Squad maturing at a perfect time

WHEN new Welsh captain Stephen Jones kicked off against Australia at the Millennium Stadium last Saturday he set in motion a 20 game autumn series featuring all the major countries on the world stage.

With the World Cup now less than 10 months away, the November window for international rugby will prove vital to the plans of the respective management teams.

When the four home countries announced their squads within 24 hours of each other two weeks ago, it was inevitable that comparisons would be made. For me, Eddie O’Sullivan’s 32-man Irish squad represented the strongest collection of players that has been available to this country at any one time.