Watching brief for Wallace

DAVID WALLACE spent another training session on the touchlines yesterday as medical staff continue monitoring an ankle problem, which coach Eddie O’Sullivan has described in the past as “chronic”.

Wallace’s last competitive game came for Munster against Edinburgh in the Magners League on May 4 and he is unlikely to feature in against Bayonne in tomorrow night’s friendly as medics work frantically to get Ireland’s only recognised open-side flanker in the RWC squad ready for the tournament.

O’Sullivan is expected to field a mix of front-liners and fringe players against the French Top 14 side. He has already hinted that his perceived ‘First XV’ will get a “hit out” against Italy in Ravenhill on Friday week and that game appears to be a realistic target for Wallace’s comeback.

Other injury concerns surround Simon Best who is suffering a minor back spasm, while Geordan Murphy did not train due to a dead leg sustained against Scotland.

Temperatures hit a high of 28 degrees Celsius at Ireland’s warm-weather camp in Capbreton in the south west of France with the intensity on the training paddock also rising a couple of levels.

O’Sullivan upped the ante at the Parc des Sport in the French coastal resort town in advance of the Bayonne game where the team had a full contact session in blazing sunshine and ran though their patterns for the Bayonne match.

One man likely to feature against Bayonne is Gordon D’Arcy. The Wexford man missed the cut for the 2003 World Cup, but is immersing himself in preparations for next month’s tournament.

“It’s great to be able to train in these sorts of conditions as it gives us the chance to get a lot or work done without worrying about rain or the weather affecting what we do. It also gives us some idea of what we will be encountering when we get into the tournament,’’ D’Arcy said.

“Today’s session was full on and guys are very keen to be involved in the game on Thursday. For a lot of us it may be our first hit out of the season, so the intensity was really high.”

On his World Cup selection, D’Arcy said: “After missing out on the last tournament, it was great to the nod for this one. A World Cup in any sport is very special and while we all want to enjoy it, we will enjoy it even more if we perform to the best of our ability.”

The Ireland team will be announced this afternoon after training for a game which is expected to be 15,000 sell–out.

“The game gives us a chance to get more game time for the squad which is what we need,” said O’Sullivan, “so I would expect to get as many of the players who did not feature against Scotland on the park at some stage. Teams in this part of the world take their rugby very seriously and in front of what is expected to be a full house, we expect to get a tough game.”

Daniel Larrechea is one of three well-known names on the Bayonne team. Larrechea rejoined the club after spending two seasons with Philippe Saint-Andre’s Sale Sharks in the English Premiership.

Former Toulouse winger and French international, Xavier Garbajosa, is also named on the French Top 14 side, but will start at outside centre alongside former French great Richard Dourthe.

Dourthe became a fixture on French teams between 1995 and 2001 and won the last of his 31 international caps against the Irish in Dublin in February 2001.

BAYONNE (v Ireland): D Larrechea; V Inigo, X Garbajosa, R Dourthe, B Llande; P-H Vermis, A Salle-Canne; J M Usandisaga, D Roumieu, A Iguiniz; R Linde, M Tewhata; J Deen, L Massabeau, D Haare.

Replacements: A Heguy; J Fiorini; C Bergez, M Baget, J Tilloles, S Hegarty, S Ternisien.