O’Sullivan stands by selections

IRELAND coach Eddie O’Sullivan has defended his decision to exclude Leinster flankers Keith Gleeson and Shane Jennings from his Six Nations squad.

O’Sullivan’s decision to promote Connacht’s Johnny O’Connor to join David Wallace as one of two specialist number sevens in the 33-man squad raised eyebrows earlier this week, not least in Dublin 4.

But yesterday he batted the criticism away and stood firmly behind the decision, saying: “We picked seven back row forwards, three sixes, two eights and two sevens. The reason Johnny O’Connor comes in as a seven ahead of Keith Gleeson is because I believe his form is better.

“I don’t think there is anything extraordinary about that decision; if I thought Keith’s form was better, he would be in there. That’s how selection works on an average day. To suggest there is something clandestine going on around that selection is a bit off the mark.

“If anyone has watched Johnny O’Connor closely, they would say he is back to the Johnny O’Connor of old. He was starting for Ireland only a couple of years ago, picked up a nasty injury — a spinal concussion, and the worry was whether he would ever come back from it — but he has come back to his credit.

“You have to reward that; it’s very easy to focus all the time on the high profile players involved in the Heineken Cup every week, but my job is to look at the bigger picture. Johnny has been working his guts off with Connacht and he deserves his call.

“It’s very tough on Keith and on Shane as well. Both of them were very much in the frame, but you can’t just put everyone in the squad. I’m charged with having to make these hard decisions and in this instance I had to make a hard decision.”

O’Sullivan also explained the rationale behind his decision to select just two scrumhalves in his squad. Back in favour is Peter Stringer, who couldn’t even find a place on the bench for Ireland’s last two World Cup games against France and Argentina.

Eoin Reddan jumped up the pecking order after Ireland’s near-disastrous game with Georgia and Isaac Boss was promoted to number two behind him. Now Boss is excluded altogether — and O’Sullivan was unrepentant about that as well.

The coach noted that Boss had been having problems with form for Ulster and said it was important not to just pick someone for the sake of it. He had, he said, spoken to Boss about the situation.

“It’s slightly worrying in that you sit down to pick guys for a squad and find there’s no other scrumhalf there. You’ve got to start looking at where the next guy is going to come from and it does highlight a problem area that we have to look at in terms of the succession stakes for the national side.

“I think for now it’s fair to say that the two form scrumhalves are in and that there wasn’t a third form scrumhalf to push them, although I would have liked to have a third person there,” he said.

Saturday’s Heineken Cup clash between champions London Wasps and former champions Munster brings what O’Sullivan described as the “ideal head-to-head” into the equation. That, of course, is the battle between Reddan, the man in possession right now, and Stringer, the man who wants his place back in the national side.

“Yes, it’s almost like a throwback to the old trial days, except it’s a Heineken Cup match of huge importance. We have a head-to-head on Saturday and it’s obviously going to be a huge game from an individual point of view as much as a collective issue.

“It’s not just about them, though. There are others involved in games this weekend who have made the 33-man squad; the trick now is to make sure they get into the 22, so it’s a big day for a lot of guys. There are a few tight calls still to be made there,” he said.

O’Sullivan was speaking in Dublin during the unveiling of another round of the PricewaterhouseCoopers -sponsored High Performance Select Group, which sees the promising Cian Healy, Jonathon Sexton, Gavin Duffy, Tony Buckley, Donncha Ryan, Denis Hurley, Ryan Caldwell and David Pollock join up with eight more players to continue their development in top flight rugby circles.

Speaking about the High Performance Select Group, headed by former Irish and Ulster player Allen Clarke, O’Sullivan said: “The more guys you have coming through the better; it means they’re getting closer to making it on the international stage. It’s important to point out that the selection for the High Performance Unit and the selection for the Six Nations squad are mutually independent; there was nobody put into the Irish squad because they were members of another elite group. It’s a reflection on where guys are at this point of their respective careers.

“The acid test is that players in a national squad will learn quickly. By virtue of an ability to learn they will put themselves into a position of challenge. One feeds off the other — the guys who have made the Irish squad who are also members of the elite group are obviously in a pretty good position.

“You can look at each individual in that group of 16 people, can look at the units, the props for instance, Cian (Healy) and Tony (Buckley) are interesting selections in that one of the two will end up sitting on the bench for the opening game of the Six Nations against Italy, if not starting.”

*PricewaterhouseCoopers High Performance Select Group: Luke Fitzgerald, Cian Healy, Jamie Heaslip, Trevor Hogan, Robert Kearney, Jonathon Sexton (all Leinster), Daniel Riordan, Gavin Duffy (both Connacht), Tony Buckley, Donncha Ryan, Denis Hurley (all Munster), Tommy Bowe, Ryan Caldwell, Stephen Ferris, David Pollock, Bryan Young (all Ulster).