To face Australia Ireland have managed to include a baker's dozen of the team that completed the grand slam in the last Six Nations. The odd two are Paddy Wallace, selected ahead of Gordon D'Arcy, and Cian Healy, the loose-head prop who replaces Marcus Horan, who is recovering from a bit of valve surgery. Thirteen – about the same number as England did not have at their disposal for their game against the Wallabies.
Ireland may well put it down to careful player-management, or to the benefit of having some national say in the provincial matters of the Magners League. But there is also a slight element of luck to Declan Kidney's selection, if only with reference to the other side of the scrum, where the reduction on appeal of the ban slapped on John Hayes for stepping without due caution on the swede of new-cap Healy, means that the evergreen giant is eligible to play from Saturday.
That's handy, not to say a bit fortunate, for a Sunday Test. Compare that with England, where barely a fit prop stalks the land, home of a rugby playing population 12 times the size of Ireland's.
By the by, it may be worth noting that Dan Carter, unavailable through suspension and able to put his feet up for a game against Italy in Milan, for which he would not have been selected anyway, did not train hard before the Wales-New Zealand game, and seemed to come through well enough.
Meanwhile, England lose David Barnes and David Wilson. You can push too hard in rehearsal, despite all coaches nowadays swearing by the intensity of the training paddock.
Anyway, Ireland are more or less the same now as they were in March when they completed their first grand slam since 1948. They will still be a bit rusty at first, especially against Australia who now have two games on tour under their belts and who successfully negotiated the first leg at Twickenham of their four-match grand slam last weekend. Even so, Declan Kidney, Ireland's head coach, is not concerned at the prospect. "You can either moan about it or get on with it. If you wait for the ideal in this job it will never happen."
This time last year the question was being posed about Ireland's ability to end a lifelong drought against the All Blacks. They weren't. Can they stop the rejuvenated Wallabies? Well, with Brian O'Driscoll poised to win his one 100th cap – 93 for Ireland and six for the Lions so far – anything might be within reach. To think that the captain was being written off as too old and too slow. His powers of recovery should give England heart.
But Ireland might not be able to strike top form in their first outing, not even with the estimable Stephen Ferris restored on the blind side, the strong arm of a well-balanced back row completed by Jamie Heaslip and David Wallace.
Tommy Bowe is the one player from beyond Leinster, Munster and Ulster in the starting XV, although there is an appearance on the bench for Sean Cronin of Connacht, proof of a resilient spirit in the west.
It may not matter that Ireland stutter in November's first round, since the real prize for them may well be their meeting at the end of the month against South Africa. Sunday is an opening salvo. The Springboks are unfinished business.
