Building up to the Six Nations of that year, Ireland were favourites to win the championship outright in the minds of most consensus makers on planet rugby and not just because they had beaten Australia the previous November and were beginning to look like an outfit in touching distance of maturity. It was also because when Eddie O'Sullivan called the roll on the eve of the tournament, everybody bar broken-leg victim Keith Gleeson responded with an 'anseo'.

The reason that Hennessy was so happy with himself was because he believed, not unreasonably, that a policy of his had led directly to this blissful state. At the start of the season, a core of around 30 Irish internationals had been granted a 10week pre-season in which to ensure that not only were they fully rested from the previous season's exertions, but that they'd also have enough juice in the tank to get through the next one. As both England and France read through lengthy injury lists, Ireland were able to field their strongest possible line-up - including the backline quintet of Gordon D'Arcy, Brian O'Driscoll, Denis Hickie, Shane Horgan and Geordan Murphy - for their opening fixture against Italy at Stadio Flaminio.

Optimism, both within the camp and in the back-slapping department of the IRFU's upper echelons, was blissfully high but that all changed in the space of an hour in Rome. Gordon D'Arcy limped off on 27 minutes with a hamstring injury and Brian O'Driscoll hobbled away with a similar problem on the final whistle. An extended pre-season policy, which had annoyed the hell out of the four provinces, had proven its worth for a good half an hour. After that, Ireland were in the same injury territory as the other five teams and their campaign suffered accordingly.

A disruptive pre-season extension in exchange for a full bill of health for one Six Nations fixture didn't seem like good value back then and it still doesn't now. The same back-slapping and self-congratulatory tones were heard around the place before Ireland game against Wales last weekend - Shane Horgan and Malcolm O'Kelly the only absentees on this occasion - but that relative clean bill of health lasted for a mere 80 minutes.

O'Driscoll and D'Arcy once again strained something vital, while Peter Stringer suffered an injury to his pretty vital right hand. D'Arcy and Horgan have made it in time for today's encounter but without Brian O'Driscoll and Peter Stringer in the starting line-up, Ireland are still significantly weakened. Much like they were in November 2005, where the team were without O'Driscoll, Paul O'Connell and Hickie, or last November, when Alan Quinlan and Frankie Sheahan were out of action. That much hyped pre-season doesn't appear to offer all that much protection.

And that's not all. Even the second part of the Irish system which has been offered up to the world as an example of how to do things is something of a mistruth. The IRFU, as we're continually told, look after their players so well that our boys play far less games than the robots across the rest of Europe. Well, Premier Rugby, the umbrella body for the English Premiership clubs, published a series of (admittedly self-serving) statistics a few weeks back when commentators across the water were stating that English players play too many games.

We take their figures on trust but they make for interesting reading. So far this season, we're told, the players in the Irish set-up have played an average of 14.5 games per man, a figure that rises to just 15 for the English squad and 17.2 for the French. Not only that. Over the course of the 2005/2006 season, an Irish international played an average of 24.9 fixtures in total, while his English counterpart's magic number was 25.2. Even the average figure for the French players, 25.9, constitutes just one more game per season than the Irish players who are supposedly the best looked after specimen in Europe.

The point of all this? It doesn't appear we're truly using the obvious advantage we possess through having full control over our players. All we seem to be doing is keeping our internationals ripe for the first half of the season and then overusing them in the period immediately preceding the Six Nations.

Take the first two months of the season.

Between 1 September, the opening weekend of the Magners League, and 31 October, your average Irish international would have played somewhere in the region of five games. That's five games in 60 or so days. The odd thing is that between the 26 December and 21 January, a period of 26 days, most internationals would have also togged out in five games. Right before the international season really kicks off.

Just when they're needed most.

It doesn't make sense but there are solutions. An earlier start to the season for all players, say mid-August, with a French-like two-week hiatus over the Christmas period, would be of much greater benefit to the international team.

And if it doesn't happen we should, at the very least, stop crowing on about what great condition are players are in heading into the Six Nations. It's a complete and utter fallacy.

IRELAND'S FEBRUARY INJURIES February 2005 Brian O'Driscoll and Gordon D'Arcy both pull their hamstrings against Italy. D'Arcy misses the rest of the campaign, O'Driscoll the game against Scotland but returns for the English clash. Denis Leamy pulls a hamstring the following week and is ruled out for the campaign. Shane Horgan misses the French and Wales games after a minor fracture to his thumb against England.

February 2006 Marcus Horan withdraws from the Irish team to meet France with a calf injury. He misses just the one game. Paul O'Connell injures his shoulder during that bizarre game and sits out Ireland's victory over Wales.

February 2007 Shane Horgan fails to make the start of the championship after doing damage to his cartilage while playing for Leinster in the Heineken Cup. He returns today against France but O'Driscoll and Peter Stringer will miss it through injury. And there's still two more internationals to get through before the end of the month.