Declan Kidney has a great chance to ‘experiment’ knowing his ideal top-three fullbacks are either injured or just back from injury

WAY BACK in September 2010, 21 Fridays ago, I highlighted two points in my first article of the season.

The first centred on the value of the fullback jersey to Ireland’s attack and, ultimately, to Ireland’s potential success in 2011. Massive questions still await answers in this Six Nations, not helped by injuries to Rob Kearney and Geordan Murphy.

The problem is compounded by Isa Nacewa and Paul Warwick. Both are crucially important to their province but block Irish players.

Leinster’s marvellous fifth try against Saracens at the RDS highlighted that, even in terrible conditions, the counter-attack when kicked off at the back and employed by the whole team can prise open even the tightest of defences.

Ireland will soon have a new fullback and with it a man with little history in triggering the counter. Rome comes first, but the French are but a week beyond that. Marc Lievremont appears to have woken up and looks like patching a serious team together, so the Irish visit to Rome takes on serious consequences for the man in the 15 jersey.

For many talented players, injury to a team-mate was their gateway into the big time. I recall Gordon D’Arcy’s world-class entry to the 12 shirt of Ireland was based on injuries. Kidney has a phenomenal opportunity to “experiment” knowing his ideal top-three fullbacks are either injured or just back from injury, and he is somewhat covered by circumstance.

Will Kidney embrace the counter-attack? His selection at fullback will prove an early window into his policy.

The second point from September centred on Tony Buckley, as I wondered, with one remaining Six Nations to go before the World Cup, does he finally realise how important he is to Irish rugby? With the Six Nations squad announced this week, it’s clear Kidney believes Buckley is no longer that important. It is a crying shame Buckley hasn’t advanced on his weaknesses, as he still possesses so much talent that the world should not be denied him.

But enormous credit must go to Mike Ross. He, like Mick O’Driscoll, has transformed his rugby style over a very short period. I was at the RDS last week for Leinster’s most convincing and highly-entertaining rout of Saracens. Ross looked very comfortable when Saracens tried to disrupt.

But I was also at the Sportsground on October 23rd for Leinster’s win over Connacht. On that occasion I spent considerable time watching Ross, as the national media had developed a fixation on the tighthead. I wanted to see his scrummaging first hand, but I was more interested in his non-scrummaging aspects. In other words, outside the 15 or so international scrums per match, what else would he do for Ireland?

I started by watching him in the warm-up, and whenever the ball came his way he looked uncomfortable. Warm-ups are generally less pressurised environments where players focus on key aspects. For ball-carriers, it is running hard onto the ball. Ross shied away from that role. Throughout the match he worked hard off the ball, covering back, making tackles, running clever lines, but whenever the ball drifted into view he either chose to ignore it or was skipped by his team-mates.

It’s always interesting to see how team-mates treat each other. Natural frontrow ball-carriers, such as Keith Wood, would simply have to holler and the ball would be prioritised to him. No such action was afforded to Ross. It went so far that, as he arrived to the breakdown he would allow others to line up in the first-receiver role, limiting himself to rucking over the ball-carrier. He was clearly short on confidence and, in a way, hid himself from the chance to spoil his brilliant scrummaging.

But that was October, and since then he has grabbed as many opportunities to get his hands on the ball as possible. Yes, Ross may never become a Christian Califano, but clearly the autumn series – or lack of it, for him – has spurred him to embrace this aspect of his game.

More’s the pity that Buckley didn’t do likewise. Ross works as hard off the ball as last October, but with a renewed confidence. He now pops up as first receiver and trundles it up. With repetition he will improve this skill.

What it does prove, however, is he recognised his weakness and has worked damn hard at improving on it. His team-mates have noticed this and pass him the ball much more often. That effort has given him a great chance in the Six Nations.

With just two scrumhalves in the squad, Eoin Reddan’s elevation above Tomás O’Leary is a great fillip for the player, although it was a tad harsh by Kidney to not include three specialists. That said, if Jonny Sexton owned the first half in terrible conditions at the RDS last Saturday, I felt Reddan commanded the second where he controlled the fringe brilliantly into an awful gale. He took responsibility and kept his fatties running onto the ball. This looks easy but it requires presence of mind and geography to execute.

Scouring both Irish squads (senior and the Wolfhounds), one other name jumps up at me. The first time I saw Dominic Ryan play was for Lansdowne at the RDS. As we both wore the number seven jersey I was keen to see how he fared. For much of the game I couldn’t quite make out what position he was playing, was it six or seven? But what did jump out, he possesses, like Toulon’s George Smith, almost perfect technique around the breakdown, the tackle and the ball. Like Smith, he could play six or seven, but I do feel he should be fast-tracked into international rugby as a seven. Ireland could do with his style on the openside come Rugby World Cup 2011.

Last week’s analysis was based on assuming Philippe Saint-Andre would send out a competitive team and Munster would win. I was right to state that to assume makes an “ass” out of “u” and “me”, and Toulon certainly did that. Where to from here? Although the obvious rhetoric will flow of Munster’s demise, I’m convinced that like all our top-class sports stars Munster will bounce back. More of that to follow over the weeks.

Finally, it was incredible to witness Ulster explode back into Europe last weekend. It was even better that it was Biarritz who fell. Scarlets coach Nigel Davies made one brilliant point prior to the humiliation of Leicester. He simply pointed out that the culture of winning in Europe takes several seasons to cultivate. He is right, but in beating Biarritz in such dogged, fighting style, Ulster have propelled themselves into that culture. The air is very thin at play-off time, but what an opportunity.