You can never forget a weekend in Rome, but you can certainly forget Irish wins there. Ireland gave themselves no more than a perfunctory pat on their collective back and returned home yesterday with an eighth win in a row knowing that to make it nine against France, and to achieve a record-equalling 10th against England, the opening weekend's other winners, they will need to up their game.
But they do so also knowing that their squad is a little bit stronger for Saturday's workmanlike 26-3 win over Italy, and that their starting team will be strengthened by the return of Johnny Sexton and Jamie Heaslip for Saturday's visit by France to the Aviva Stadium.
Eoin Reddan and Cian Healy will most likely be back on the bench as well, and whether Rory Best or the unlucky Seán O’Brien will be may become clearer today. Best is observing the protocols after suffering suspected concussion, while team manager Mick Kearney is today expected to reveal the extent of the hamstring damage O’Brien did in the warm-up to his first Test in more than 14 months.
"I think it's a good start," said a moderately satisfied Joe Schmidt. As usual, you sensed a hint of frustration that Ireland didn't pull away sooner and win by more, although he was mindful of the week's disruptions.
“We had three minutes to organise the lads after coming back in off the pitch, waiting while Seán’s power and his hamstring was tested,” Schmidt added. “The power tested well, but we just didn’t want to cause further injury if there was a heightened risk, so we didn’t take that risk. As has been talked about, Tommy [O’Donnell] stepped into the breach really well.”
Prepared
So well prepared are the bench and 23rd and 24th men under Schmidt’s watch that late changes appear seamless, as was the case when Rhys Ruddock stepped in at late notice for Chris Henry in the autumn win over South Africa. Now, no less than Tuohy and Ruddock then, O’Donnell underlined his value to the squad here.
Ireland are more reliant than most on their main men, and it is therefore encouraging that they could also absorb the absence of Heaslip and Sexton in the first of at least 13, and ideally 16, Tests in 2015.
“Yeah, and I can’t see any other way that you can operate,” said Schmidt, reflecting on the performances of O’Donnell, Jordi Murphy and Ian Keatley, who overcame a nervy start to land five from five. “You know that you’re going to have guys that pick up an injury or even lose a bit of form, and you want to have that competitive element and you want to have that spread across a few guys.”
“This time last year I thought Paddy Jackson was contributing magnificently to the squad. Paddy’s injured now, Johnny wasn’t available today and we had Ian Keatley, who wasn’t in the squad at all this time last year. He stepped into the breach . . . I thought he really grew into the game well.”
It's said that about a third of a Six Nations crowd at the Stadio Olimpico in recent years are new to the game, and an attendance of 57,700 again vindicated the Italian federation's move there, albeit the atmosphere on Saturday was as flat as a proverbial pancake.
That, of course, was testimony to the manner in which the Irish pack outmuscled their Italian counterparts. Keep the home crowd quiet is an away-day mantra, and here the Irish pack almost put the majority of the crowd to sleep.
“I think we felt under a fair bit of pressure, the pressure of expectation and also of trying to put combinations together at very short notice,” Schmidt said. “With the Wolfhounds last week, we probably had only two trainings. Thursday was very much stilted because no one could go to ground, the ground was a little bit hard, and so we were clomping around on a pretty hard surface. So it wasn’t the smoothest preparation and it was further disrupted by a late withdrawal.”
Suffocating
This was a suffocating game, with plenty of line speed from both sides, and as was always liable to be the case after the years of dancing feet that Gordon D’Arcy and Brian O’Driscoll provided, Ireland are lacking a little in the way of footwork.
Yet there remained a strong sense that there is way more to come from this Irish team, especially in attack. Simon Zebo provided some creative passing, and outside of Robbie Henshaw’s phenomenal strength in contact, there were also glimpses of the invention Jared Payne can bring with his timing and uncanny ability to give himself time on the ball. Add in Sexton and some ballast up front, and the team’s scope will increase.
“We’ll have a look at the way the French defend this evening,” said Schmidt, adding: “I think it’s going to be a really tough contest. I know a few of the French players reasonably well. We’ll try to cut our cloth to try and exploit any weakness we perceive and also to try to play to some of our strengths.”
“I’m personally relieved that we got through, we got a differential that we can happy enough with, but we know that there are going to be incredibly tough battles over the next two matches and beyond. Then we’ve got to go away to Wales and Scotland. So there’s nothing easy in this tournament.”
Veni, vidi, vici.
