A revealing few weeks ahead

AFTER weeks of painstaking work in the gym and — if the lessons of four years ago have been absorbed — plenty of ball work and contact drills on the manicured playing surfaces of Carton House, the Irish squad will get a first indication of where their preparations lay when they face Scotland in Murrayfield this Saturday.

It is an anxious time for all involved. Operating in isolation for weeks while observing their counterparts in the southern hemisphere going for broke in the Tri Nations, it is inevitable that a sense of creeping uncertainty pervades the camp for all manner of reasons. Many of the players in contention for World Cup places have played little or no rugby for some time now and if RWC 2007 in France taught the Irish players anything, it’s that there’s a world of difference between being physically fit and match fit.

That challenge will resonate with many of the current squad who recognised at this stage four years ago against Saturday’s opposition in the same stadium that their bid for World Cup glory had already been compromised by a lack of rugby-related training over the summer months.