RUGBY SIX NATIONS LAUNCH:THE GREAT and the good of the Six Nations, or at any rate the captains and coaches, were chauffeured en masse to the annual launch of the RBS Six Nations in the suitably exclusive and leafy surrounds of the Hurlingham Club in Fulham.
Apparently there’s a 10-year waiting list for membership, something Ireland can readily identify with, given they’ve been on a 23-year waiting list to rejoin the Six Nations winners’ roll of honour.
As they moved in tandem and in scheduled time slots from various print, television and radio outlets, it was the Welsh who had the biggest spring in their step. By popular consent, the reigning champions and last season’s Grand Slam winners are favourites to retain the crown.
“If you were to pick one team you’d be a silly man to bet against them,” said Brian O’Driscoll, “but there’s plenty of rugby to be had.”
In the relatively settled second year of a four-year World Cup cycle, Declan Kidney and Martin Johnson were the newcomers amongst the half-dozen coaches to this annual bunfight.
Asked as to Ireland’s chances, Kidney retorted in characteristic fashion by asking when Ireland last won it (1985).
“So we’ve never won it in the professional era, so there’s no pressure,” he quipped.
“Experience has taught me you have to have all the ingredients; you have to play well; you need to play better than the opposition on any given day; you need a little bit of luck and at some time in the future Ireland, please God, will win a Six Nations; they will win a Grand Slam; they will win a championship. We’re just trying to shorten the distance between when it happened last and when it’s going to happen again, be that this year or next year . . . it would be brilliant if it happened in our lifetime, wouldn’t it? And if it happens within the lifetime of this squad, even better again.
“The great thing about it is that every country can only put 15 guys out on the pitch and I would have huge belief in the squad of players that I work with to say that we can compete with them. That’s what we’ll look to and I would like to think that because of that sporting nature in Ireland, if we roll up and give it our best shot the supporters will come in behind us and then who knows?”
While the customary expectancy around Ireland’s chances are not so giddy this year, O’Driscoll played down the dog-eared question as to whether this would be Ireland’s year by saying: “Every year’s the year,” and justified the game-at-a-time mode by citing that Ireland’s first opponents are France, who have won the last seven meetings.
“Last time we had them in Croke Park they broke our hearts, so we’ll be trying to put that right by just getting our performance together and hopefully letting that result take care of itself,” said O’Driscoll who, perhaps not for the first time in his six-year tenure as captain, maintained this was “as strong a squad as I’ve ever been in”.
Ahead of their opening joust in Croke Park, French manager Joe Maso said: “We remember that we only won in the last minute at Croke Park two years ago. The Irish team is extremely motivated in front of 70,000 spectators, it’s not a very easy task at all. It was never easy to play in Lansdowne Road and it’s certainly not any easier in Croke Park in front of 70,000 Irish supporters or more. Of course our objective will be to win in Dublin.”
As regards the French clubs in Europe, Maso said: “No, we are gong to try and put the H Cup aside if possible and we’re going to concentrate on what we have to do of course, and we are very lucky, as you know, to have many quality players from Toulouse, who as you know, have qualified for the quarter-finals of the H Cup.
“So we’re going to try and continue working on what we have done in November. We won against Argentina and then we lost against Australia and we want to work on our “conquest in defence”.
“The message from Marc Lievrement in the last three days when we were together also was that we need to be more offensive and to bring danger all over the field, and also to make our game much more attractive than it was in November.”
Nick Mallett caught the generally mood – and somewhat typically, more eloquently than anyone else – when musing that England, along with France, ought to be favourites every year given their greater financial and numerical clout, though he said they would enjoy playing against Six Nations opponents as against the Southern Hemisphere big three.
“I think that Wales are playing the best rugby, from my point of view. Most of the Southern Hemisphere coaches would agree that their game against Wales were the hardest. They’re a really good team and well coached. Players understand what the coaches want, they’re right behind the gameplan and they’ve got some international quality players. But between Scotland, France, Ireland and England, it’s very difficult to call who’s going to win and who’s not going to win.”
Facing into the decided banana skin of an opening encounter against the Scots in Murrayfield, where Wales lost two years ago, Warren Gatland and Ryan Jones wore Welsh expectancy well. “When was the last team to win back-to-back?” asked Gatland. Answer: France won back-to-back Slams in 1997 and 1998, though they retained the championship title in 2006-07.
“I think there’s an added pressure that we’re excited about really, to go in with the tag of being favourites. Whether that’s the case or not it’s a challenge that we’re looking forward to. As a team, if you want to keep improving and be considered one of the better teams in the world it’s a tag you’ve got to accept not just as a one-off but fairly regularly. We’ve spoken about it, we’ve addressed it and we’re excited about that challenge and how we cope with it.”
RBS agree four-year extension
IT WAS also announced yesterday the Royal Bank of Scotland have agreed a four-year extension to continue their sponsorship of the tournament. This means RBS will be title sponsors up to and including the 2013 championship, writes Gerry Thornley.
Amongst the many statistics underlining the continuing growth of the tournament were figures showing that TV audiences across the six competing nations have increased by 28 per cent in the last six years, and, mindful of the times we live in, the combined 2008 economic impact of the RBS Six Nations for the six nations is estimated at £393.4 million.
Kidney also confirmed Keith Earls was off his crutches yesterday and the Irish coach will have a clearer idea as to his availability pending the results of further tests on his injured leg today.
“But it looks positive enough that he’ll be able to get back in sooner rather than later,” said Kidney.
Paddy Wallace is also expected to be passed fit.
Kidney confirmed that they intend reducing the current squad of 39 to 30 on Friday, along with the 22 for the A game against the English Saxons on Friday week in Donnybrook, before finalising both starting line-ups and replacements next Tuesday.
