BOB CASEY'S DIARY: Poor spectacle yesterday but an encouraging return from what has been a decent November for Ireland, all things considered.
I HAD the pleasure of watching yesterday’s game with a “real journo” in Liam Toland but it meant I had to keep a protective hand over my note pad throughout. Toly kept trying to peer in at my “Key Points” so watch out for plagiarism elsewhere in these pages.
Former international centre Dave Quinlan was forced to sit between us and when I popped to the loo at half-time I had to bring my work with me. Thankfully we were ensconced in the sanctity of Quinlan’s well-heated London home as matters unfolded at the freezing Aviva Stadium. Poor spectacle but an encouraging return from what has been a decent November for Ireland, all things considered.
I have a good insight into the psyche of Argentinian players having toured there with the full Ireland squad as well as the under-19s and under-21s many moons ago.
I have also played with loads of Argies over the years at London Irish and I have to say their ill-discipline has been a constant feature (inter-mingled with flashes of brilliance, hence, they are worth the investment).
Just look at my old team-mate Juan Leguizamón. The brilliant flanker, now at Stade Francais, would have been belting into David Wallace on the gain line only he is currently banned for eye gouging.
I also played with centre Gonzalo Tiesi and the substitute scrumhalf Alfredo Lalanne is currently with us at London Irish.
The Pumas love coming together from all corners of Europe at this time of year. With long-serving leaders like Mario Ledesma and Felipe Contepomi, they can adhere to a structure but I always found them to be free-spirited individuals and difficult to marshal during my time as a captain.
I noticed something else. When things are going well their English is perfect but as matters crumble you start hearing a lot of “Que?” and shoulder shrugging. Suddenly it’s “Yo no hablo Inglés.”
It can drive you insane.
The likes of Lawrence Dallaglio were always quick to identify and exploit this weakness. Dallaglio would wind Leguizamón up non stop, knowing that eventually he would snap and end up in the sin bin.
Just look at Contepomi in the early years at Leinster. The Munster pack would drive him loco knowing he would self-destruct.
Rodrigo Roncero yesterday was another example. By half-time he had given up five penalties and was pulled early in the second half, injured, but it was probably before he could further annoy referee Mark Lawrence.
This sounds like a defence of the South African referee. It’s not. Lawrence clearly didn’t have a clue what was going on at scrum time. Roncero and Argentina paid a dear price as a penalty try looked inevitable in the opening exchanges.
The scrum has become a major concern this November; the opposite, really, of what the IRB were trying to achieve when they slowed the engagement to a snail’s pace.
The game has improved as a spectacle over the past 12 months (this match being a notable exception) but even the frontrowers are not enjoying scrumtime at the moment.
The scrum laws must be changed again or they will ruin the World Cup.
There is a solution. A referee cannot be expected to make the right decision all the time but they must be given adequate tools to know what is unfolding under their noses.
The IRB referees’ manager Paddy O’Brien should bring in retired, proven international props like Jason Leonard, Peter Clohessy, Paul Wallace, Os du Randt to give seminars to the referees, go through all the footage and explain exactly what is happening.
Just because a tighthead prop hits the deck first doesn’t mean he is collapsing the scrum. The opposing loosehead could be boring in and forcing him down. How are referees to know? They must be educated to enable more consistency and avoid the scrum farce of the past four weeks.
On Saturday night I was on ESPN doing the studio analysis of Wasps versus Bath and the scrum penalty count was divvied up on a one-for-one basis. This is the referee all but admitting he doesn’t know which pack is dominating the scrum and, invariably, one frontrow gains control in a game. Unfortunately, that is not being rewarded in the modern game.
The early scrum interpretations by Lawrence yesterday badly hurt Argentina but we were still the better side by some distance.
Ireland are blessed by the current spine of the team. Bring back Paul O’Connell and he will be joined by Stephen Ferris and Jamie Heaslip in a pack of world-class operators. I have no doubt his return will bring the lineout back up to 85 per cent. He will get pods up in the sky quicker for restarts too. These flaws are fixable.
Gordon D’Arcy has been one of the unsung heroes in November, we saw more of his broken-field running here and a quality late try, but it is his general game that has been the most impressive. He remains a core team leader.
With that in mind, and considering the performances of Brian O’Driscoll amongst others, there is no reason why we cannot look forward to the Six Nations and World Cup.
Like previous seasons the team has used the early part of November to find a shape with it becoming evident to the public by month’s end.
I am confident it will get better again come the spring. Everything is fixable. Even the scrum debacle. Over to Mr O’Brien.
