IRFU High Performance Unit:A dozen Irish players, eight of whom have already been capped and most of whom are relatively established with their provinces, have been earmarked to succeed the current crop of internationals and to that end have been chosen as the Select Group of the newly formed IRFU PwC High Performance Unit (HPU).

Details of the programme, to be sponsored by PricewaterhouseCoopers, were announced in the company's Wilton Place offices yesterday by Ireland coach Eddie O'Sullivan and the union's director of rugby, Eddie Wigglesworth. The select group will train with the Ireland senior squad whenever they are in camp and be individually "player-cammed" and analysed by the HPU in provincial games with a view to individual coaching in consultation with the provincial and national coaching staffs.

Half of the dozen players, who were selected by O'Sullivan after consultation with the provincial coaches, are from Leinster, namely Luke Fitzgerald, Jamie Heaslip, Trevor Hogan, Robert Kearney, Kieran Lewis and Ronnie McCormack. There are four from Ulster - Tommy Bowe, Stephen Ferris, Roger Wilson and Bryan Young - and one each from Connacht and Munster, Daniel Riordan and Barry Murphy.

The selection underlines where Ireland's conveyor belt is traditionally strongest, for there are six threequarters-cum-fullbacks and three backrowers, but not one in the specialist positions of hooker, scrumhalf or outhalf.

O'Sullivan reiterated picking players in certain positions was only a part of the process.

"The other part of it is that the player selected is potentially an Irish player. There's no point in bringing in somebody who's never going to play for Ireland just to fill the gap. These guys have to be on the cusp of playing for Ireland regularly, and some of them have played already and some haven't. It's a way of looking toward 2011. It doesn't mean they won't be involved in the 2007 World Cup but what you'd hope is that in two years' time all these guys would be regularly in the Irish rugby team."

At first glance there would appear a danger of cutting across the provinces' paths by having these players in camp when they could be preparing for matches with their provinces.

"This will have no effect on them playing for their provinces, and in fact it would be crazy if it did," said O'Sullivan. "One of the key factors is to keep playing at the top level, so their interface with the national team will be like, say, the extra players who come into the squad on a Sunday and leave on a Tuesday.

"In fact most of the work will go on with their provinces anyway, but what we're doing is giving them exposure to training with the top players. Some of them are doing that already and this won't impinge on them playing for their provinces. That would be a retrograde step.

"In fact what we're doing is we're helping the provincial coach. For example, where we have the resources such as top coaches like Niall O'Donovan, Graham Steadman, Brian McLaughlin and Mark Tainton, we're saying we're going to resource these guys with these coaches so they're going to help you help them. The ultimate outcome is that these guys become much better very quickly."

Significantly, the Select Group is not a closed shop; players will move in and out depending on performance, injury and selection for the national team.

The exact work of the union's expensively assembled HPU has been a bit unclear and it appears to have had a troubled two-year history, not helped by the departure of its one-time manager, the former Australian rugby league player and Scottish defensive coach Steve Anderson.

Wigglesworth yesterday admitted the unit had "undertaken quite a review process" in its time and he now effectively manages it. He added this concept of a select group is not a template copied from anywhere else in the rugby world.

"This is a particularly Irish initiative. I'm not conscious of what others are doing, although I'm sure the New Zealanders have probably something similar to what we're doing here, but I think this is quite unique inasmuch as first of all it hasn't been done before in Ireland.

"We used to bring guys in and then rotate because you didn't want to give guys the wrong message about succession. What we're actually saying here is that you guys are being identified and we will give you all the supports that are necessary."

Luke Fitzgerald, Jamie Heaslip, Trevor Hogan, Robert Kearney, Kieran Lewis, Ronnie McCormack (all Leinster); Tommy Bowe, Stephen Ferris, Roger Wilson, Bryan Young (all Ulster); Daniel Riordan (Connacht); Barry Murphy (Munster).