THE OASIS Beach resort in sleepy, off-season Taupo has provided the touring Irish with a fitting mid-tour respite of five days without a game. The rain has ceased but the temperature has chilled, the wind has kicked up and the waves roll in off Lake Taupo rhythmically a few yards away. Why, the players even trained in scenic and splendid sunshine yesterday.
But come kick-off against King Country tomorrow (7.30 p.m. local time, 8.30 a.m. Irish time), many of the starting tourists know this could he their last drink at this well of opportunity.
Again, the winning and losing isn't everything, although the Irish are mindful that this is probably the last obviously winnable game of their seven-match tour.
Viewed as the fifth and last trial game of sorts before the end of tour double whammy against the Maoris and Samoans, it is therefore possibly more important for the performance of the individual parts than, the collective whole. What's more this applies to the majority, for the management have clearly not gone for their strongest side yet
Up front, Gabriel Fulcher is a well-developed quantity who has proven himself again. Brian Cusack, a lock with all the talents, has done well. Back-rowers David Erskine and David Wallace have been among the tour successes.
The other four need big games, even the skipper Gary Halpin, heretofore limited to just one full 80 minutes. Ditto the enthusiastic Stephen Ritchie. loose-head Darren Molloy and the improving Kieron Dawson.
Among the backs, Rob Henderson has delivered trojanly and Ciaran Clarke, too, had a good game against Thames Valley, even if he may not dislodge the in-form Conor O'Shea from the final two line-ups. But the rest may all feel they have something to prove.
Individual interviews with all the panellists have been conducted by both Brian Ashton and Pat Whelan. With one eye on the `elite' panel of thirty-something which the management will ask the IRFU to have contracted until the 1999 World Cup, Whelan yesterday revealed that the door is ajar, but closing.
"The players know where they stand. They are under no illusions. They can't say they're being ignored or neglected. The previous crib from an awful lot of players was that there was little or no communication from the management. What they've had this time And that's the only way you can have it."
How the team does as a unit is harder to predict, what with another reshuffling of the pack including a new half-back pairing of Andy Matchett and Mick Lynch. The back line doesn't look particularly Hamoyant en bloc, and appeared decidedly rusty in an off-colour training session yesterday at the match venue, Owen Delany Park.
To diversify briefly from pressing matters ahead, this was a lovely setting in breezy, brilliant sunshine. The main pitch is pumice-based and another pristine grass-banked bowl, set off by the green Mount Tauhara to one side and Wairakei Park to the other, with the shoulder-to-shoulder snow-peaked ski resorts of the Tongariro, Ngauruhoe and Ruapehu mountains in the distance. You'd hardly believe that one of the back pitch's goal posts snapped in the previous night's wind storm and, apparently, we'd struggle to find a helter surface or setting in the north island.
Against this backdrop, the session started off at such intensity that one of the training bags burst. But errors crept in, balls were spilled, Ashton's mood darkened and to save themselves the ever-decreasing option of further training today, the players volunteered for an extra session without him.
However the backs go, King Country are expected, to meet the Irish pack head on and the tourists had better be prepared to put their heads on the block. For all the talk of 15-man running rugby, Ashton concedes that even the reduced set-pieces are still the starting point for any game.
Beyond that, Icing Country are an unknown quantity, even to their own supporters. with a new coach and. in effect. a new team.
Having flirted with demotion for years. once under Murray Kidd (who remains the union's leading try scorer with 46 from 1974 to 1984), they were relegated from the first division of the National Provincial Championships last season without so much as picking up a bonus point.
In the ensuing fall-out, 10 of their 15 most experienced and notable players departed. These included the thrice-capped All Black from last season and NZ Maori tight head Phil Coffin (to Wellington) who holds the record of 145 games for the province and the locks Glen Stanton (Southland) and Dion Waller (Manawatu). Michael Blank, their leading try scorer, goalkicker and, out-half last season, retired and the Fijian international pair of full-hack Philip Rayasi and Joe Veitayaki also left.
The new recruits are largely unproven local, club, players, although, these things are relative given the strength in depth of Kiwi rugby. Roughly 185,000 of their three million plus population play the game, compared to 20,000-plus from Ireland's near identical population.
Reliable sources still put them on a par to Bay of Plenty, not as pacey in the backs but more combative up front. The game against Bay of Plenty, it will be recalled, was a winnable one that got away.,
As Whelan admits, this game comes at an awkward time 90 the tour, but the Irish will press on regardless with their overall pattern of play. To that end. Ashton has partly focused on the eight occasions the hall was kicked to touch, needlessly as he saw it. against Thames Valley. The wide three. especially, have been encouraged to either counter-attack or keep the kicks in play.
He also wants to cancel out the "greedy" decision-making which saw players decline to move the ball on against Thames Valley in the final quarter. The development of a new game plan, at least among this squad, is in place, even if as Ashton concedes: "there is still a hell of a lot of fine-tuning to be done".
Most encouraging has been the attitude from the players, who haven't broken a glass off the pitch - earning congratulatory letters from unions and hotel owners alike - and have responded enthusiastically and open-mindedly on the pitch.
My concern is what's going to happen next? Are they going to he a) encouraged and b) allowed to develop that sort of game wherever they go, whether it's in England or Ireland," says Ashton.
At least Whelan and Ashton have been further encourage, by phone calls of support from the IRFU. They re 100 per cent be hind what we re doing and they re prepared to do what's necessary to support us."
However, given the provisional fixture list for a 14-club AlL first division has already been released, this may fall short of Whelan's preference for a much-reduced top flight with immediate effect.
Leaving aside the redundant, or otherwise, co-operation of Irish provincial and club coaches for the moment. another key player in the Ashton-Whelan revolution is the referee.
Every New Zealand coach I've elicited views from has stressed the importance of "getting the referees on your side". In New Zealand, and the southern hemisphere in general. they take the new IB laws and then re-interpret them as they see fit, with the sole purpose of letting the game flow.
Hence, play may continue from a collapsed scrum if there's no danger involved. Most obviously, when the ball carrier is tackled to ground, a teammate will dive in with impunity to protect the ball and free it.
What's more, if the ball is even fractionally off the ground, then it's fair game to use the hand(s) to free it. Ashton, aware of this from watching Super 12 games on television, focused on this in Limerick and in training out here, though it took the Irish four games to start fully adapting to these more liberal interpretations.
Referees? "Absolutely crucial," sing Ashton and Whelan in stereo. Accordingly, this will be included in Whelan's lengthy post-tour dissertation to the union, and "detailed' discussions with referees" follow.
But all of this reaffirms one common theme between, the two hemispheres, radicalism on one side and conservatism on the other. And it's time to get radical.
