It seems that there is a seventh nation in the Six Nations, or an Ireland beyond Ireland. It's that old hotbed called Munster, and they have received a reward for patenting the tightest bonding agent in sport by having two players unused by Ireland in the championship selected for the Lions: Keith Earls and Alan Quinlan.
Munster's march towards another Heineken Cup title was always going to offer Ian McGeechan a supplementary selection zone. The Irish province's bedrock devotion to the collective effort was ideal compensation for Scotland's surprising flatness in the Six Nations and for the lack of togetherness in the Wales team, an international extension of the Ospreys' inability to gel.
Ryan Jones, captain of both country and region, carries the can and does not make the first plane to South Africa. His consolation may be that he did not make the starting squad last time either, but returned as one of the few successes from the 2005 tour to New Zealand.
Two other captains, Mike Blair and Steve Borthwick, join Jones on stand-by and the fourth, Brian O'Driscoll, hands the arm-band to Paul O'Connell. This allows the Irish centre simply to concentrate solely on the creative – and defensive – posse around him. In South Africa that should keep him busy enough.
At opposite ends of the age spectrum there are call-ups for Leigh Halfpenny and Simon Shaw. Size plays a part in McGeechan's thinking and it is no surprise to see the 35-year-old Shaw, his club rock, his Wasps Gibraltar, there. Given all the fears surrounding Shane Williams - not even the International Rugby Board's world player of the year could escape the fall-out from the Ospreys' implosion – it is slightly more surprising to see someone smaller than the wing included, but Halfpenny goes from strength to strength and the Cardiff Blues can do no wrong at the moment.
The gamble is to give the party a massive Ireland-Wales bias, with 27 of the 37 players coming from the two teams that played out that showdown in Cardiff at the end of the Six Nations, the game that came complete with its pre-match comments from Warren Gatland about how much the two sides disliked each other and the post-match put-down of the Wales coach by O'Connell. In truth, it could give the reunion party a real focus and accelerate the forging of one team from four. Scotland, with just two, Euan Murray and Nathan Hines, may feel slightly outnumbered.
England cranked up their representation with their rapid improvement the longer the Six Nations went on. Or the more they managed to reduce their time in the sin-bin. Joe Worsley and Harry Ellis refused to slide away and have crow-barred their way into the squad. You can't have too much of that determination.
And how will this squad play? I think the back-row sums up how McGeechan has kept his options open. He could play Worsley, Stephen Ferris (or Quinlan) and David Wallace and play a stopping game, or he could go Jamie Heaslip, Martyn Williams and Wallace and go for invention. Perhaps there will be a middle course, a third way, somewhere between absolute meanness in defence and extravagance on the front foot.
Somebody in every unit has to shine. If Gethin Jenkins, O'Connell, Williams, Mike Phillips, O'Driscoll and Lee Byrne remain – or are allowed to be – prominent the Lions will win the series. South Africa became world champions by stopping their best opponents from shining.
