All 5,000 tickets for the match at the 24,000-capacity Stadio Flaminio on 18 March have gone, although there are still some packages available through sports travel firms.IRELAND SIX NATIONS TRAINING SQUAD: Backs: C O’Shea (London Irish), G Dempsey (Terenure College), J Bishop (London Irish), S Horgan (Lansdowne), K Maggs (Bath), M Mullins (Young Munster), B O’Driscoll (Blackrock College), D Humphreys (Dungannon), R O’Gara (Cork Constitution), P Stringer (Shannon), T Tierney (Garryowen). De Beer has a stress fracture of the foot – not something you would readily associate with the “Boot of God” – and will miss the start of the Northern Bulls’ Super 12 campaign. He is expected to be restricted to the sidelines for a minimum of six weeks, but if he fails to make significant progress over the next month he will be doubtful for England’s two-Test tour of South Africa in June.England’s failure to do the business when the heat was on last autumn has not prevented the entire red rose ticket allocation for the Six Nations international with Italy in Rome being snapped up in an instant. He is likely to begin this weekend’s game, replacing Alastair Hepher at stand-off.By coincidence, the very stand-off who exposed England’s World Cup ambitions as so much stuff and nonsense, the Springbok drop-goal specialist Jannie de Beer, appears to be heading in the opposite direction to Grayson on the fitness front. Grayson started England’s last international, the calamitous World Cup quarter-final with South Africa in Paris last October, but has not played since mid-December because of knee trouble.

Hennessy replaces Craig White, who performed the role during the World Cup.Meanwhile, Paul Grayson hopes to confirm his fitness for Six Nations duty when he returns to the Northampton side for the Allied Dunbar Premiership game with Bedford at Franklin’s Gardens. Stringer, meanwhile, is in direct competition with Tom Tierney, his fellow Munsterman. Up front, the theory that Malcolm O’Kelly and Jeremy Davidson will make up the second-row pairing has been complicated by the form of Munster’s Mick Galwey.The Irish have also appointed a new fitness manager – not simply a fitness coach, mark you – in the athletic shape of Liam Hennessy, a former international pole-vaulter who worked with the national track and field team at both the Atlanta and Barcelona Olympics. The other rookies to have caught Gatland’s eye include the out-sized Leinster centre Shane Horgan, the sparky Munster scrum-half Peter Stringer, and two of Stringer’s front-row team-mates, the prop John Hayes and the hooker Frank Sheahan, who plays for Cork Constitution and understudies the remarkable Keith Wood at provincial level.Assuming Gatland selects from his training squad, O’Gara will go head to head with the Ulster captain David Humphreys for the outside-half berth at Twickenham.

Reggie Corrigan, Paddy Johns, Andy Ward and the two Erics, Elwood and Miller, were demoted to the A ranks and there were no places of any description for Matt Mostyn, the Connacht wing, or Jonathan Bell, the Ulster centre, both of whom were in the 22 when Ireland messed up against Argentina on a desperate night in Lens last October.O’Gara, one of the central figures in Munster’s breathless rampage through the Heineken Cup pool stages, has every chance of winning a first cap on 5 February. Well, there were certainly one or two new departures when Warren Gatland, the national coach, named a 25-man training squad for the Six Nations opener with England at Twickenham a fortnight tomorrow.
Five uncapped players, including the much talked-about Munster stand-off Ronan O’Gara, were given a toehold among the élite, while umpteen members of the squad that failed to reach the World Cup quarter-finals last autumn were presented with an unceremonious heave-ho. Well, there were certainly one or two new departures when Warren Gatland, the national coach, named a 25-man training squad for the Six Nations opener with England at Twickenham a fortnight tomorrow. They say nothing ever changes in Irish rugby: that the outside-half will inevitably spend his entire career kicking the ball in the air, that the Test side will never win two games in succession, that the Saturday evening will always be more important than the Saturday afternoon. They say nothing ever changes in Irish rugby: that the outside-half will inevitably spend his entire career kicking the ball in the air, that the Test side will never win two games in succession, that the Saturday evening will always be more important than the Saturday afternoon.

