Who will be at the World Cup?

With the RWC kick off just over just over two months away it would be safe to assume that Munster will have at least a quarter of their squad on duty in Australia.

With the RWC kick off just over just over two months away the composition of Eddie O Sullivan s squad is a topical theme right now and from a Munster point of view it would be safe to assume that they will have at least a quarter of their squad on duty in Australia.

At this stage the names surely already pencilled in are Peter Stringer, Ronan O Gara, John Kelly, Rob Henderson, Marcus Horan, John Hayes, Paul O Connell, Alan Quinlan and Anthony Foley while Frank Sheahan would be among that list except for the unfortunate circumstances he finds himself in.

In normal circumstances, David Wallace would also be among those already listed but the Garryowen man has been starved of competitive rugby through injury and although hauled all the way to the southern hemisphere only managed a little over twenty minutes of play – substitute for Eric Miller and Jonny Bell (?). However he must be listed among the probables, the idea of going to the Colesium without your cleverest gladiator would seem an act of gross folly and Wallace should be on the plane to Oz.

The one who should be sitting a few aisles away should be Donncha O Callaghan, possibly the most exciting prospect to hit the Irish international scene since, well, Paul O Connell but whether he will make the departure lounge in late September remains to be seen. Once again his tour down under last month was confined to a bit role, allowed take centre stage only after Leo Cullen suffered an injury.

Whatever the thought process at Irish international level, the idea that Cullen would win his place in the Munster side ahead of Master O Callaghan is unthinkable. This season, he has been a revelation and along with Paul O Connell destroyed the Ulster lineout in the Celtic League semi-final in Thomond Park, upped his game a notch in the company of Mick O Driscoll to suppress the Gloucester jumpers and with O Connell back again made bits of those icons of the English game, Johnson and Kay in Welford Road.

So what we re looking at is nine possibly eleven Munster players in green in October, with the outside chance that Mike Mullins and Anthony Horgan will also get the call. Horgan, like Wallace, is suffering from a lack of exposure, injury thwarting him on more than one occasion over the past two years to break into the international scene. The warm-up games might offer them the opportunity to stake a further claim but the body language from the body politic is that their late run has come too late.