It says something about both the new broom and the injury jinx which is sweeping through the Irish rugby team that the selection of the side to play the All Blacks can be described in near mutually exclusive terms. Radical yet predictable.
Necessity being the mother of invention, then, barring further injury, as anticipated five players of the team to play the All Blacks will be new caps. These were not quite the quintet that was expected. The 26-year-old St Mary's full-back Kevin Nowlan completed a remarkable rise after Conor O'Shea became the latest casualty of the pre-international campaign when sustaining a broken bone in his arm for London Irish against Newcastle yesterday.
Nowlan is joined by fellow St Mary's teammates John McWeeney on the left wing and Conor McGuinness at scrum-half. In what is a remarkable coup for the Templeville Road club, another ex-St Mary's player, London Irish lock Malcolm O'Kelly, comes into the second-row, with his Sunbury teammate Kieron Dawson deservedly winning his first cap as the team's open side flanker.
David Erskine, the Sale flanker, missed out in the selection which conflicted with conventional wisdom, though there will be widespread satisfaction that the talented Eddie Halvey has earned a recall alongside Eric Miller and Dawson in a decidedly mobile back-row.
Elsewhere, the team fell along familiar lines. Dennis Hickie completes an all-St Mary's strike three alliance with Nowlan and McWeeney; Mark McCall and Rob Henderson come in from the cold in midfield; Eric Elwood compliments Connacht half-back partner Conor McGuiness; in the all-Lions' front-row Nick Popplewell, captain Keith Wood and Paul Wallace provide the team's one bedrock of experience, while Paddy Johns' won the nod to partner O'Kelly above Gabriel Fulcher.
Manager Pat Whelan admitted that O'Shea's injury was "obviously the most disappointing." He added: "It may keep him out for four to six weeks. He's going to a specialist tomorrow, and we'll know for definite on Tuesday.
"Of course we would prefer not to have any new caps against New Zealand. But each of the players who are coming into the side are all very competent players, and we don't have any fears from the talent point of view."
Nonetheless, it's a disconcertingly raw-looking outfit to be thrown in against the world's premier side. It has an average age of 25 and 10 of the side have just 17 caps between them. In particular, you'd fear for the inexperienced wide three from St Mary's and the havoc which Tana Umaga, Jeff Wilson and the freakishly talented try-per-test Christian Cullen might wreak.
Nor are McCall and Henderson natural foils, both being inside centres. Whelan says the two will play it off the cuff, though the likelihood is of a left-right combination or Henderson being obliged to play at outside centre. There may also be some misgivings about Conor McGuinness being blooded here as well.
Then again, the Connacht pairing are there on their form of this season, as are the rest of the backline given what is left standing and fit. The back-line pickings are slim, as can be evidenced from a cursory glance at the Development XV to play the Exiles tomorrow week.
That Ciaran Clarke is out in the cold is as much to do with his treatment by Leinster, for whom Nowlan has played in all their six European Cup ties. Arguably, the most viable options elsewhere are the in-form London Irish pair of winger Justin Bishop and scrumhalf Niall Hogan.
Up front, Whelan admitted that Gabriel Fulcher and David Erskine were the unluckiest to miss out. Johns, he explained, was deemed the tighter of the two locks and therefore a more natural foil to the gifted O'Kelly, who definitely deserves his chance. Erskine, added Whelan, had not maintained his form of the Development tour for Sale this season.
"Eddie Halvey is the enigma of Irish rugby and one of our most naturally talented players. He suits the game that Brian (Ashton) wants to play and though he's been overshadowed by Alan Quinlan, we've noticed that he's improved his tackle rate."
Technically speaking, the team shows a dozen changes from Ireland's last outing, with Hickie, Wallace and Johns the only survivors from the second half obliteration against Scotland in March, but as Whelan said: "Scotland and last season is over."
The selection of Nowlan, McWeeney and McGuinness suggests they will all be offered fulltime IRFU contracts instead of their £7,500 one-year provincial contracts. Nor is it likely to stop there.
Three of the six subsitutes are uncapped, namely the Bristol centre cum winger Kevin Maggs, Erskine and the Greystones parttimer, loose-head Reggie Corrigan; the latter on the slightly dubious premise that he can cover for both props, although Whelan added that were Wallace to be injured, then Peter Clohessy would be the replacement.
The Development XV to play the Exiles is just that, as opposed to an A side, and has a pronounced Connacht influence. Four of the tight five, plus centre Sean Duignan, are included in a team to be coached by Warren Gatland and managed by Ray Coughlan. The Exiles team, to be chosen by the Exiles committee, has still to be finalised.
Whelan said he was "excited" by the back-row of Trevor Brennan, Victor Costello and Alan Quinlan, the first-named St Mary's hitman adding to the feelgood factor in Templeville Road.
The planned celebratory party in St Mary's is probably still going on. The schools' backs coach Brian Cotter can also afford himself a self-contented smile, as can the now departed St Mary's coach Ciaran Fitzgerald.
The former Irish coach's willingness to blood young players and his expansive style utilised the pacey Hickie-NowlanMcWeeney triumvirate to its full and assuredly contributed to the latter two's selection in the Leinster squad this season.
