By Tadhg Peavoy
Ireland tight-head Marty Moore has highlighted Vincent Debaty as a major threat to Ireland when the two sides clash in the Six Nations this Saturday.
The Clermont prop has been called into France’s squad and is likely to feature this weekend at the Aviva, in a match which most pundits predict will be very close. Moore and Debaty faced each other in the final match of the Six Nations last year, when a 22-20 win in Paris landed Ireland the championship. And the Leinster prop feels the experience of that clash at Stade de France will serve him well this weekend.
“I came on last year and played them. And I know Debaty is back in the squad. I had my dealings with him last year. He’s a very aggressive player. Very aggressive in the set-piece," said Moore.
“We know what to expect this time around.
“It was huge and capped off a great year and gives me confidence this year. Basically, in the back of my mind I know what it takes.
“Generally, France are powerful, but they are very dangerous. We’re going to have be very disciplined as a collective. They have a lot of dangerous players that can open up holes like they did against the Scots. They’re on the back foot and all of a sudden Fofana cuts back, or Bastareaud cuts back, and Huget is down the wing. They’re a team that even when you have them on the back foot you can’t ease off.
“I suppose at set-piece time the French can be something you never expect. As a more experienced player this year I know what to expect in that regard.”
The maul is expected to be a key battle ground in Dublin and Moore revealed that Ireland have been preparing for that in training this week.
“We did a lot of work today already on the maul defence. I suppose going into the week we have to get dominance up front to push on,” said Moore.
“I think our discipline is very good and that is a big part of maul defence.
“Last week we gave away six or seven penalties against the Italians. So I think our maul defence is a strength in defence and attack.”
The specifics of that maul training is dividing up the field into a smaller area and playing two packs against each other in an attempt to score tries.
“It will be reps. We’ll go against an opposition side [made up of Ireland players] and go for a few, and kind of go back and forth attacking and defending. We could do that for a half an hour or 15 minutes depending on the time of the session until we get the desired result,” said Moore.
Moore and his Leinster team-mate Mike Ross are vying for the starting spot in the No 3 jersey for Ireland and the former feels that being able to play as a starter for 50 minutes, or a replacement in the role for 30 minutes, is the standard for that position in modern rugby.
“There are very few international tightheads that can play 75–80 minutes. But they won’t play past 65 minutes anyway. They might turn into passengers after that mark,” said Moore.
“I think looking across the board. To be really effective there’s generally very few players that can go past 70 minutes.
“The game in general is about technical ability not just brute force. And skillset is more important than size.”
