Ireland have swapped their base at the Citywest hotel for the Fitzpatrick Castle hotel in Killiney and will use Blackrock rugby club for their next training camp in early January. Eddie O'Sullivan's squad are expected to use the Stradbrook Road ground for the Six Nations.
No reason has been given for moving the squad's headquarters. The same option was taken three years ago when they moved from the Glenview Hotel in Wicklow to Citywest, and when changing from the Berkeley Court to the Radisson Hotel for the Thursday before internationals.
The squad have never made any complaints about Citywest and it is a convenient destination for those travelling from Munster and Ulster as they can avoid travelling through the centre of Dublin.
However, problems arose during the autumn internationals when the Terenure College pitches were unplayable because of the bad weather, forcing a last-minute switch to Clongowes Wood College. In the event of Stradbrook becoming unplayable, the team coach can make the short hop over to Blackrock College.
Ireland's first match is against Italy at Lansdowne Road on February 4th, followed by a daunting trip to Paris the following Saturday before a Sunday fixture with Wales, back in Dublin, on February 26th. Scotland visit on March 11th, followed seven days later by England in Twickenham at the unusual kick-off time of 5.30pm.
Good news for both Ireland and Leinster is Malcolm O'Kelly will play in Saturday's round three match in the Heineken European Cup against Bourgoin at the RDS Showgrounds after recovering from concussion sustained against Australia.
Bernard Jackman, however, is highly unlikely to feature. The hooker departed Saturday's 21-9 victory over Connacht after 61 minutes with a knee injury. Brian Blaney deputised in round two against Glasgow but his elder brother David has also returned from injury.
Keith Gleeson and Gordon D'Arcy also picked up knocks with Gleeson's rib injury casting some doubt on his availability. Niall Ronan will fill the number seven jersey if Gleeson fails to recover. D'Arcy has a lower back complaint but is expected to recover.
The game is live on RTÉ and Sky Sports but 4,000 tickets are still available online and at the usual outlets around Dublin.
Ulster play Saracens on Friday night at Ravenhill, which again is on Sky Sports, and Mark McCall is expected to delay selection until later in the week because of the physical repercussions of playing Munster last Saturday. Kieran Campbell has a badly swollen hand, while Neil McMillan didn't train yesterday.
Munster are hoping the gash on David Wallace's leg will recover ahead of the trip to Rodney Parade on Saturday to play Newport Gwent Dragons. Again, Sky Sports will be televising the game live at 1pm, four hours before the Leinster fixture.
Connacht welcome back Keith Matthews and Brendan O'Connor for the Pool Five meeting away to the Worcester Warriors also on Saturday. Despite starting last week, new Southern Hemisphere centre pairing Gavin Williams and Andre Mailei are unavailable for the group stages of the Challenge Cup.
Jonah Lomu is expected to make his debut for the Cardiff Blues against Calvisano after coach David Young confirmed the former All Blacks winger will be in the 22-man squad.
