‘Luck of the Irish’ deserts O’Sullivan as injuries mount
The luck of the Irish has certainly run out on this occasion for you can hardly imagine three more valuable players being sidelined at such a crucial stage of the season.
For a country of our size and resources, replacing them is a huge task although obviously the situation opens up doors for several fringe players. Mike Mullins will certainly fancy his chances of taking over from O’Driscoll at outside centre given that he is the only specialist in the position currently operating on the provincial scene.
However, O’Sullivan has appeared to be distinctly unimpressed by the claims of the New Zealand-born Munsterman since his arrival as national coach and may prefer to opt for a centre partnership of Kevin Maggs at 13 and Rob Henderson at 12.
That would mean two natural inside centres in the one side but other than Mullins, the alternatives aren’t exactly apparent. Henderson was one of the key men in Munster’s impressive defensive performance against Gloucester on Saturday and appears to be regaining the form that made him a Lion in 2001.
Girvan Dempsey is far from everybody’s cup of tea and wouldn’t be at the races were it not for Murphy’s long term injury.
But he probably remains the number one full-back for the time being with the opposition coming from Paddy Wallace, who showed a lot of class for Ulster against Leicester on Sunday, not least when creating their fourth try for Shane Stewart.
South African Shaun Payne has performed quite impressively since ousting Jeremy Staunton at Munster and could come into the equation. He qualifies through his Sligo-born parents.
Anthony Horgan may well have taken a major step towards claiming the left wing position with a fine game at Gloucester. Not that he was thinking along those lines after the disappointment of Kingsholm and like all of his teammates, right now only has thoughts for the “second leg” at Thomond Park on Saturday.
He dismissed as “not making much of a difference at the end of the day” his own personal contribution which included a superbly taken try and a few dashing runs down the left wing which imposed at least some pressure on the Gloucester defence.
“It was a very disappointing performance and we’ve just to get things right for next week-end,” he said.
“We’re good enough to do it, of course we are. We know they’re a good side, they proved it against us and away to Leicester the week before. It’s going to be difficult but certainly not beyond us.
“We went to Gloucester looking for a win. They were the better team on the day and they deserved it and things didn’t go our way.
“There are a few things we’ve got to get right, such as those little dinks that they put in behind that caused us a lot of trouble.”
Operating on the wing and right up against the fanatical Gloucester support on the “Shed” side of the pitch, Horgan experienced the unique Kingsholm atmosphere at first hand.
He described it as “superb,” saying: “Even when we arrived, the ground was nearly half full. It’s a special place, like Thomond Park, their fans are superb, so hopefully we’ll have the same in reverse this week. I wouldn’t call Kingsholm intimidating. We’ve been around for a while and must expect this kind of thing.”
Among his rivals for the Irish jersey may well be his clubmate and close friend John Kelly along with Ulster’s Tyrone Howe and Gordon D’Arcy of Leinster.
However, Eddie O’Sullivan has his own way of looking at these situations and speculating on how he will cope with the unfortunate situation in which he finds himself is a rather hazardous exercise.
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