O'Sullivan tries to lighten load on Ireland

The role of favourites can sit uneasily on Irish shoulders and Eddie O'Sullivan and his men were doing their best here yesterday to support the weight of expectation as they prepare for this weekend's confrontation with England at Lansdowne Road.

While the coach was disappointed to report that Gordon D'Arcy had not recovered from a hamstring injury in time to play on Sunday, the return to fitness of his centre partner and captain, Brian O'Driscoll, will strengthen Ireland's quest for their first Grand Slam in 57 years. O'Sullivan, however, appeared more eager to play down suggestions of a crisis in the opposition camp following England's defeats against Wales and France than to talk up his own team's chances after victories over Italy and Scotland.

"I think England got caught a bit cold in Cardiff," O'Sullivan said as he announced O'Driscoll's return, which will see Shane Horgan move to inside centre and Kevin Maggs return to the bench. "That's something that can happen to all of us. Wales came out of the blocks on fire, but England only just lost the game. And they should have won against France at Twickenham. By their own admission, they lost because they missed kicks at goal.

"At this level you've got to put those kicks over. England scored the tries in the game, they played good rugby, but they missed their kicks and they paid a big price for it."

Ireland's starting line-up will include 11 men who played when England won a Grand Slam decider here two years ago. England, ravaged by retirements and injuries, will start with just five of the team who put on one of the best displays of Clive Woodward's reign, winning 42-6 in a match which did much to confirm the belief that they could go on to become world champions.

"From a coaching point of view it's obviously an advantage to have a settled side without too many changes," O'Sullivan said, before adding, not too convincingly: "England's changes are largely the result of retirements, so they're not surprises. They have a couple of injuries as well, but I don't think it's a major deal. There aren't too many rookies in the team."

Asked to imagine what Andy Robinson, the England coach, might say to his team, O'Sullivan said: "I think the first thing you would look at is their record. They don't often lose against Ireland. I think he'll also be warning them that there will be quite a hostile atmosphere at Lansdowne Road, to keep their composure.

"He'll be saying England are still a good rugby team. They've lost a couple of games and they're in transition, but it would be very hard to find a bad England rugby team, no matter who they pick, because of the depth of the talent they have. Even with injuries they can generally put a good team on to the field. I think he'll get them focused on the fact that they're good enough to win the game if they keep their concentration under pressure."

O'Sullivan said he was looking forward to a meeting tomorrow with the referee, Jonathan Kaplan, who officiated at the same fixture two years ago, but had no worries about the South African's appointment. "Jonathan Kaplan is a world-class referee," he said. "He's refereed us many times. He knows how we try to play."

O'Driscoll said the incentive of playing against England had been a major factor in his recovery from injury, which included cryotherapy sessions in Poland with D'Arcy. The process involves subjecting the body to extreme cold, which subsequently allows the player to train more than would otherwise have been possible.

"We were in the chamber at minus 135 degrees for three and a half minutes," O'Driscoll said. "That's a long three and a half minutes. You're in knee-high socks, shorts, gloves, headband and a mask. You come out and you have to heat your body up again for 10 minutes, so we did our fitness sessions straight afterwards. Then we had lunch, an afternoon weights session or more track work, and then another cryotherapy session."

O'Driscoll scoffed at a suggestion that Ireland were in the same position as England were two years ago. "Yeah, the World Cup will be in the bag if we win this year, right," he said with heavy irony. "I wouldn't quite say we were at that level yet. I think that England team that won the World Cup was one of the best sides in my experience. I think we're still a distance away from that, but I feel that we're getting closer to it."

IRELAND (v England, Lansdowne Road, Sunday, 3pm): G Murphy (Leicester); G Dempsey (Leinster), B O'Driscoll (Leinster, capt), S Horgan (Leinster), D Hickie (Leinster); R O'Gara (Munster), P Stringer (Munster); R Corrigan (Leinster), S Byrne (Leinster), J Hayes (Munster), M O'Kelly (Leinster), P O'Connell (Munster), S Easterby (Llanelli), J O'Connor (Wasps), A Foley (Munster). Replacements: F Sheahan (Munster), M Horan (Munster), D O'Callaghan (Munster), E Miller (Leinster), G Easterby (Leinster), D Humphreys (Ulster), K Maggs (Ulster).