After an unbeaten and victorious 2009 season, Ireland go into the Six Nations with the weight of expectation on their backs. Possessing a squad of players that have finally fulfilled their potential and applied their ability to become the best side in the northern hemisphere, coach Declan Kidney has a specific job to do in maintaining this winning mentality.

Ireland’s only real problems lie in their front row, though with the likes of Marcus Horan continuing his comeback from illness by playing with the Ireland ‘A’ team on Sunday, the front row is likely to have strong cover in a matter of weeks should there be issues.

Cian Healy will, more than likely, be starting against Italy, and has been in good form for Leinster this season, particularly at the loosehead, but at times he has been less than impressive in the scrum. Ireland were bullied in the scrum against South Africa in November, and Healy will know that to keep his place throughout the Six Nations, the scrum will have to be a rock of consistency.

The longstanding problem of what to do if John Hayes gets injured also still remains. Mike Ross – and more probably, Tony Buckley – will be vying for the chance to step in. Neither, however, are players capable of matching the raw physicality and presence that Hayes’ bring to the Irish pack.

London Irish captain Bob Casey is a notable exclusion from the Ireland squad, though with respective Leinster and Munster captains in the shape of Leo Cullen and Paul O’Connell, along with the experience of Donnacha O’Callaghan, Kidney will feel he has enough quality and experience in the second row to dodge any possible crises. Should there be an urgent need to draft in replacements, 6’11” Devin Toner warrants consideration and a taste of a full international squad.

Working through the forwards numerically, a sudden abundance of back row talent gives Kidney an amazing strength in depth in a position that was probably Ireland’s best during the last Six Nations. The powerhouses of Stephen Ferris and David Wallace at either side of the ever-present Jamie Heaslip, would probably have been the British and Irish Lions’ starting back row, if it wasn’t for Ferris’ unfortunate injury. With Sean O’Brien, Kevin McLaughlin, Shane Jennings and Niall Ronan, Ireland have an array of talented back-ups, without even mentioning Denis Leamy, who has been plighted with injury once more.

As in the autumn, Jonathan Sexton and Ronan O’Gara will go toe-to-toe for the fly-half berth. After a man-of-the-match award on his debut against Fiji, and a strong performance against the World Champions, Sexton proved himself capable of performing on the international rugby stage. His broken hand following the autumn internationals has allowed O’Gara to rack up more game time since, though – games in which the Munster man has produced some sterling performances.

Sexton will expect that his endgame heroics in Twickenham against London Irish, where he capped a good all round game with a courageous drop goal – reminiscent of O’Gara’s against Wales last year – will have cemented his place in the team.

After Paddy Wallace’s selection for the Ireland ‘A’ squad, Leinster duo Gordon D’Arcy and Brian O’Driscoll can confidently expect to renew their centre partnership in international rugby, while Tommy Bowe and Rob Kearney have their respective positions nailed down.  A serious knee injury to Luke Fitzgerald rules him out for the entire Six Nations, and it appears to be a battle of youth versus experience for his vacant position. Shane Horgan has rolled back the years this season, but faces stiff competition from Keith Earls. On the basis of form alone, the 22-year-old should start, especially after Horgan’s stuttering performance against London Irish gave food for thought.

Now with more strength in depth, this year’s squad looks capable of even outshining last year’s. Another Grand Slam is well within this team’s capabilities.

Media hype has hit fever point about the H1N1 virus, but is swine flu really as dangerous as we’re being told?

According to the National Health Service in the UK, the symptoms of swine flu are fever, unusual tiredness, headache, runny nose, sore throat, shortness of breath or cough, loss of appetite, aching muscles, diarrhoea or vomiting. Though these symptoms can be severe, they are no different to the symptoms for the seasonal flu, which are (according to the same source): fever, extreme tiredness, headaches, runny nose (more common in children), dry cough, chills, muscle aches, and stomach symptoms, such as nausea, and vomiting. Diarrhoea may also occur.

So when the two strains have basically the same symptoms, why is swine flu being called a pandemic, and seasonal flu being forgotten about? The main reason for this, we’re told, is because swine flu is more easily transmitted from person to person.

However, every year there are between 340 million to 1 billion cases of seasonal flu worldwide. There is no official figure for the number of confirmed swine flu cases, but it is estimated that it falls well short of the number of seasonal flu cases. Figures don’t lie, and these figures show us that the seasonal flu is actually far more infectious than swine flu.

After suffering a disease or getting a vaccination, our bodies form memory cells, which remember specific antigens (found on the surface of a pathogen/disease carrying micro-organism) and then create antibodies to attack and destroy the pathogen. This is why it’s rare to suffer the same disease twice. Since swine flu is a new strain of pathogen, our body has no memory cells to deal with the strain, which is why most of us are completely susceptible to the disease. Some people aged 60 or over have immunity to the H1N1 virus because of an outbreak of a disease quite similar to it in the early 1950s.

