Perhaps outraged Corkonians will lead a march on 62 Lansdowne Road to have Anthony Horgan, John Kelly and Frankie Sheahan as well as Dominic Crotty inserted into the Irish team but most Munstermen should be pretty happy with this. As expected, nine of their current line-up are included in the Irish starting XV for the Six Nations opener in the Stadio Flaminio against Italy next Saturday. Furthermore, the Irish will be led by Munster's prodigal son Keith Wood.

All told then, two-thirds Munster to all intents and purposes, and one-third Shannon, underlining where the force currently rests in Irish rugby. As Ireland seek their first opening day win in the championship since 1988, there are five changes from the side beaten 28-18 by the Springboks last November, leaving Rob Henderson and Wood as the only non Irish-based players. The recalled Shane Horgan - who replaces the injured Denis Hickie - has a chance to revive the right wing career which yielded five tries in five games last year; Mike Mullins replaces the injured Brian O'Driscoll; fit-again Mick Galwey returns to the second row, while Alan Quinlan and David Wallace will make their championship debuts to complete an all Munster back-row and middle five in the absence of Eric Miller and Kieron Dawson.

There really isn't much to quibble about. Jeremy Davidson will have his supporters but the decision to play Munster's spiritual leader Mick Galwey from the start alongside so many provincial teammates makes sense - Galwey wouldn't have the same impact from the bench as the Castres captain. But the decision to dip further than ever into the Munster well means the management have also gone with players in form.

In his own All Blacks' playing days, Warren Gatland experienced a similar phenomenon. "It's happened regularly in New Zealand rugby . . . when Auckland were very dominant in the late '80s and early '90s. I went on tour with 30 players and 17 of them were Auckland players. Munster are dominating Irish rugby and they deserve to have the numbers involved. It's as simple as that," said Gatland in the Forte Postehouse Hotel at Dublin Airport. The biggest worry perhaps is that a third big game in successive weekends is a big ask. "It is, and that's always a concern . . . they've got to keep getting themselves up but they're professional players; this is a new challenge for them and I would say by next Saturday one or two of them - particularly someone like Alan Quinlan - will get an opportunity."

Bearing in mind their off-colour display against the Springboks, the return to form of the Munster axis at 8, 9 and 10 is comforting while Quinlan and Wallace in particular have hit a rich vein of form. As Gatland also conceded, the disrupted preparations meant delving into proven Munster combinations such as the back row was "a logical selection."

While Wallace played against Argentina and the USA on tour last summer, Quinlan will be making his first start after a sole replacements' appearance against Romania in the World Cup. It's quite an upturn in fortunes after missing out on Munster's semifinal and final last season.

"It's a big step and I'm very tense about it," he admitted yesterday. "I had a good day on Sunday but I've had my bad days and experienced my share of disappointments too. But I'm delighted to be in."

In the past the absence of Ireland's primary strike runners out wide, O'Driscoll and Hickie, might have seemed a crippling blow. However, the advent of professionalism, the provincial-based system and the regularity of tours has changed all that, as assistant coach Eddie O'Sullivan stressed.

"There is a certain amount of strength in depth in a lot of positions. Certainly losing Brian O'Driscoll and Denis Hickie is a blow but when you see somebody like Mike Mullins, who is playing exceptionally well and had another fine game on Sunday, that's an indication of the depth of talent.

"Shane Horgan is coming into the wing position where he had an excellent strike rate last year. I think our strength now is that we can lose those players and it's not cataclysmic, and we don't have to adjust our game. We can still play the type of game we want to play."

One prospective new cap is Emmet Byrne, now reaping the rewards of a belated conversion to covering both sides of the front row after losing almost a year by insisting on his preference for loosehead. The irony isn't lost on him, though it's due reward for hard work and good form too. With Sheahan on the bench there is the consolation for five Munster backs of making the A team, with Tom Tierney retaining the captaincy from the win at that level over the South Africans.

As is the A's lot, largely due to the ripple effect of the alterations at senior level, there are nine changes in personnel, the latest of them due to Victor Costello contracting a viral infection which sees Tony McWhirter start and Leo Cullen added to the squad.