World Cup aspirants seek final seal of approval

IT’S an understandable source of pride among the oval ball brigade that there is no such thing as a mere friendly in international rugby.

All games are Tests. Summer tours and autumn internationals are invested with the same level of intensity and focus as run outs in the Six Nations or the World Cup. Not for them the pedestrian and pallid facsimiles so often seen in soccer.

Yet, if ever the result was immaterial it is at times like these, in the run-up to the global get-together when national coaches are mixing and matching players like debutantes would try dresses and accessories before prom night.

Marc Lievremont starts with only two of the men who sang La Marseillaise pitchside in Bordeaux last Saturday while Declan Kidney has sought fit to draft in eight ‘newcomers’ for this return at the Aviva Stadium. No-one’s application is being ignored.

Having lost that game at the Stade Cheban-Delmas and the opener against Scotland at Murrayfield, a win would be welcome for the home side but, as Cian Healy admits, it is further down the list of priorities than would usually be the case. “It’s not a concern,” he said of the two defeats.

“We haven’t sat down and gone ‘oh God, it’s a bad place we’re in’. Everyone’s happy with where we’re going with our game plan and how it’s coming together. It’s early days yet. We have two more full internationals to get through.”

Crucially though, today is the last before Kidney announces his final squad on Monday. Half the starters and all the replacements have spots of some description to play for.

Some of them – Felix Jones and Luke Fitzgerald, for example — will be making a case for a seat on the plane, while the likes of Andrew Trimble, Jonathan Sexton Sexton and Tomas O’Leary will be hoping to press their cases for starting berths.

Jones’ elevation to full-back has understandably captured the imagination. Geordan Murphy fared well for the Ireland Select XV against Connacht on Thursday night but the opportunity is there for the Munster back to make one last, definitive burst for the line.

Kidney has named a strong pack and will also be able to call on Jerry Flannery and Stephen Ferris, both of whom need as much game time as possible under them. So too, do David Wallace and Shane Jennings.

Both flankers have been similarly curbed by injuries until now but Wallace’s seasonal entrance has been lost to a slight hamstring worry. It gives Jennings his first start after recovering from a broken hand.

At this stage, every minute counts.