RUGBY: Sending an SOS to 62 Lansdowne Road for last-minute replacements from Siberia could be problematic to say the least. So the Irish management are taking little chances by bringing 26 players to Krasnoyarsk for the World Cup qualifying match against Russia on September 22nd.

A starting XV and replacements will be named next Tuesday, but in any event an additional four players will travel on the eight-hour IRFU charter flight to provide cover even if the International Board are only covering the cost of 22 economy flights among the playing personnel. This for a supposed European qualifier which the IB have sanctioned to take place above the Siberian-Mongolian border.

The emphasis on the additional quartet is very much on versatility, with Justin Bishop and Ulster's Paddy Wallace added to the backline. Wallace has already played at full-back and outhalf for Ulster this season, and although Bishop again won his most recent cap for Ireland on the wing, he has remained in his old club position of outside centre for London Irish this season.

Likewise up front, where Eric Miller has been recalled and Alan Quinlan has been preferred to the specialist number eight skills of Victor Costello. Marcus Horan has also been called up while, of course, Keith Wood has been recalled to the exclusion of Paul Shields. On a more celebratory note for the Wood family at the weekend, Wood's wife Nicola gave birth to their first child, whom they named Alexander.

A little surprisingly, the expanded squad does not provide additional cover for the specialist positions of hooker and scrumhalf, though, as Irish team manager Brian O'Brien said yesterday, that could change before they depart on Thursday week.

The ripple effect on the provinces for the fourth round of the Celtic League, the weekend after next, is not quite as pronounced for Leinster as they might have feared - though they'll still have 10 players on Ireland duty - while Munster will be missing eight, and Ulster three, with a further five based in Britain.

For this coming weekend the provinces had expected to only have those Irish players who played less than 40 minutes last Saturday. However, all squad members are available to play for their provinces in this weekend's Celtic League, with the exception of Brian O'Driscoll (quadrocep strain), Ronan O'Gara (ear laceration), Gary Longwell (Achilles tendon), who are injured and Peter Stringer and Girvan Dempsey, who are resting.

O'Brien denied that this was a change of tack, whether in recognition of the players needing more match time or for any other reason.

"There was never a change of heart. We always had the intention of playing the players where we felt it was in their best interests," said O'Brien.

Perhaps reflecting a little friction between the international management and the provinces, O'Brien cited the example of Shields, who has been relegated to the Ulster bench at the start of the season to accommodate the selection of their Australian hooker Mark Crick, the Irish manager commented: "we have to have guys playing as often as possible."

Furthermore, O'Brien pointed to a perception that the provinces were getting the short end of the stick with regard to player availability. "That's totally untrue. The players' welfare has to be taken first, and that's what we're doing. If that's done properly then everything else follows on from that."

Significantly, though, some will need to play for their respective provinces more than others this coming weekend, and uppermost among these is Miller, who withdrew from the Irish squad early last week with bruised ribs sustained in Leinster's win over Pontypridd last Friday week. "It's imperative that he'd play this weekend," admitted O'Brien.