Ireland's seemingly most durable and indestructible player, Jamie Heaslip, remains the only casualty from last Saturday's uber-physical, bosh fest with France at the Aviva, and this was despite another surprisingly intense work-out with their Connacht hosts yesterday.
Les Kiss played down the absence of Tommy Bowe and Keith Earls from yesterday's open session in the Sportsground, which he attributed more to player management issues. Having played impressively for Munster last Saturday, Earls will be released back for his province's game away to the Scarlets on Saturday, and Mike Ross' departure from the fray was precautionary, while Bowe was "just tightness and soreness. It's not an injury."
Ireland’s defence coach admitted “we are disappointed with the try” conceded against France, but he also highlighted Ross’ tackle on Teddy Thomas as one of the many positives which also typified the “nice scramble ethos that’s in the team”.
Overall though, he was merely inclined to award Ireland "a pass mark" before quickly moving on to the potentially sharper threat posed by England.
“We need to be in front of things in terms of the threat that England will provide. Their midfield, the relationships they have with [George] Ford, he’s played a lot with [Jonathan] Joseph and [Alex] Watson, that’s fitting nicely for them at the moment,” said Kiss of the Bath trio.
Pretty frank
“We would be cognisant of what that throws at us. On our review of the France match, we delivered a couple of things they might hurt us with if we’re not aware of some issues. We were pretty frank about the review. We just wanted to make sure that there is work to be done there. We do that across the park in all elements of our game.”
Indeed, whereas France have managed one try in two games – and against an Ireland team reduced to 14 men – England have been by some distance the most potent and fluid team in the competition to date, scoring eight tries of which all but two have been scored by their backs.
“They probably have more potency from their organisation, whereas the French have a structure but they can be a little bit more off the cuff. This team, in terms of what England are putting together at the moment, has an organised approach, and they’re pretty lethal with it when they’re given the space they’re searching for and trying to create. I think Joseph, without a doubt, has given them something in terms of that bit of dance factor in that channel.”
Heavy artillery
England may also take a leaf out of France’s manual and launch some straight-running heavy artillery, and as a small, one-time winger Kiss had some sympathy for his charges last Saturday.
“When I played, I had a theory: ‘if in doubt, run out.’ They were huge weren’t they?” he said with a wry smile. “I don’t think for one minute you could question the courage of our guys. The bottom line is you’ve just got to get connected, work hard as a good line. We’ve got to get them to deck as quick as possible.”
“They are a dangerous beast. The bigger they are, the harder they fall too sometimes. We’ve just got to beware of that because England are a pretty big team as well. We’ve just got to make sure whatever they have to put on, not only match it but that our subs come on and do their part.”
Cue the likes of Iain Henderson, who as in Rome a week previously was again largely confined to defensive duties last Saturday due to the circumstances of the match. So be it, is the Ulsterman's attitude.
“Even when our club sides play say Toulon and Leicester, from experience they are the biggest and the most physical. I think one thing that we like to target is our collective. They can be as big and as individual and as aggressive as they want, but they won’t beat our collective hits, our two-on-one tackles and how well we work as a team.”
“That’s one thing we have really going for us. We have a few big players, but as a whole we’re not a massive nation physically. But with our aggression and our attitude we’re able to dominate teams.”
