I remember sitting in the old stand at Thomond one Saturday afternoon with the late Tom Clifford. Old Crescent, who I played for in the Seventies, were playing Tom’s team Young Munster in the Munster Junior Cup and the lads wearing black and amber were winning well.

I turned to Tom in the second half and said it wasn’t a fair contest as ‘Old Crescent had only half a team’. Tom said nothing for a while but eventually he replied, “I counted 15 players on the Crescent side”.

A simple enough point but I often think of those remarks when I read newspaper reports about how Ireland has to make do with limited resources.

I agree that if Ronan O’Gara gets injured then Ireland would struggle to find a replacement but injuries unfortunately happen in any sport and it is the coach’s problem to find a replacement.

Last Sunday afternoon I sat down to watch TV with my old club London Irish playing Leicester.

The ‘Irish’ won 22- 13 and out half Eoghan Hickey played a major part in the win with a 100% kicking record.

English International Shane Geraghty, his parents are Irish, had been playing at out half but Hickey has been playing so well that Geraghty has moved to centre.

Eoghan played with Garryowen and Munster last season but his placekicking was not his strong point. He kicks the ball a long way out of hand but he was not that accurate with penalties and conversions.