With no immunity to it and its easy spread from person to person, surely swine flu is in fact dangerous. Well, yes – all diseases are dangerous, but the point is that swine flu is no different to any of these diseases. It is, in essence, a mutated mixture of bird flu and human flu. Every day, pathogens mutate, creating new strains of disease. Though most of these will not infect anyone, some do, such as MRSA, or the seasonal flu.

The reason that we can suffer, what we call, the flu, more than once in a life time, is because the virus mutates, creating a different strain of flu. The mutation changes the antigen, which means our memory cells don’t recognise the antigen, and can’t create specific antibodies against it, so if the pathogen does invade our body, we suffer the disease.

The similarities between the common flu and swine flu are uncanny, so why do people fear getting the swine flu, and not the seasonal flu, so much? The answer is because of the fear mongering by the media (both local and international), forcing people to believe that getting swine flu might indeed be the end of the world. We constantly read and listen to reports of people dying of swine flu, leading us to draw the conclusion that contracting it is a death sentence.

Thus far, approximately 6,170 people have died of confirmed swine flu. The figure is not a pleasant one, but comparing it to other annual deaths of easily contractible diseases, it’s miniscule. MRSA, the antibiotic resistant bacteria, is responsible for 18,000 deaths a year in hospitals. The annual death toll for the seasonal flu worldwide is, shockingly, between 250,000-500,000.

Admittedly, most of these deaths are in poorer regions, like Africa or South America, where little or no healthcare is available. It is, in fact, the same case with swine flu: one third of all swine flu related deaths are in South America (Africa has not yet been hit), and most of the rest of the deaths have been as a result of a combination of swine flu and another underlying diseases. Very few healthy people actually die of swine flu alone.

As for the swine flu death toll in Ireland – ten at the time of going to print – it’s worth noting that most of the people who died weren’t in the best of health. The first person in Ireland to die was a cystic fibrosis sufferer; the majority of the rest also had underlying medical conditions.

With similar symptoms, a lower death toll, and – in all likelihood – the assurance that you won’t get it again, swine flu, in fact, seems to be the lesser of two evils when compared to the regular flu.

On 9th October, it was confirmed that golf and rugby will return to the Olympics at the 2016 Rio de Janeiro World Games. Golf’s campaign to be included was as a result of a lobby formed by top officials and players, while the IRB headed the rugby campaign as part of their global expansion initiative, which includes sending the 2019 World Cup to Japan.

However, both sports have been forced to make concessions to enter the Olympics. Golf will hold no major tournaments over duration of the games, while the Rugby Sevens World Cup has been cancelled completely.

Smaller, more rugby-orientated countries, will certainly be happy with the inclusion of rugby sevens. Indeed, rugby may shake up the medal table, which is dominated by the countries with the largest populations, like China and the US, but neither boast teams of any quality when it comes to rugby. Fiji, though, are a powerhouse of sevens rugby, and will be looking to get their first ever Olympic medals in 2016. New Zealand, too, will be looking to add to the nine medals they won in 2008, while South Africa, who only won one medal in the 2008 games will also be buoyed by rugby’s inclusion.

Golf, though, is a different story. It is a sport primarily dominated by countries from the higher end of the medal table, like the United States and Great Britain. Tiger Woods will surely be looking to claim gold (providing there is no relapse to the injury he sustained to his anterior cruciate ligament) adding another accolade to the American haul. If the present world ranking table is anything to go by, with Americans Phil Mickleson and Steve Striker lying second and third respectively, America will look to claim silver and bronze too.

The entrance of both sports is exciting from an Irish perspective. Padraig Harrington, as he showed with his back-to-back British Open wins and his victory at Oaklands to claim the 2008 PGA Championship, is well capable of challenging for what could become the ultimate prize in golf.

Rugby is going through a golden age in Ireland. Even though it is the 15-a-side game which is prospering, and not the smaller sevens format, there is no reason why Ireland can’t send a strong team to the Olympics. They aren’t completely opposite games and Ireland could field a strong team of upcoming talent and AIB league stars.

The biggest issue in including these sporting codes is the fact that they are two completely male-dominated sports, with little emphasis put on women’s rugby or golf. Unless this is changed in the next seven years, the female participants in these two new sports can expect to get little press time, especially in comparison to their male counterparts.

Despite this though, golf and sevens rugby should make the Olympics a bit more exciting, especially for the smaller countries.

As Ireland prepare to face Australia, Fiji and South Africa next month, Leinster outhalf Jonathan Sexton is almost certain to be named as reserve to Ronan O’Gara. It is an exciting prospect that Ireland once again has some competition for the number 10 jersey, with Sexton a serious candidate to take O’Gara’s seemingly untouchable pace in the team.

Sexton has found his niche at Leinster, having made a strong start to the season and being one of Leinster’s most consistent players so far. His kicking from hand has dramatically improved, even in poor conditions, like that at the RDS against Munster this month.

