respect they deserve on the basis of what they have achieved so far, but we’re also conscious that there is, perhaps, another gear available to us.
“The good thing is that we have won two games even though we didn’t reach our full potential. We lost to France in a match that, when we finally got our act together, we could have won.
“There is room for improvement, but I also think we have the capability to improve. In looking back to the first, second and third games, I believe we have shown a level of improvement as we went along. Now, with two games to go, we want and need to get better and I think we are capable of that,” said the captain.
Meanwhile Nathan Hines and Scott Murray return to the Scotland team.
Murray was suspended for the Calcutta Cup win over England last month, while Hines made his international return on the bench.
The experienced pair will take over from Scott MacLeod and Alastair Kellock in the second row - in the only changes to the Scotland team.
Glasgow Warriors hooker Scott Lawson will be on the bench, meanwhile, in the absence of the injured Ross Ford.
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