Opinion: Ireland may regret decision to stick

by Brendan Cole

With even opposition coaches pointing out problems and a sense that the ‘Stade de Farce’ postponement merely saw the can being kicked down the road, Ireland might have chosen to try evolve before the crunch away clash with France on 4 March.

This weekend’s clash with Italy looked like it could have been a good opportunity to do so. Italy are still weak at half-back and the tournament-ending injury suffered by Martin Castrogiovanni against England means they will be without one of their physical leaders up front.

Excluding Sergio Parisse, they are individually not in Ireland’s class across the forward pack and playing at home with Craig Joubert on the whistle, Ireland should find it easy to keep the visitors at arm’s length.

Barring a major disaster, the issues that were exposed by Wales in Ireland’s last two matches will probably be covered over on Saturday afternoon.

Ireland’s gameplan is undeniably effective at squeezing weaker opposition.

But a day of reckoning against the French still waits and the issues that contributed to Ireland getting beaten on the opening day by Wales have not gone away.

Wales defence coach has highlighted problems

Even the opposition are happy to point them out, and it will surely rankle with Ireland that Wales defence coach Shaun Edwards has included zingers directed at them in his last two Guardian columns.

Immediately after Wales win on the opening weekend, the former Rugby League star described it as an obvious advantage that Wales were 8kg per man heavier than Ireland numbers 9 to 14.

This week, writing about Wales’ and Wasps’ long-standing use of a ‘blitz’ defence, he commented: “Now almost everyone seems to have caught up. All bar the Irish, who still tend to come up and then drift across.”

Ireland haven’t caught up? Ouch.

Edwards did not mention Ireland's difficulties at the breakdown or in attack but these areas also need to be addressed.

But Ireland seem to have stuck with the philosophy they brought to the Rugby World Cup: 'winning collisions'.

It is a safety-first approach founded on gaining superiority in a narrow channel around the ruck by playing a back-row of carriers who rarely stray beyond first-centre.

But Ireland were unable to succeed often enough in that area against Wales, and without that base, everything else suffers.

Ireland's backs cannot create momentum on their own. They lack a weight advantage and play in flat alignments which also make it hard to get the ball wide quickly.

Even the Leinster ploy of looping Jonathan Sexton around his centres to create an extra layer and connect with the full-back and wings has apparently been dropped.

Ireland struggle to get wide

It is worth remembering that on the one occasion against Wales that Ireland did end up with Jonathan Sexton standing deep and a player - Rob Kearney – wide outside him, Tommy Bowe ended up scoring in the corner. Two good long passes took out five Welsh defenders. For once, Wales were the team coming and then shifting across.

Even without changing their selection, Ireland could opt to draw up the blitz and back their footwork behind the gainline though in fairness, that did not work the one or two times it was tried against the Welsh at the Rugby World Cup.

There are other possible solutions, some of which would involve looking outside the provincial system or bringing in unfashionable players.

In the backs, Northampton's James Downey offers size and excellent tackling but is not currently in the picture. That may change when he comes back into the Irish provincial system next season. Tommy Bowe’s size and speed also make him a candidate in the centre and if he was moved, Ireland could replace him with one of the more exciting young backs in European rugby in Simon Zebo. Again, Italy looks like a good opportunity to at least give a highly promising young player a taste of Test rugby.

At openside, a change would not necessarily mean dropping one of the current back-row trio: the benefits of shifting Stephen Ferris into the second row to create an extra space have been outlined before.

But options are thin on the ground. An outside-the-box pick like Niall Ronan will not be getting a call at this stage but might have had a surprising impact if given the chance.

Need to change balance of back row

Moving Jamie Heaslip, who has speed and is the best groundhog of the current back-row trio, into the number seven jersey might shift the balance though in all likelihood, current sub Peter O’Mahony will be given an opportunity if Ireland's back-row is to be changed.

Ireland have been to slow to recognise faults and fix them quickly in the past: recall Mike Ross' exclusion from the squad when available (having moved to Leinster in 2009) and the subsequent stuffing in the scrum in Paris two years ago.

That pattern may be repeating itself now and, arguably, the slow-burn process of gradual integration via expanded squads is not fit for purpose.

Over the next few weeks, the decision to stick instead of twisting against Italy could yet be something Ireland will come to regret.