Nick Price and Justin Rose both posted level-par scores of 72.First round scores65 W Coetsee (Rsa)66 G Owen, D Terblanche (Rsa), P Eales68 D Fichardt (Rsa), JF Remesy (Fra), R Goosen (Rsa), N Van Rensburg (Rsa), S Webster, T Johnstone (Zim), T Immelman (Rsa), D Gammon (Rsa), R Green (Aus)69 J Senden (Aus), G Ogilvy (Aus), A Roestoff (Rsa), P Price, W Bradley (Rsa), J Lomas, B Vaughan (USA), L Westwood, S Gallacher, P Lonard (Aus), T Moore (Rsa), M Lafeber (Ned)70 B Pappas (Rsa), B Davis, J Hugo (Rsa), D McGuigan, JM Singh (Ind), I Woosnam, G Orr, R Jacquelin (Fra), K Horne (Rsa), M Gronberg (Swe), A Wall71 B Vaughan (Rsa), C Hanell (Swe), D Pappas (Rsa), A Da Silva (Bra), B Davison (Rsa), J Skold (Swe), P Broadhurst, T Van der Walt (Rsa), J Sandelin (Swe), D Frost (Rsa), D Howell, N Vanhootegem (Bel), R McCann (USA), S Yates, I Palmer (Rsa), S Tinning (Den), B Dredge, K Storgaard (Den), T Gillis (USA)72 (x) J Oliver (Rsa), A McLardy (Rsa), T Gogele (Ger), C Williams, J Rose, M McNulty (Zim), D Botes (Rsa), M Jonzon (Swe), H Otto (Rsa), J Mellor, R Fulford (Rsa), M Brier (Aut), T Bjorn (Den), N Price (Zim), B Lincoln (USA), B Liddle (Rsa), G Muller (Rsa), D Crawford, J Loughnane, G Hutcheon73 S Hansen (Den), R Wessels (Rsa), C Kamps (Rsa), P Sjoland (Swe), F Lindgren (Swe), W De Haas (Rsa), I Pyman, I Garbutt, A McKenna, M Bothma (Rsa), M Archer, S Van Vuuren (Rsa), D De Vooght (Bel), (x) T Fisher Jnr (Rsa)74 M Davis, S Struver (Ger), T Dodds (Nam), B Langer (Ger), J Hobday (Rsa), (x) H Alberts (Rsa), C Whitelaw (Rsa), A Michell (Rsa), B Hlophe (Rsa), P Sanderson (Rsa), V Phillips, C Davison (Rsa), (x) R Wellington (Rsa), S Kjeldsen (Den), A Bossert (Swi), P Affleck, P Nyman (Swe), T Levet (Fra), C Swart (Rsa), A Hansen (Den), J Bele (Rsa), S Ludgater (Rsa), (x) J Van Zyl (Rsa)75 C Van Der Walt (Rsa), B Teilleria (Fra), E Canonica (Ita), I Hutchings (Rsa), D Van Staden (Rsa), S Daniels (Rsa), H Walters (Rsa), J Mashego (Rsa), A Van Staden (Rsa), R Johnson (Swe), (x) R Sterne (Rsa), (x) J Van Der Merwe (Rsa), R Gonzalez (Arg), A McLean, G Levenson (Rsa), J Kingston (Rsa), R Stewart (Rsa), R Michelmore (Rsa)76 W Druian (Rsa), R Kaplan (Rsa), M Murless (Rsa), N Henning (Rsa), N Maart (Rsa), S Hobday (Rsa), M Scarpa (Ita), R Muntz (Ned), T Clark (Rsa)77 A Henning (Rsa), W Abery (Rsa), M Gortana (Rsa), M Cayeux (Zim), I Garrido (Spa), A Cruse (Rsa), KH Han (Chn)78 S Pappas (Rsa), O Sandys (Rsa), N Burch, K Stone (Rsa), P Baker79 (x) T Aiken, J Cayless80 T Simon (Rsa), D Dunford (Rsa)82 J Vaughan (Rsa). I’ve also been working on my swing for two weeks and it’s not feeling comfortable But I’m looking to the future, it’s a long-term measure. At my age you have to start hitting the ball with as much power as you can.”The defending champion, David Frost, had a 71, while last week’s Alfred Dunhill Championship winner, Anthony Wall, went round in 70. “I’m playing better as I’m maturing, even though the results don’t always show it, and I feel I’m ready for a few good results now.”Ian Woosnam kept himself in contention for a first win since 1997 with a round of 70, containing six birdies and four bogeys as he struggled once more on the greens.”I putted pretty badly,” Woosnam admitted. “I had to go back to putting cack-handed last week because I lost it entirely. I certainly do this year and I’m playing much better.Meanwhile, Eales was putting in a blistering finish to join Owen and Terblanche in second place.