Sexton’s rapid progress in the areas where O’Gara is left wanting is part of the reason he is pressuring the Lions’ outhalf for the number 10 jersey. His tackling is certainly better than O’Gara’s, who has always had a reputation – and rightly so – as being more of a turnstile than a brick wall when it comes to stopping a player.

Sexton has taken on a more attacking role at Leinster, often running at players and exploiting gaps when he can. Though far from the Matt Giteaus and Dan Carters of this world, the 24-year-old’s runs are intelligent, and add another dimension to his play. Attacking runs are something O’Gara rarely exploits, and this probably won’t change as he pushes into his thirties.

Even when it comes to place kicking, the area where O’Gara has received countless plaudits, Sexton is taking centre stage – though with O’Gara being the highest scorer in Six Nations history, and the sixth-highest scorer of test points in history, he cannot be denied as an immense goal kicker. The fact is, however, that O’Gara missed more kicks against Treviso in the Heineken Cup the weekend before last than Sexton has missed for the entire season to date. As was seen against Treviso and versus England at Croke Park last season, when O’Gara has a bad day, he has a really bad day.

There is no doubt as to who is in better form at the moment, but form isn’t everything. O’Gara has the experience of 92 caps under his belt, and has faced the likes of Australia and South Africa. It’s plain to see that Sexton has rapidly matured in the last few months, but can a man who was a sub for all but the final of Ireland A’s Churchill Cup campaign face the might of the World Champions?

O’Gara has been one of Ireland’s best players over the last few years, while Sexton, until six months ago, was given the dreaded label of a “confidence player”. On form, he deserves to start for all three internationals, but would that really be fair to him? The step up from club to international rugby is huge, and to start him against two of the powerhouses of world rugby would be dangerous for Ireland, and for Sexton’s confidence. We can only confidently expect him to start against Fiji, and to be brought on for the Australia and South Africa games. Time will tell if the pupil can outshine the master once given his chance.

After the success of Leinster and Munster on various stages last year, it goes without saying that management and players alike need to ensure that their position is consolidated and Irish rugby can continue to progress. With the signing of Eoin Reddan, Jean de Villiers and Nathan Hines, Ireland’s club rugby stalwarts seem to have ably replaced the likes of Elsom, Tipoki and Whitaker, whilst strengthening at the same time.

Former Wasps scrum half Eoin Reddan will be hoping to put his less-than-adequate performances in last year’s Guinness Premiership behind him with this move. Tipped to be the Lions scrum-half during the 2008 Six Nations Championship, he has since fallen behind Tomás O’Leary and Peter Stringer in the Ireland team.

Much like Stringer, he is a commanding scrum half who keeps the forwards on their toes. His slow ball release at the breakdown can be frustrating, but he does like to feed it out to the backs, rather than going for the box-kick. He’s not afraid to run when the opportunity arises, and his piercing passes are the reason he wore the Number 9 shirt during the 2007 World Cup and 2008 Six Nations.

The announcement of the signing of Reddan coincided with that of Scottish forward Nathan Hines, brought in to fill the void left by Rocky Elsom, and to provide cover for the ageing Malcolm O’Kelly. Hines is a natural second row player, though he has shown capability of playing blindside flanker, and will probably do so regularly with Elsom having returned to Australia in search of a recall to the Wallabies.

Hines certainly seems to be settling in well with the Heineken Cup Champions. A sturdy lineout has been a feature of Leinster’s play early this season, and Hines is certainly part of that. His commitment can never be questioned, as is shown in his aggression at the breakdown. To his discredit, however, he has a tendency to pick up yellow cards – and the occasional red – for his over zealous attempts to retrieve or keep the ball.

Not to be out-manoeuvred by Leinster, Munster matched their rivals with the coup of South African centre Jean de Villiers. After coming off the bench to make his debut at the weekend, de Villiers looks like he will fit in perfectly to the Munster set up. The centre has developed a world-class reputation with South Africa, after scoring 18 tries in 54 appearances for the Springboks and being an integral part of Tri Nations winning teams.

Like the retired Rua Tipoki, de Villiers has an eye for the killer pass, as well as the skill and power to grab a few tries. He was solid – though not all together impressive – during the Lions tour in June, but played well during the Springboks victory in the Tri Nations.

South Africa’s policy of not picking anyone playing rugby overseas will probably mean de Villiers won’t be around for long. He’s signed a one-year contract, and Munster will hope that he won’t follow in the footsteps of Leinster’s Rocky Elsom, and return home after only one season. He is sure to return to South Africa before the 2011 World Cup, where he could captain the Springboks in place of John Smit and Victor Matfield, both of whom are expected to retire before then.

It would have to be said that Leinster’s most high-profile exit was that of charismatic fly half Felipe Contepomi. His departure to Toulon will be a big hit to the province’s title and cup aspirations. His replacement, Shaun Berne, from Bath has put in some good displays in the early part of the year, but there are questions whether he has the nerves to cope with the pressure that Contepomi thrived under.