Ireland 6 Nations Review

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Ireland - 6 Nations Review

by Conor Philpott

In many ways, you could have said Irish Rugby was close to an all time high coming into the 6 Nations. 3 of their main provinces had qualified for the Heineken Cup quarter finals, both Munster and Leinster were in the top 4 (being in the top 4 will get you into the playoffs the end of the year) of the RaboDirect Pro 12 league and Ulster were also in contention for a playoff spot. However, there were still some holes in both the first team and squad that needed to be addressed coming into the Championship.

The first one was to back to Johnny Sexton as a starter. There was constant switching between O’Gara and Sexton during the 2011 season and I think this affected Sexton’s confidence. During the World Cup, he was clearly below par in the goal kicking department and I think Ireland should have kept him in the team, but they should have put Ronan O’Gara at 10 and Sexton at 12 or move Fergus McFadden to 12 with Sexton at 10. If Sexton then had an off day kicking, McFadden would have been capable of stepping up, he frequently takes kicks at goal for Leinster.

The next issue was the centres. Gordon D’Arcy doesn’t look like the imposing player he once was at international level. The problem has been that Irish coach Declan Kidney has persisted with D’Arcy and hasn’t tried anyone else. Paddy Wallace from Ulster would have been an ideal candidate, despite facing the ire of Irish supporters in the past, Wallace is a great playmaker at 12, he is a solid defender and having a man capable of clearing the lines under pressure would help out Sexton tremendously. In some ways, the injury to Brian O’Driscoll helped Ireland coming into the 6 Nations, “BOD” as he is known to Irish fans, surely won’t play beyond the 2013 British and Irish Lions tour and we needed to try and find a replacement for him. In my opinion, Darren Cave of Ulster would have been a prime candidate to play there. Unfortunately, he suffered an injury prior to the tournament and he was unavailable for a large part of it. Keith Earls, who has played centre for Munster over the last few months, seemed to be a decent and logical candidate for the job. Earls has played very well there but unfortunately, such is the legacy of “BOD” his successor is going to have to live up to him and when O’Driscoll is a player that comes along every 20 years or so, it will be difficult to replace him.

So now onto the actual matches played, first up we had Wales buoyed from their 4th place finish at the World Cup in New Zealand. Ireland were awful, still employing similar tactics to the last time they played Wales in the quarter final of the World Cup. The Welsh backline is full of big, physical and quick players. How do you combat that? You get up quickly in defence and try to stop them building up momentum. A simple physics equation tells you that: Force = Mass X Acceleration. What did Ireland do? They employed a drift defence which allowed the Welsh to gain ground and if you try tackling a player who is around 16/17 stone (over 100 kg) who is running at full speed, he is going to continue to make yards after the tackle.

Let’s move on to the round 2 fixture against France, this fixture was originally postponed due to the weather conditions in France and actually took place after the Italy game. If you saw the first half of this game, you would have thought Ireland should win. At half time, Ireland led 17-6. I think that the lead was somewhat undeserved however; Ireland’s tries came from an interception and some individual magic from Tommy Bowe. I think the lead masked some of the deficiencies in the Irish performance, Ireland showed little creativity in attack and some aimless kicking was occurring. This ended up being a feature of Irish performances throughout the 6 Nations and seemed to be a part of the Irish game plan. Ireland were relying too much on their defence, had little of the ball and were stuck in their own half for the first 40 minutes. In the end, it was a case of French pressure telling as Ireland came undone with a final score of 17-17.

Italy was Ireland’s second game of the tournament due to the rearranged French fixture. It was a solid performance, a decent win and no disrespect to Italy, they are a poor enough side. The final score of 42-10 flattered the Irish somewhat, however there were some signs of more creative play, with some very nice tries and some great interplay between backs and forwards. Johnny Sexton took the Man of the Match award and it was one of the games where he took control from 10 and he showed any doubters what he is capable of at the highest level.

Scotland were up next, Ireland lost captain Paul O’Connell through injury during the French match and Rory Best, the Ulster hooker, took over the duties. Ireland set the tone early on, after going 6 points down throw two penalties from Scottish out-half Greg Laidlaw, Ireland had a penalty inside the Scottish 22. Captain Best opted to go for the corner rather than take the points and it proved to be the right call with captain Best barrelling over Mike Blair to score in the corner. It came from a nice lineout move and it was unusual to see Ireland score from first phase ball. Eoin Reddan scored a second try for Ireland, a neat little break by the scrum half led to the try. Richie Gray crossed for Scotland in what was a very fine solo effort but Andrew Trimble crossed the line just before the half time whistle to give Ireland an 8 point lead. Ireland’s began to dominate the Scottish scrum and it led to a Johnny Sexton penalty. The Irish defence was superb throughout the second half and Scotland rarely threatened. Fergus McFadden scored a try with 4 minutes to go and the final score was 32-14.

To round off the campaign, Ireland faced England in Twickenham on St. Patrick’s Day. Both Stephen Ferris and Rob Kearney had fanned the flames prior to the match, citing that England were “sore losers and arrogant”. By the end of the match, both probably regretted their comments. The rain was heavy during the early stages of the match and handling errors occurred throughout the match. Ireland seemed to be having trouble at scrum time from the start with Alex Corbisiero and Dan Cole overpowering Cian Healy and Mike Ross. Soon after, Mike Ross went off with an injury. This was dreadful news for Ireland, Ross has been an anchor of the scrum over the last 2 seasons and Ireland have had a rather steady scrum for the last few years. Tom Court came on to replace him. Court is a magnificent loose head prop but he is not a tight head. The Irish scrum was obliterated during the match. England got a penalty try and several other scoring opportunities because of it. The scrum wasn’t the only problem for Ireland. They had trouble at the breakdown, giving up some poor penalties. Ireland’s lack of cutting edge which was apparent throughout the competition, was also seen yesterday, they made one line break over the course of the game and it occurred when the game was close to being over as a contest. England owned the ball yesterday, in the second half, England had the ball twice as long as Ireland. With the law changes that the IRB has brought in over the last few years, you can’t win a lot of games by relying on your defence like Ireland have. England were full value for their win, they out muscled Ireland up front and on a day with such poor conditions, the forward battle was key.

So where to know for Ireland? I think it is time to replace the coach, Declan Kidney may have delivered Ireland a Grand Slam, but he has done little to help Ireland improve since then. He may have brought through the likes of Sexton, Mike Ross and Sean O’Brien, but one could argue that he did so reluctantly. Kidney has persisted with players who are no longer up to starting at international level. Donncha O’Callaghan and Gordon D’Arcy being just two of those. Ireland are trying to play an outdated form of rugby that simply doesn’t work in the modern game. There are days when it works, like against England in the 2011 Six Nations and in the World Cup against Australia but it simply is not a viable option long term. This can be seen in our results over the last few years.

The Irish Provinces has shown that we have quality players available to us, we are capable of fluid back play and forward work. Ireland need a coach who can combine the two. Who would I like to see replace Kidney? I think former Irish international and current Harlequins FC coach Conor O’Shea would be an ideal candidate. Harlequins are one of the top sides in England and they have shown the perfect combination of forward grunt and devastating back play. They have similar players to Ireland. Nick Evans, the Harlequins out-half is similar to Johnny Sexton and Mike Brown is similar to Irish full back Rob Kearney. To take the next step at international level, Ireland need a change, we will have to wait and see what the IRFU will do about it.

Good article mate.

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So is this published or what?