A new year!  A new broom!  New excitement!  New Heineken Cup and Pro12 champions, probably!  New players!  Or perhaps not.  For a handful of old timers, 2013 is likely to be just as productive as any other year – well, the first six months of it at least.  Age may be pressing on, but there’s no getting rid of these fine stalwarts.

Donncha ‘Stakhanov’ O’Callaghan

Paul O’Connell is out for the season, and with that news, O’Callaghan’s importance to Munster remains as great as ever – greater perhaps.  The old workhorse was lethargic last season and deservedly lost his place to Donnacha Ryan, but can expect to partner his near-namesake for the remainder of the campaign.  O’Callaghan may not be able to generate the 20-plus tackle counts of his career peak, and has become something of a bete noir on these pages for his continued selection in the Irish team, but he has shown a willingness to adapt to Penney’s fairly radical new tactics, which involves him popping up on the wing with regularity.  For a player who rarely strayed a metre beyond the ruck, that’s a pretty radical change, and he looks energised.  Whether he still has much to contribute to the national team is up for debate, but he’s likely to continue his role as first reserve, so we can expect to see more furious windmilling between minutes 55 and 65 of Ireland’s Six Nations matches.

Ronan ‘RADGE!’ O’Gara

The consistency has waned, the decision-making has become variable and ROG can’t generate much distance kicking from hand these days, but the hard-won self-confidence and metronomic place-kicking remain, and as the recent bonus-point loss in Saracens showed, ROG is still capable of flashes of the old genius.  He’s no longer a contender to start for Ireland, with Sexton now leagues in front, and his place on the bench is under attack from all sides – Leinster (Madigan), Ulster (Jackson) and his own province (Keatley).  But none of the pretenders can quite iron out enough kinks from their game to definitively remove the old ligind from the matchday squad.  Munster need bonus point wins from their next two games, which – coupled with their apalling performance in Musgrave Park this weekend – will put even more pressure than ever on his Munster place, but it would be a brave man to bet on anyone other than the Radge-inator starting both pool matches and a possible quarter-final.  Even if he doesn’t, Kidney would probably still see him as his best reserve, and ROG can expect his mammoth cap count to tick over a little more in the spring. Plus he’s a front-runner for the Lions – no, seriously.

Gordon ‘Dorce’ D’arcy

You don’t know what you got til it’s gone, Joni Mitchell once said, and so it appears with D’arcy.  Dorce no longer possesses the speed he used to, and looks positively undersized in the age where inside centres are bigger than flankers, but his work at gaining yards in contact keeps him in both the Leinster and Ireland team.  His form on friday night for Leinster showed he plans on going nowhere.  Threats are coming up the ranks, but until Leinster’s back-three injury crisis shows signs of abating, Fergus McFadden will be needed elsewhere.  Up at Ulster, Luke Marshall looks like a serious threat and the natural heir to the Ireland 12 jumper, but until he gets another old lag – Paddy Wallace – out of the Ulster team, Kidney is likely to stick with D’arcy.  His days may be numbered, but that number is probably at least 180.

Brian ‘His BODness’ O’Driscoll

The burning question in 2013 is: can BOD rouse himself for a tilt at the Lions.  He dearly wants to bow out with a Lions tour victory – one of the few things he has yet to achieve.  But will his creaking body allow it?  He’s been injured a lot and – truth be told – a bit patchy over the last twelve months, so all eyes will be on what sort of form he pitches up in this month.  With O’Connell out, he’s virtually guaranteed to captain Ireland in the Six Nations.  It’s his audition for the big gig.  If he does tour, it’s likely he’ll do so as captain.  No player deserves to bow out on his own terms more so than this most magnificent of players, and a winning Lions tour would be a fitting send-off.

Leo ‘Laighin King’ Cullen

In a world where Richie Gray and Donnacha Ryan are the new model of loosehead lock, Leo is keeping it defiantly old school.  The opposite of dynamic, and his carrying ability tends to consist of him catching the ball and falling over.  His days as an international – such as they were – are over at this stage, but he remains a cornerstone for Leinster, where his leadership remains hugely important.  As a captain, there are few as adept as he at knowing when to have a polite word with the ref, and when to lay off.

Paddy ‘Bloodied Face’ Wallace

Wallace is a most intriguing player – derided almost universally outside Ulster, the reality is that he is one of the most talented players of his generation and the best passing 12 Ireland have produced in a long time. He is a joy to watch, yet mention his name in the pub and you are almost guaranteed to get spittle in your face from some spluttering eejit who just knows he isn’t as good as James Downey. And what’s more – he’s keeping fresh-faced young tyke Luke Marshall out of the Ulster team – why doesn’t he just go away and let everyone else play! We’re massive Wallace fans, and don’t buy any of the BS surrounding him – Marshall appears to have more right now, but Wallace’s brains and experience (and calming influence on PJ) keep him a touch ahead.