A change ain’t gonna come

AS IF EDDIE O’Sullivan hadn’t enough on his mind, with seemingly the whole of Ireland screaming for him to fall on his sword, he spent most of yesterday trying to figure out just what kind of three-quarter line he should put out against England at Twickenham on Saturday.

He names the team at lunchtime today.

How to achieve the kind of result that might help him to retain his job was central to his strategy but what he described as the “conundrum” in the centre position wasn’t helping. He could take a practical way out of his dilemma and leave the back division that finished the Welsh game in place. That would leave a virtual “rookie” in Luke Fitzgerald joining the defensively-frail Andrew Trimble and retaining another youngster, Rob Kearney, at full-back.

That’s not Eddie O’Sullivan’s way, and he is likely to opt for a much more experienced line-up. His hands are tied to a certain extent by the unavailability of his two first-choice centres, Brian O’Driscoll and Gordon D’Arcy, but the truth is that both were way below their best all season and have been fortunate to retain their places up to now.

Shane Horgan’s limitations as a centre were exposed by the French at Croke Park last year and he was immediately restored to the wing. But it now looks as if he will start there again on Saturday after O’Sullivan’s comment that “if you’re looking for an experienced midfield, you’re looking at Shane Horgan”.

O’Sullivan continued: “We don’t have a load of guys who play regularly in the centre hanging around. If you look at Saturday last, the back line that finished the game, 12, 13, 11, 14 and 15, are all outside backs. It’s not like we have an abundance of options at centre so it’s a bit of a conundrum for sure.”

Is it is bad as that? I wouldn’t have thought so. Luke Fitzgerald is widely respected as one of the future Irish stars with many shrewd judges seeing outside centre as his best position. That’s where he should play on Saturday with Trimble at 12, Horgan, 14, Tommy Bowe, 11, and Rob Kearney, 15.

Such a line-up has a nice refreshing look to it, but it’s not going to happen.

Far more likely is that either Geordan Murphy or Girvan Dempsey will start at full-back, with Tommy Bowe and Kearney on the wings and Trimble and Horgan in the centre. And that, of course, suggests that Ireland will try to play another forward orientated game that failed dismally against Wales but just might work against the equally-beleaguered English.

Under Brian Ashton, they are just as unimaginative as Ireland under O’Sullivan.

Eoin Reddan will continue to hold off Peter Stringer at scrum-half with Ronan O’Gara once again carrying the responsibility for getting something out of a misfiring back division.

The very definite likelihood is that the starting forward pack against Wales will be retained. Tony Buckley could get the nod ahead of John Hayes at tight head but that would be harsh justice on Hayes who has never let his country down and whose experience would be an important factor in coping with the threat of England’s loose head prop Andrew Sheridan.

It will be almost as interesting to see what kind of side Ashton decides on. One-time golden boy Jonny Wilkinson had a nightmare game against Scotland and could give way to either Charlie Hodgson or Danny Cipriani. Some observers are clearly in danger of suffering from an apoplectic attack should ex-rugby league giant Lesley Vainikolo retain the left-wing position. And that’s only two positions Ashton needs to worry about. There are others.

At least the England captain Phil Vickery acknowledged that the team’s performance against Scotland was “unacceptable and there probably will be changes”. Could you imagine that happening on this side of the Irish Sea?