RUGBY AUTUMN INTERNATIONALS:HERE COME the men in black – and the men in green don't exactly look primed to play them, do they? Helped, admittedly, by better refereeing, conditions and atmospheric full houses, even England looked to be playing a different sport on Saturday, never mind the All Blacks, for whom Sonny Bill Wiliams appears to have provided yet another dimension to their already rich attacking game.
Any lack of sympathy for the bedraggled Scots would have been tempered by the uncomfortable thought that Ireland are next up for opponents on a seemingly inexorable march to another Grand Slam tour, who we’ve never beaten and who underlined their status as the best side on the planet by completing their 11th win in a dozen matches this year by a record margin at Murrayfield.
Ireland, by contrast, ended a run of four Test defeats on the trot but not in anything like the manner they would have wanted.
Conditions weren’t especially helpful, but for long stretches Ireland appeared to be playing into Samoan hands, or, more to the point, bodies. Samoa were mightily physical in the tackle and devoured one-off rushes into contact eagerly, while Ireland played as if not expecting the visitors to be, or be allowed to be, so competitive at the breakdown.
With New Zealand not set to announce their team until Thursday, Declan Kidney will break with custom by delaying Ireland’s until Thursday as well. Keith Earls and Damien Varley have been released to play for Munster against Australia tomorrow night, with Earls to rejoin the Irish squad on Wednesday. Cian Healy (dead leg) is a slight concern.
Ronan O’Gara, typically, crystalised the mood of the day when invited to comment on his 15th Test try. “Ah yeah, it was nice to get a score,” said the outhalf, before quickly moving on. “I think it was a dour, boring game, to be honest. It was difficult, so we got our win and that was important because we haven’t had many wins in this jersey for a while. I think confidence is quite low, so we need to find each other quickly and find our rhythm quicker because we have the ultimate test next weekend.”
Kidney, facing into what looks like one of the most daunting tasks he has faced in his exceptional coaching career, was reluctant to admit confidence was a significant problem, although he admitted Samoa’s 22nd-minute try by Alesana Tuilagi gave them “momentum” and made Ireland “nervous”.
He then added: “Anxiety will always be there when you’ve lost a few matches and I think we were anxious going into today’s game there too, but the first 20 minutes I was happy enough with. And then they got a try and, you know, it crept in again a little bit too.
“It’s something that, if you’re winning, you can end up taking it for granted and when you’re losing then it’s bound to bite into it.”
Ireland, indeed, have much on their plate this week; ie, get their set-pieces right, add much more variety to their attacking game, sharpen up their footwork and off-loading, speed up their ruck ball and fill holes in their defence.
Improved work-rate off the ball, not least in offering some scope for counter-attacks, would be nice too.
The entertainment quotient wasn’t helped by the interminable number of collapsed and reset scrums at the Aviva Stadium last Saturday. Kidney estimated that each engagement, from crouch through touch – and not forgetting pause – all the way through to belated engage, took about six seconds. That he felt compelled to time three of the late put-ins tells you everything.
Arising out of IRB chief Paddy O’Brien calling all the officials together last week, Kidney said the feedback from their own sources had warned them. Nor does it explain why Ireland were penalised eight times at scrums.
Matters improved after Tom Court switched to tighthead and Cian Healy and Rory Best were introduced, but Kidney intimated that, as with last week, the positive impact of the bench had to be taken into context.
“When the lads come in fresh, you are looking for the subs to make a positive impact. And because they are fresh, they have had the benefit of seeing the way the referee is doing it, and they are a bit more forewarned.”
Furthermore, contrasting the respective merits, such as they were, and negatives of the last two weeks in then settling upon a side to face New Zealand is further complicated by the opposition – the lineout being an obvious example.
Far from clarifying issues, the last two games have left Kidney and his coaching ticket with several selection posers, namely full-back (and by extension left wing), both half-back slots, openside, lock and the frontrow.
The favourites are arguably the frontrow that finished on Saturday, Devin Toner, David Wallace, Peter Stringer, Jonathan Sexton and Rob Kearney, with Gordon D’Arcy likely to be recalled. Whatever side they settle on, then the hard work starts.
“You’d always spend five or 10 per cent of your time looking at the opposition, but 90 per cent of the time will be spent on ourselves,” said Kidney, “because that’s the one area that we can control and there are enough things happening out there for us to improve on, not to be worried (about the opponents).
“If we spent 50 per cent of our time looking at the opposition then we’d go out worried, and that won’t do us any good.”
Ain’t’ that the truth.
IRELAND Squad(32) Forwards: T Court, C Healy, B Wilkinson, R Best, S Cronin, J Hayes, M Ross, D O'Callaghan, D Ryan, M O'Driscoll, D Toner, S Ferris, J Muldoon, D Wallace, S O'Brien, J Heaslip, D Leamy. Backs: E Reddan, P Stringer, R O'Gara, J Sexton, A Trimble, L Fitzgerald, K Earls, G D'Arcy, P Wallace, B O'Driscoll, F McFadden, T Bowe, G Duffy, Geordan Murphy, R Kearney.
