Reggie Corrigan and David Corkery were yesterday pulled out of the Combined Provinces team to play South Africa in Musgrave Park tomorrow night and promoted to the Irish senior squad following injuries to Paul Wallace and Eric Miller against Romania on Saturday.

A final decision will be made on Wallace's sprained ankle today and although there is still some hope that he might recover in time for Saturday's Test against the Springboks, this looks like a forlorn hope. Having sustained concussion on Saturday, Miller is sidelined for the mandatory three weeks.

The ensuing ripple effect of Corrigan's and Corkery's call-up is that Emmet Byrne and David Wallace have been promoted to the Combined Provinces's starting line-up, while Des Clohessy has been added to the replacements' bench as will another back-rower, most probably Barry Gavin or Stephen McKinty given the injuries to Alan Quinlan and Trevor Brennan as well.

The senior and `A' sides to face South Africa next Saturday and tomorrow week respectively will be selected and announced on Wednesday after the Irish management view proceedings in Cork the night before.

On the face of it, the deeply flawed performance against Romania would seem to have provided more questions than answers for Warren Gatland and his advisers, but the surprisingly phlegmatic post-match reaction of the Irish management (publicly at any rate) suggests it may merely have confirmed some reservations.

"I've got a pretty good idea (of the side to face South Africa). There's always one or two positions we're not sure of. We're trying to get the balance right. We moved it a lot wider and tried to set wider targets, and find some continuity. They (Romania) were so negative in the way they played as well. We're just trying to get the balance right. Last week we attacked off the ground and were guilty of overkill. Against Romania, we didn't do it at all, so we didn't get the balance right."

As matches involving his sides go, this was a rather unGatlandesque occasion. Ireland were lax and loose, and thus while scoring seven tries of their own, coughed up three of Romania's five by turning over attacking ball with loose passes to ground or in the case of Radu Fugigi's interecept try, a telegraphed pass by Jonathan Bell.

"I suppose that's part of the whole thing," sighed Gatland, presumably in reference to the striking change in emphasis of this Irish team in his nine months in charge. Another factor, and one which Donal Lenihan alluded to at the post-match press conference, was that no amount of psychology by the management could make this academic World Cup qualifier into something it wasn't (England's unflattering 23-15 win over the Italians yesterday being another case in point).

"I would put it down to the fact that at the back of their minds a lot of the guys were thinking about next week," admitted Gatland. "We're still apprehensive in that first 20 minutes or so, and just talking to Kevin Maggs afterwards, when he came on he said the players were very quiet out there. They lost a little bit of communication and confidence."

The most disappointing aspect from Gatland's viewpoint was the poor skill levels of the Irish and the way they were exposed by an average side. "We missed tackles and they beat us through the middle once or twice and out wide as well."

Yet the Irish coach was in some ways almost grateful for this kick in his team's collective derriere. They'll assuredly work on their defence this week and apply far greater levels of concentration against the Springboks a week on.

Far better too, to discover certain players weren't quite ready for true Test rugby against the likes of Romania than against the Springboks or in the Five Nations. The unfortunate Pat Duignan assuredly falls into this category, as might Ciaran Scally and David O'Mahony.

With two enforced changes up front allied to an inevitable full recall for Keith Wood, the team to face South Africa may read something like this: O'Shea; Bishop, Maggs, Bell, Dempsey; Elwood, McGuinness; Fitzpatrick, Wood, Clohessy, Johns, O'Kelly, O'Cuinneagain, Costello, Ward.