RUGBY INTERNATIONAL MATCH - Ireland v Barbarians, kick-off 7.45:GENERAL DOUGLAS MacArthur once exclaimed that "there is no security on this earth, there is only opportunity," an observation that might carry a certain resonance with the majority of tonight's Ireland team in Limerick.
The importance of the occasion cannot be camouflaged as an end of season jolly against rugby’s black and white minstrels because, although it is played on home soil, it represents the opening act in a four-part play. For those in a green shirt who take to the stage tonight it is a gentle introduction to what will follow, where the plot-lines become more intricate, but performance will impact upon whether they will get another glimpse of the spotlight.
Using the Six Nations Championship as a barometer of selection, of tonight’s line-up Rob Kearney and Ronan O’Gara would be miffed if not involved again from the outset tomorrow week when Ireland face the All Blacks.
That’s not to say others can’t or won’t make the grade, especially as injury has denied Declan Kidney the services of amongst others, Keith Earls, Luke Fitzgerald, Rory Best, Paul O’Connell, Kevin McLaughlin, Stephen Ferris and Denis Leamy: the upshot is the left wing, secondrow and blindside flanker berths are listed under situations vacant.
There is also room for debate in relation to a couple of other positions but this match won’t offer a definitive answer; more likely an indication.
The Barbarians will come and play their largely unstructured patterns until the sociability of their fortnight together takes its toll. They’ll make Ireland defend properly or suffer the consequences but as a scratch team won’t quite have the cohesion that comes from playing together regularly.
The home team will only be marginally better off in that respect but they possess the additional incentive of having so many players with so much to prove. Ireland’s back three are well versed in the demands of this level of rugby. It will be interesting to note how Gavin Duffy, now a fully fledged tourist after Earls’ withdrawal, and Fergus McFadden gel as a combination.
At underage level, McFadden played outside centre while Duffy wore the number 12 jersey: tonight they reverse those roles, albeit in recent times, they have extensive experience of the positions they’ll play at Thomond Park.
The halfbacks, Peter Stringer and captain for the night O’Gara, will be hoping to bring their considerable experience to bear in influencing how the game pans out. O’Gara’s been given first crack to lay claim to the outhalf slot against New Zealand, watched from the bench by Jonathan Sexton.
Marcus Horan and Tony Buckley will want to throw down the gauntlet to the rest of the props in the travelling party while Seán Cronin’s performance can be measured against arguably the best forward in the English Premiership this season, Saracens’ South African hooker Schalk Brits.
The Ulster secondrow combination of Dan Tuohy and Ed O’Donoghue – the latter moves to Leinster for next season – know a strong showing tonight could reap a significant dividend over the next few weeks.
Donncha O’Callaghan and Mick O’Driscoll would be the front-runners to start against the All Blacks but both O’Donoghue and especially Tuohy, can play at blindside flanker.
The number six jersey is likely to be hotly contested, with Connacht’s totem John Muldoon hoping to fill it out tonight. “I suppose it’s cliché to say but in putting on the Irish jersey, you’re always going to take pride in that. Obviously there is that extra incentive and it would be stupid or naive of me to say that we’re (the backrow of Muldoon, Niall Ronan and Chris Henry) not all thinking about it.
“At the same time, we have to go out and perform as a team and as a unit. If it goes well for us then it goes well, and if it doesn’t we’ll have other opportunities.”
Ronan, called into the squad following the injury suffered by McLaughlin in Leinster’s Magners League defeat to the Ospreys, gets his opportunity, as does Henry, who led Ulster so capably in the absence of Best for most of the season.
Barbarians coach Philippe Saint-Andre made wholesale changes from the side that lost 35-27 to England – they recovered from 32-7 down at one point – but as his side demonstrated in that match any team that doesn’t focus on the task in hand courts embarrassing consequences.
Paul Warwick and Alan Quinlan will find themselves in the strange surrounds of the away dressingroom at Thomond Park, while Mal O’Kelly will play his final game as a professional rugby player. It would be churlish to suggest the outcome is irrelevant but the legacy of tonight’s fare will not primarily be the result of the game but how Irish players acquitted themselves in it.
Earls out of tour
KEITH EARLS has been ruled out of Ireland’s tour to New Zealand and Australia having failed to recover from a persistent groin problem that hampered him towards the end of the season. He is replaced in the touring party by Connacht’s Gavin Duffy.
IRELAND:R Kearney (Leinster); S Horgan (Leinster), G Duffy (Connacht), F McFadden (Leinster), A Trimble (Ulster); R O'Gara ( Munster, capt), P Stringer (Munster); M Horan (Munster), S Cronin (Connacht), T Buckley (Munster); Ed O'Donoghue (Ulster), D Tuohy (Ulster); J Muldoon (Connacht), N Ronan (Munster), C Henry (Ulster). Replacements: J Flannery (Munster), T Court (Ulster), M O'Driscoll (Munster), D Wallace (Munster), T O'Leary (Munster), J Sexton (Leinster), P Wallace (Ulster).
BARBARIANS:P Warwick (Munster); C Heymans (Toulouse), C Laulala (Cardiff Blues), S Rabeni (Leeds Carnegie), D Smith (Hurricanes); B James (Clermont Auvergne), P Mignoni (Toulon); D Barnes (Bath), S Brits (Saracens), C Johnston (Toulouse); J Thion (Biarritz), M O'Kelly (Leinster), A Quinlan (Munster), G Smith (Brumbies), X Rush (Cardiff Blues, capt). Replacements: B August (Biarritz), J White (Leicester Tigers), R So'oialo (Hurricanes), M Williams (Cardiff Blues), B Kelleher (Toulouse), JB Elissalde (Toulouse), P Sackey (London Wasps) or F Estebanez (Brive).
Referee:Romain Poite (France)
