Jennings and Kearney to earn first caps

EDDIE O’SULLIVAN has remained true to his Argentine pre-tour philosophy that he’d endeavour to give as many members of his 30-man squad game-time by making 11 changes and one positional to the side that started last weekend.

Leicester’s Shane Jennings wins an overdue first cap after a rollercoaster season at Welford Road that saw the flanker win a Premiership and EDF Cup double despite coming up short in the Heineken Cup final to Wasps.

Leinster’s Rob Kearney jumps ahead of Luke Fitzgerald on the pecking order for the wing position to win his first cap while Barry Murphy and Eoin Reddan make their first starts.

O’Sullivan has picked an all-Wasps half back partnership of Reddan and Jeremy Staunton, moved Gavin Duffy to inside centre and brings Geordan Murphy from the bench to start at fullback.

O’Sullivan said he’d have had to wait until Thursday or Friday to make a call in the case of Paddy Wallace, who is carrying a knee injury, and, in the interests of team preparation time, felt it made every sense to start Staunton, who will win only his fifth cap at the weekend.

Saturday’s game in Velez Sarsfield stadium will be seen as a big opportunity for Staunton, who, until last weekend was slogging it out with Ireland A at the Churchill Cup. The former Munster out half/fullback struggled to nail down a more permanent place at Wasps since his move there from Harlequins in 2005, and is transferring to London Irish in the summer to bolster his chances of getting more game-time.

“It’s very hard for a guy to make his stake for an international if he’s not consistently batting at the next level down, which is ideally for us the Heineken Cup, the Guinness Premiership or the Magners League,” said O’Sullivan.

‘‘He’s a talented player, we all know that, but no matter how talented you are, you have to play regularly at a high level to really fulfil your potential and that’s been a difficulty for him – that’s one of the things that has held him back.”

Whatever nerves Staunton may have in what is possibly his last pre-World Cup squad audition, may be allayed by the presence of Eoin Reddan inside him.

Both made their Munster and Wasps debuts together and possess a good knowledge of each other’s game.

O’Sullivan spoke highly of the Wasps scrumhalf describing him as having “pretty much the complete package” when on his game. “He’s a good passer, he kicks well and he’s a good sniper and not afraid to get amongst the forwards, so he ticks all the boxes.

“I think the fact that himself and Jeremy have played together at Wasps will help both of them in the context of the game, so it’s probably no harm to keep a combination like that together given that there are 11 changes to personnel and another positional switch.”

The long awaited first start for Jennings, who lit the English Premiership alight in his two seasons at the east Midlands club, though is a welcome call by O’Sullivan who has opted to pick Ulster’s Stephen Ferris, nominally a flanker, at number eight. Alan Quinlan mans the number six shirt in another new-look back row, where “keen” would be a mild world to describe the competition that exists at six, seven and eight for World Cup squad places.

O’Sullivan opted to leave props Bryan Young and Simon Best in place because of their lack of experience in playing together at international level, while Frankie Sheahan completes the front row. There is no place for Peter Bracken, with Tony Buckley impressing his coach when introduced in the second half last weekend.

“I just want to see more of him. We’ve seen plenty of Peter, we know what he’s about,’’ O’Sullivan added.