Six Nations Team news: Despite his current ill-health, the powers of the Pontiff clearly remain undimmed. How else can one explain the Irish squad's unscheduled two-hour delay in Rome and the ensuing news that both Brian O'Driscoll and Gordon D'Arcy have been pencilled in for Ireland's RBS Six Nations game against Scotland?

Whether they actually make the starting gates come 4 p.m. on Saturday is another matter. As with all miracles, seeing will be believing.

Nevertheless, that the scans on both midfielders' hamstring injuries revealed no tears and nothing more serious than mild strains is a source of relief to begin with.

On that premise, both should have a good chance of being back for the England game on February 27th, although with that match and the rest of the season in mind, playing them on Saturday might still be pushing it.

"I'm not going to rule them out until I know better," explained coach Eddie O'Sullivan yesterday. "They had scans yesterday (Monday), both (have) similar hamstring injuries, both mild strains really - they're not torn. The doc says we'll know more later in the week so I'd be a foolish man to rule them out of the game if they could make it.

"The odds are reasonable," maintained the Irish coach, "because if they weren't we wouldn't be doing it. The doc says there's a chance they'll make it, both of them, so I've got to keep the door open. It's less than 48 hours since they've been hurt, they're both active today, they're running in the pool."

This aqua running and rehabilitation is being overseen every waking hour (D'Arcy was in the pool at 7 a.m. yesterday) by Brian Greene, the one-time Pittsburgh Steelers rehab expert who was hand-picked by O'Sullivan and co-opted onto the back-up team prior to the November internationals.

O'Sullivan said he might make a decision on O'Driscoll and D'Arcy prior to the team's departure for Edinburgh after training tomorrow, although he might travel with additional cover and defer a decision until Friday, as, even if neither had trained all week, their experience would compensate for that.

So, with this one liable to run until tomorrow at least, the one unenforced change sees Johnny O'Connor recalled at the expense of Denis Leamy at openside. O'Sullivan was at pains to stress this was not so much a reflection on Leamy's relatively quiet performance in Rome as on a horses-for-courses selection to play the Scots.

O'Sullivan intimated that Leamy had been earmarked as an auxiliary ball carrier on Sunday, which may partially explain his lack of impact at the breakdown.

"I thought Denis had a pretty solid game but probably didn't make as big an impact as he would have liked himself. That's just the way the game flowed for him. He's not dropped because he had a bad game. I always had in mind that Johnny O'Connor might be the guy for Murrayfield, and I suppose you'd probably have a reason for criticising me if I didn't put a groundhog in against the Scots, and Johnny is that and more."

Furthermore, if O'Driscoll and/or D'Arcy are deemed hors de combat, then Ireland would be denied two of their auxiliary breakdown operators against Scotland's renowned ruckers.

O'Sullivan might in part be trying to throw Matt Williams and Willie Anderson a curve ball but when push comes to shove, and unless the medical staff pronounce a complete recovery, the proximity of the English game is liable to make either selection too much of a gamble; all the more so with the remainder of the campaign in a Lions year to bear in mind as well.

Nor was O'Sullivan revealing any contingency plans in the event of either or both centres being ruled out.

"I haven't made my mind up on it yet to be honest. I know you'd like to know but I don't know either," he said, adding, without realising the irony, "I could give you a shaggy dog story now and you won't thank me for it on Friday."

Nevertheless, yesterday's training run in a rain-sodden Naas, with Shane "Shaggy" Horgan and Kevin Maggs in midfield, and Girvan Dempsey on the wing, was probably a reliable indicator.

If one of the two stricken centres is ruled out, it would probably see Horgan move to inside centre with Dempsey on the wing, as happened for the last 50 minutes in Rome, and the 60-times capped Maggs recalled to the bench.

If both are ruled out, then a Horgan-Maggs midfield combination, with Dempsey on the wing, looks like being the favoured option given these are O'Sullivan's most experienced alternatives. The contenders for the bench would then be Gavin Duffy, called in to the 22 against South Africa last summer, Tommy Bowe, who made his debut on the wing against the USA, the uncapped Shaun Payne or Anthony Horgan, with Duffy and Payne the more versatile options.

The perceived need for O'Connor's recall is perhaps also intensified by the confused picture regarding the breakdown in the light of the IRB's eve-of-championship diktat that ball carriers going to ground would be penalised for the slightest adjustment of their body positions.

Asked what impact this had on the first round of matches, O'Sullivan paused and said: "None, because they weren't refereed, and it's scary because players expected it to be refereed. I thought on Saturday there were a lot of incidents that could have been penalised and referees didn't. I thought the referees were sensitive actually. They'll be assessed on that and may get hammered on that, and maybe be more stringent on it next week."

O'Sullivan cited one penalty against Horgan at the start of the second half when he presented the ball after being tackled, which still bemuses the Irish coach.

"It's a hard enough game when you're playing on adrenalin without worrying about whether you're twisting and turning."

Malcolm O'Kelly will eclipse the venerated Mike Gibson as Ireland's most-capped player of all time when he runs out for the 70th time for his country on Saturday.

So, it's official then, O'Kelly is a legend.