There IS nothing better calculated to elevate the level of rugby debate in this country than the announcement of an Ireland side, especially the first team of the season.

The fact that Ireland will be playing the best team in the world, New Zealand, this day week, has obviously whetted the appetite. The Ireland team that has been selected has certainly left plenty of room for discussion and just about everywhere you go, the question is asked "what you think of the team?"

It is an interesting and, in many respects, a very brave selection. Five new caps against New Zealand has to be categorised as brave, even allowing for the limitations imposed because of the unavailability of so many players.

One thing that is illustrated in the team is that the European competitions have proved very useful for the Ireland coach Brian Ashton and his two advisers, Pat Whelan and Donal Lenihan. Three of the new caps, Kevin Nowlan, John McWeeney and scrum half Conor McGuinness have all played well for their provinces in Europe. Malcolm O'Kelly has played well for London Irish as has Kieron Dawson. While Dawson, O'Kelly and McGuinness have all come through the Irish scene at lower levels, the promotions of Nowlan and McWeeney have certainly been of the meteoric variety.

There most certainly is a risk element in the team that has been chosen and in a few instances, I do not think it is a risk I would have taken, not against the All Blacks. Ashton, however, obviously feels comfortable with the selections in the given circumstances. Yet the introduction of a lot of new caps in Ireland sides has on occasions reaped a rich dividend through the years and let us hope Ashton's boldness is similarly rewarded.

The most recent precedent for an Ireland team that included so many new caps was against France at Lansdowne Road in 1991 when Ireland, in fact, fielded six new caps. They were scrum half Rob Saunders, wing Simon Geoghegan and four forwards, Gordon Hamilton, Mick Galwey, Brian Robinson, and Brian Rigney.

If my memory serves me correctly, Rigney was not an original selection for that match but came in on the eve of the encounter when Neil Francis withdrew because of an attack of influenza. All six were retained for the next match against Wales in Cardiff.

Ireland played very well that afternoon against the French before losing 21-13 and that is by some way the nearest we have been to beating France in the intervening period.

Of the six newcomers that afternoon, Geoghegan, Galwey and Robinson certainly went on to have distinguished careers. Hamilton had to retire because of a back injury and Robinson's career was also cut short by a knee injury.

One would have got very long odds at the outset of this season that the Ireland team would include six home based players - the St Mary's quartet, Denis Hickie, Nowlan, McWeeney and McGuinness as well as Elwood and Eddie Halvey. Granted that injuries to established players opened the way for some of those. Nonetheless, that is a considerable boost for the home players.

It is not the first occasion that the St Mary's club has had four representatives in an Ireland side and the last is one of happy memory. That was against Wales in Dublin in 1980 when Ireland won 21-7. That afternoon Rodney O'Donnell, John Moloney, Terry Kennedy and Ciaran Fitzgerald were in the Ireland team. O'Donnell and Fitzgerald made their international debuts against Australia in the first test in 1979 and Moloney and Kennedy also played in that match won by Ireland 17-12. All four also played in the second test in Sydney when Ireland won it and the series.

In November 1984 the Ireland coach, Mick Doyle, brought in five new caps against Australia; Brendan Mullin, Michael Bradley, Willie Anderson, Philip Matthews and Willie Sexton. All except the latter went on to have protracted international careers. In fact, in five matches that season, Doyle and his selectors made only three changes, with Nigel Carr and Brian Spillane coming in for Ronan Kearney and Sexton in the initial championship match against Scotland. Rory Moroney played against France as Mullin was injured. Ireland won the Triple Crown and Championship that season using only 16 players.

But it is a testimony to the quality of the players that were introduced in 1984-85 that, not alone did many of them have very distinguished internationals careers, but four of the debutants against Australia went on to captain Ireland; Anderson, Bradley, Matthews and Mullin. Ciaran Fitzgerald led the team and another member of that 1985 side, Donal Lenihan, also subsequently captained Ireland.

The greatest clear-out in the modern era was for the match against England in 1962. That afternoon in Twickenham, Ireland fielded no fewer than nine new caps. A question often asked in quiz programmes is to name the nine. They were Larry L'Estrange, Ray Hunter, Gerry Gilpin, Johnny Quirke, Jimmy Dick, Ray McLoughlin, Willie John McBride, Noel Turley and Mick Hipwell. Five of the nine were in the pack, Dick, McLoughlin, McBride, Turley and Hipwell. Ireland lost 16-0, a very big score in those days. Some of those players won just the one cap but others went on to have magnificent international careers. Two of the new caps that day, McLoughlin and McBride, won 113 caps between them.

While it was one-in-and-one-out for some members of that team, in addition to McLoughlin and McBride that side included players who had very distinguished international careers. In that team in addition to the nine newcomers were Tom Kiernan, Kevin Flynn, Niall Brophy, Syd Millar, Bill Mulcahy and Noel Murphy.

Five of the side captained Ireland, Kiernan, McLoughlin, Mulcahy, McBride and Murphy. Both Kiernan and McBride subsequently became Lions captains.

No fewer than nine of the team went on to become Lions; Kiernan, Brophy, Hunter, Millar, McLoughlin, Mulcahy, McBride, Hipwell and Murphy. All nine of them were present last Wednesday night in the Burlington Hotel at a dinner to honour the Irish players who had represented the Lions. It was a marvellous occasion with over 50 Irish players present who played for the Lions.

Remarkably the gathering spanned 59 years from the oldest Harry McKibbin, a member of the 1938 team, to three of the four Irishmen on the Lions tour to South Africa last summer, Paul Wallace, Jeremy Davidson and Eric Miller. Keith Wood was unable to be present.

Six Irishmen, who captained the Lions were also present, Karl Mullen (1950), Robin Thompson (1955), Ronnie Dawson (1959), Tom Kiernan (1968), Willie John McBride (1974) and Ciaran Fitzgerald (1983). McLoughlin, in a superb speech, emphasised just how much it meant to be present to recall great times and great matches and underlined in his own inimitable manner that money could not buy what it meant to have been a player in those days. He was right again as so often in the past.