WHERE DID that back play come from? While there had been hints of a revival in Ireland’s back play amid a New Plymouth downpour against the USA, and outstanding though the win was against Australia as well as some of the finishing against Russia, the most encouraging aspect of the victory over Italy was the new-found clinical nature and general attacking play of the front-line backs.

At times the Irish backs became a little too lateral in the first half, and twice revived memories of August by running over the left hand touchline. But even in the try-less first-half there was a noticeably better shape to their running game, with depth augmented by plenty of inside balls and trailer runners to change the point of attack to keep the Italian defence guessing.

With Seán O’Brien (eh, 14 carries at number seven) and Stephen Ferris as target runners, by rights it should have been rewarded with a try when Tommy Bowe ran one of his trailers on to the flanker’s offload to touch down under the posts.

In any event, at half-time, they regrouped and became a bit more direct in the second half, the net effect being that they created the space out wide before going wide, and didn’t run out of field by going over the touchline again.

“In the second half we became a lot more direct,” said Irish backs coach Alan Gaffney yesterday. “(Gordon) D’Arcy made two outstanding runs through the middle of the pitch, running over (Riccardo) Bocchino and gave us a lot of go-forward. And then the execution beyond that was very very good, it was ball in front, accelerating through the ball, putting pace on the ball, things that we practised all the time.”

They had targeted Luciano Orquera in the first half and went after Bocchino when Bowe came across from his wing, arced around the replacement Azzurri outhalf for Brian O’Driscoll to cut back and take the infield line for a try; even he looked pretty pleased and even a little surprised by the sharpness of his finish. It’s a move they introduced a year ago, and this was only the second time they had used it.

Confidence oozed out of them thereafter, and there were two sharply worked and sharply finished tries by Keith Earls, who is flying again. À la the flankers and O’Driscoll, D’Arcy ran harder and straighter in his best performance of the season, again disproving those who had begun to doubt him.

Behind them, Rob Kearney continued with the improved countering and hard running he had shown against Russia, and also started to link very well with the in-form Bowe. The Irish squad moved on to a wet Wellington (with rain forecast until tomorrow) and all in all, Gaffney hasn’t been so bubbly all season as he was when meeting the media in his shorts and runners, and with good reason.

The Ireland backs coach attributed much of that to improved conditions and, adhering to his mantra from August, the fact so many of the key backs (Brian O’Driscoll, Bowe and D’Arcy) now have enough matches under their belts.

As encouraging was continuing evidence of an improved counter-attacking game. “It’s been developing,” said Gaffney, citing the Russian game again. “It’s something we’ve known we had for a long, long time – we may not have shown it but it’s been there.”

However, countering all of this has been the improved Welsh back play, which Gaffney admitted had become a bit more direct and less predictable, following their infusion of young players. “They’ve got talented young players. I don’t know what they’ll do with 13. Obviously (Jonathan) Davies has been there a little while, he’s not a bad player, played very strongly for Llanelli year in, year out, but the young boy (Scott) Williams played pretty well yesterday.

“I think there’s some good personnel there, whether they play (George) North or whether they play (Shane) Williams but they’ve got Halfpenny, who I rate as a very, very good player and Byrne or whoever they may play at 15. So there’s a lot of talent there at the present time. Yeah, Wales are in good shape.”

BEST A MAJOR DOUBT TO FACE WALES

RORY BEST’S participation in Ireland’s World Cup quarter-final against Wales on Saturday is in serious doubt, with further tests to take place today before a decision is made on whether to call up a replacement hooker for the knock-out stages of the tournament.

Best sprained the AC join in his right shoulder during Sunday’s 36-6 victory over Italy at Otago Stadium and is receiving treatment.

“Rory’s doubtful for the weekend but we haven’t written him off just yet,” said manager Paul McNaughton. “We’ll assess it tomorrow and have more information then. He’s definitely doubtful. He’s getting manipulation at the moment. We’ll have a better idea tomorrow after a morning’s treatment.”