Eddie sticks to his guns
Ireland boss Eddie O'Sullivan with Ronan Murphy, of PricewaterhouseCoopers, and IRFU High Performance Manager Allen Clarke
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As the political correspondents in South Africa have discovered this week, attempts to steer media questioning away from genuinely valid public concerns normally backfire.
So, while it had been gently suggested that interrogators demur from re-opening old World Cup wounds or -- heaven forefend -- address the previous day's announcement of the Six Nations squad, probity determined that this would not be the case.
Eddie O'Sullivan remains under pressure from his employers, a significant measure of the general rugby public and, as the Genesis report indicated, from some of his own players.
Forthright
But yesterday he was as forthright as An Taoiseach two days earlier in addressing the latest raft of brickbats to be flung in his direction, this time from Leinster coach Michael Cheika, in particular, with regards to his choice of back-rows.
"I've picked seven back-rows, three sixes, two eights, and two sevens," explained O'Sullivan. "David Wallace and Johnny O'Connor are the two opensides. In the case of Johnny, I believe his form is better. There's nothing mystic or extraordinary in that. If Keith's form was better he'd be in, that's how selection works on an average day. To suggest that there's something clandestine going on around, that might be a bit off the mark."
"I think if anyone has watched Johnny O'Connor, and I'd ask if anyone here has watched Johnny O'Connor, he's back to the form of old who was starting for Ireland only a couple of years ago."
O'Sullivan revealed that, unlike Wales for example, where a back-room staff was swiftly compiled by new coach Warren Gatland, there was no rush in appointing the manager or the backs coach recommended by the players or the IRFU (depending on whose version you believe).
"It's ongoing," said O'Sullivan, outlining the IRFU's dubious attempts to ape the FAI's elongated appointments process. "There won't be any appointment before the summer tour at this juncture.
"We said that these appointments would be made but we wouldn't rush into them. We need to get the right people to do a job, but we're on the cusp of the Six Nations and we had Christmas thrown into the middle of that. It would be foolish to rush into it on the back of the report and get someone for the sake of it."
That challenge will, initially at least, be conducted with only two scrum-halves -- incumbent Eoin Reddan will challenge Peter Stringer, who finished the World Cup as third-choice, for supremacy in this Saturday's mouth-watering struggle in Thomond Park. Second-choice Isaac Boss has been deemed surplus to requirements.
"I would have liked to put three scrum-halves in there if they were at that level, but Isaac has dropped out of the Ulster squad and his form hasn't been great," reasoned O'Sullivan.
"I've spoken to him about it and it would have been very easy to stick someone's name in there for the sake of it. Now if anything happens those two scrum-halves, I've got to make a decision then. But it's not a decision to be made now.
"Saturday will be interesting. Occasionally you get these match-ups thrown together in the final stages of the Heineken Cup.
"It's obviously a big game for the two guys and it will be very interesting to see how that goes. But it's a big day for other players too."
And for two of the lesser known names in the squad, Cian Healy and Tony Buckley, this could be a significant month, as form and injury concerns in the front-row could see one of the duo, most likely Buckley, promoted to front-line duty.
"They're in a position where one of them is going to be sitting on the bench against Italy and probably one starting," confirmed O'Sullivan. "That's where these guys have pushed themselves towards"
Both Healy and Buckley were yesterday named in the IRFU's latest Pricewaterhouse High Performance Unit, nominally a select group "to develop and prepare players for international rugby" but, to rugby fans at least, it remains as incomprehensible as the Michican caucus election.
Preponderance
A preponderance of the 16 have already been involved with Irish squads; three of them were at the World Cup, while half have already been capped, which would seem to undermine a project, criticised by the Genesis report, which gobbles up around €3m of someone else's money.
Gavin Duffy's age profile, World Cup and Guinness Premiership experience is favoured for inclusion ahead of several other young indigenous talents while, despite a burgeoning scrum-half crisis, there are no number nines in the grouping.
"The point is for players who are on the cusp of the international team and it has to reflect that," explained O'Sullivan.
On the scrum-half issue, O'Sullivan added: "It does highlight immediately that there is a problem area we have to look at in terms of succession stakes for the national team."
Which begs the question whether Chris Keane could have been included in group.
