KEY POINTS:
Ireland will have their charismatic captain Brian O'Driscoll back on board for the first test against the All Blacks this weekend - while England will be praying their tour party stays free of injury against the likes of Jerry Collins in a Barbarians fixture before the team leaves
for New Zealand tomorrow.
O'Driscoll left the team to be a pallbearer at the funeral of a close friend and former flatmate, Barry Twomey. According to reports from Ireland, Twomey, 29, was an accomplished rugby player and counted numerous members of the national team as friends.
Twomey set up the social magazine Bash with Ireland international, Shane Horgan, in 2005. Aimed at 18 to 29-year-olds, a large section of the freesheet featured photographs of young people out partying in the capital. It is no longer published.
He was reported missing from his home on Monday evening and his body was found in an isolated spot near Enniskerry, Co Wicklow, the following day. Police are not treating his death as suspicious.
Among the mourners yesterday was his fiancee, Barbara Matthews.
O'Driscoll now seems certain to take his place in the Irish test team to play the All Blacks but England's rugby cognoscenti are holding their breath in case injury intervenes in the touring party during tonight's match against the Barbarians.
The Independent's Chris Hewett writes: "If England fail to beat the invitation side by 30 points or more, the New Zealanders will double up laughing. The Baa-Baas, seduced by the money and the free beer rather than the remote prospect of playing the rugby of the gods, were none too impressive in losing to a ho-hum Ireland team at Kingsholm on Tuesday night and, while the selectors have picked a stronger side for this game, expectations cannot be high.
"Two-thirds of the front row are no longer first choices at club level; the marvellous Wallaby outside-half Stephen Larkham has been in semi-retirement and is injured; the likes of Thinus Delport, Gareth Thomas, Cobus Visagie and Justin Harrison are long past it in test terms.
"There will be considerable interest in the performance of the tempestuous New Zealand flanker Jerry Collins, whose decision to walk away from international rugby at 27 has provoked much wailing and gnashing of teeth among his countrymen. Collins has been linked with a number of top-drawer European clubs, but has yet to decide whether he wants to continue playing.
"For all the kerfuffle over Collins - his presence alone will make the Baa-Baas worth watching - the chances of a proper game of rugby breaking out are slim indeed.
Still, Andrew will be bitterly disappointed if his side, chosen without significant input from an otherwise engaged Martin Johnson, show even the remotest sign of struggling.
The half-back pairing of Richard Wigglesworth and Charlie Hodgson will probably stay intact for the opening test against the All Blacks in Auckland and there is a good deal of know-how at centre, where the Newcastle pairing of Mathew Tait and Toby Flood join forces once more. They will certainly see some ball. As John Wells, the forwards coach, pointed out, the pack is divided between those who will head for New Zealand with test ambitions - hooker David Paice, the prop Jason Hobson, the lock Nick Kennedy, the loose forwards Luke Narraway and Nick Easter - and those who are thoroughly hacked off at not being given the chance to do something similar.
Of the second bunch, the Sale lineout specialist Chris Jones is perhaps the most intriguing. This time last year, he travelled to South Africa with a place in the World Cup squad there for the grasping. A fumble, an interception pass and various other outbreaks of hare-brained indiscipline in Bloemfontein put paid to that idea and he has barely registered on the radar since. This is his shot at redemption.
If the punters want some serious rugby, flights to New Zealand are still available.
England: M Brown (Harlequins); T Ojo (London Irish), M Tait, T Flood (both Newcastle), D Strettle (Harlequins); C Hodgson, R Wigglesworth (both Sale Sharks); N Lloyd (Saracens), D Paice (London Irish), J Hobson (Bristol), C Jones (Sale Sharks), N Kennedy (London Irish), L Narraway (Gloucester), W Skinner (Harlequins), N Easter (Harlequins, capt). Subs: D Hartley (Northampton), D Wilson (Newcastle), S Hooper (Leeds Carnegie), T Guest, D Care (both Harlequins), P Richards (London Irish), U Monye (Harlequins).
Barbarians: T Delport (Worcester); G Thomas (Cardiff Blues), M Turinui (Queensland Reds), S Mapusua (London Irish), I Balshaw (Gloucester); S Larkham (unattached) or G Jackson (Saracens), A Gomarsall (Harlequins); F Pucciariello (Munster), M Regan (Bristol, capt), C Visagie, K Chesney (both Saracens), J Harrison (Ulster), J Collins (unattached), M Molitika (Cardiff Blues) or D Croft (Queensland Reds), P Wannenburg (Blue Bulls). Subs: S Bruno (Sale Sharks), P Collazo (Gloucester), S Dellape (Biarritz), 19 D Croft (ACT Brumbies), 20 M Claassens (Bath), 21 G Jackson (Saracens), 22 J Pretorius (Golden Lions).