JOHNNY WATTERSONon the fierce rivalry between Isaac Boss and Eoin Reddan for the Leinster scrumhalf shirt

EVEN IF Isaac Boss and Eoin Reddan don’t see it as an arena of conflict, others do. Blood sport in the ante chamber. A weekly tug-of-war – that is momentarily resolved with the starting team selection and then renewed again for the build up to the following match only to be resolved once more – describes a rugby life constantly cut down and rebuilt.

Earlier this week Boss sat at the top table in Leinster’s training ground at Riverview more diligent than enthusiastic and answered the queries. Someone stripped down a question and hurled it at him in the hope its directness would encourage him to explain how two players in a deep and loving relationship with the same scrumhalf position can respect each other, stay loyal to their vows to the nine shirt and fully consummate the marriage.

The query’s thrust was Boss for down and dirty in France, places where they speak Catalan and Basque; Reddan for the metropolitan lights of the RDS, and the aristocrats putting on a knockout show for the whiz kids and their dads.

It seems bizarrely over-simplified. Still, the man from Tokoroa doesn’t blink.

“I hope it’s not that simple,” he says. “Throughout the squad we have depth and it seems to be an ongoing battle between myself and “Redser”. We have our own bit of banter about it but obviously we both want to be starting every week so hopefully I’m involved this week and he’s not!”

The position has not yet become a national debate that divides families like O’Gara and Sexton but the weekly arm -wrestle between Leinster’s two scrumhalves comes into focus on Heineken Cup weeks like these.

Both Boss and Reddan play it politely, with respect and appropriate team spirit but the smallest shirt on the park is anything but a done deal.

The never-ending struggle for supremacy between two international players makes it a point of edge and niggle more intense than any other positional squabble on the field.

This week the former Ulster and underage New Zealand player is the disappointed one, with Reddan facing up to Chris Cusiter tomorrow.

Schmidt though colours it as a little more than grunt from Boss and sparkle from Reddan.

“Yeah, Eoin was probably coming in for an earlier game,” explains Schmidt. “He’d just been ill, when he first came back. He’d a bit of bronchitis, a chest infection. Actually it was more the week before. He was 100 per cent last week but Bossy had already had a couple of starts and we thought ‘let’s try to keep a little bit of continuity against Montpellier’.

“So he and Isaac were going to share a little bit of time to get them back into some sort of rhythm with us. This week it’s an opportunity to get Eoin out there. He’s a quality player. With Eoin and Isaac I think we’ve got some really good options there.

“As I said, we were scrambling for a bit of rhythm and we kept Isaac in. Going away to France it was really just to keep a bit of continuity because we had such a lack of continuity in so many other positions.”

It’s not always that simple. Schmidt might also look at which player can make more impact when brought on in the second half. That in turn depends on what team Leinster are facing. Schmidt also concedes that yes, Boss brings more muscle in a dog fight.

“That’s probably not too far off. You guys watch a lot of rugby and see the nature of the games and it’s probably not too far wrong. But sometimes it’s not who starts, it’s who you want coming off the bench as well.

“If you think you are going to have to chase a game or if you think you are going to have to close a game down. They can both do the job very well. They have both got fantastic kicking games and so they can both control the game in that manner.

“I suppose for us more often it’s Isaac who takes more on physically than Eoin does. Eoin maybe gives a little bit more speed to the game. I don’t think I’m telling any of you anything in describing it in those terms.”

Sexton, as first receiver, has a view on it that we will never honestly know until the biography comes out. But the outhalf, a consummate worrier, is not unafraid to throw his players filthy looks if the service is scrappy. Schmidt’s view is neither Boss nor Reddan has to over extend to satisfy Sexton.

“They both link in really well with Jonny,” he says. “Jonny is a top quality operator. So he can adjust to either one and as I say, they both have the quality pass that doesn’t really impact on Jonny too much.

“Jonny is actually quite grumpy with both of them if he is not getting the service. It’s a blanket thing with the team and the nines in that it’s really what we feel we need from them.”

“There were three of us in this marriage, so it was a bit crowded,” said Princess Diana one time. Like most affairs, neither Boss nor Reddan will always be totally content or entirely broken by it. Schmidt sees it more positively. Reddan does too. Today. Although, possibly not next week.

“Any coach now would say it is a 23-man game. You cannot afford to say you are going in with 15 players to try to win it,” says Schmidt.

“Sean Lineen has got to the stage where he’s talking through his three loosehead props and how they are in a really big battle for the spot.

“He’s got to a similar sort of stage where he’s got to make tough decisions about who starts and whether he introduces guys from the bench and the change up they offer.”

The modern day relationship then; fraught, loosely arranged and depending on the mood.

“So he and Isaac were going to share a little bit of time to get them back into some sort of rhythm with us. This week it’s an opportunity to get Eoin out there. He’s a quality player. With Eoin and Isaac I think we’ve got some really good options there