All posts in category Ireland

The Well Fair Program

The IRFU puts a lot of store in its player welfare programme, whereby its international players are sheltered from potential burnout by a strict regimen limiting the number of games they play per season.  The players seem to feel looked after, and it’s probably helped in keeping a couple of leading lights in the country when they had tempting offers from French clubs.  However, it looks increasingly like the current system is coming under pressure from a couple of sides, and it may be time for a re-think.

Brendan Fanning’s hugely enlightening recent article shone a light on the failings of the current system.  In short, the IRFU has appointed itself as guardians of player fitness but has little credibility in the role, having been without a head of fitness and conditioning for 14 months after Phillip Morrow left (they have finally made the replacement, with South African Dave Clark coming into the role).  Little wonder that the provinces see themselves as in a much better position to determine who is fit to play and when.  For a start, they have access to the players on a weekly basis.  The other factor is Declan Kidney entering the last year of his contract, because it is he, rather than any overseer who has to negotiate with the provinces.  Anyone remember the video Bill Clinton made of himself washing his car to demonstrate how little was achievable in one’s last year of office?  Or the season Alex Ferguson had announced would be his last?  Once everyone knows you’re leaving, it’s hard to maintain the influence you once had.  Kidney may not believe he’s finished yet, but it looks increasingly like he’s on the last lap.

Last week’s noises from the English and French Leagues about merit-based qualification for the Heineken Cup put further pressure on the current system; or at least they will do further down the line.  The Pro12 is the puppy that gets kicked around under today’s regime.  The provinces focus on the Heineken Cup and use the league matches as the rest periods demanded by the IRFU.  The likes of Sexton, Ferris and O’Connell can play as little as five or six of the twenty-two league games.  It relegates the Pro12 to a B-team competition.  But if, as the English and French are demanding, a top six position were required to ensure Heineken Cup rugby the following season, it would force the IRFU to review how it approaches the league.  With European rugby on the line, surely Sexton and co. would be pressed into action a little more often.   Plus this gives grist to the English and French drum-banging about how unfair life is.

It also must be asked just how valuable the player welfare rules are in their current guise in today’s game.  Back in the mid-noughties, when Ireland had a dozen or so test class players and an ingrained Test XV, it made evident sense to ensure the golden-thighed greats were protected from over-exposure with their provinces.  But in today’s world, where rugby is a 22-man game, injuries are frequent and squads are designed to cope, it’s not certain it’s as essential as it once was.  Ireland have a much wider net of players who could play test rugby today.  Forty-six players played for the national team last season.  All the provinces have reasonable squad depth and would be inclined to rotate their players in any case, if left to their own devices a little more.

Furthermore, the awarding of IRFU centralised contracts is increasingly muddy and strange looking.  A cursory glance over the list of players on central contracts (such as it is; the IRFU does not publish one, but annuonces the awarding of new deals) reveals that ageing fringe players like Donncha O’Callaghan, Paddy Wallace and Ronan O’Gara have them, but Sean O’Brien does not.  The unfortunate Denis Leamy managed to get a new one earlier this year despite being on the verge on retirement – who made this decision and why? At times it looks as if central contracts are thank-yous for years of commendable service, rather than attempts to lock down the best players.

It’s resulted in some bizarre situations.  Season before last, Ulster were known to be unhappy with having a strict game-time allotment for Paddy Wallace, only to see him play a handful of minutes in three substitute appearances in the Six Nations.  Last season, O’Gara was similarly coddled under IRFU rules, but featured only off the bench for Ireland in the spring.  When the Heineken Cup quarter-final came around he was ring rusty.  And don’t think that match-time rules are applied only to centrally contracted players.  It appears that the IRFU applies these to those contracted with their province, too.

One of the more incredulous elements of pre-season newsflow is that the IRFU have insisted that Connacht’s four tourists in New Zealand (Loughney, Duffy, Wilkinson and McCarthy) have a delayed pre-season and will not be available for early rounds of fixtures.  Loughney was the only one of the four to get on the pitch, with 20 minutes off the bench in the first test.  None of the four are ever likely to be more than fringe players with Ireland anyway, but Connacht – their squad permanently stretched to breaking point as it is – will have to start without four of their best players because of the tiring demands of the Shotover Jet in Queenstown.  It looks like Team Deccie are flexing their muscles and showing the provinces who’s boss.

For sure, the players need to be looked after, and imposing ceilings on match time makes sense.  But the current rules are just too rigid in their appliction.  Like much else in the national set-up at the moment, it’s a system that’s served Ireland well, but one looking increasingly behind the times.

by whiffofcordite on August 27, 2012  •  Permalink
Posted in Deccie Kidney, Ireland

Posted by whiffofcordite on August 27, 2012

https://whiffofcordite.com/2012/08/27/the-well-fair-program/

Santa Baby

We’re going to look at the forthcoming season for each of the provinces  in the next couple of weeks, but hot on the heels of our summer series and particularly the conclusions, we thought we’d put together a wish-list of sorts for Ireland – what we would like to see from the national team this year.

The Irish team to find a direction and a purpose

We’ve talked about this a bit already – the Ireland team is fragmented and aimless at present. The relationship with the provinces is fraught and the team suffers from a lack of vision at all levels. Lets hope that next year we see this begin to change. We won’t re-hash our arguments of earlier in the week, but you can read all about it here.

The death of the phrase “honesty of effort”

The idea that trying really really hard is something aspirational for Ireland is something that just refuses to go away. For us, it smacks of the kind of give-it-a-lash-sure-we’ll-drink-them-under-the-table-anyway attitude that prevailed for so long. We hate to state the obvious, but the players who play for Ireland are professional – it’s their job to play rugby. If they find they can’t be bothered, they will lose their jobs. Most are ambitious, and thus doing their best is a starting point.

As it should be. If this Ireland team are to have an ethos, it should be the pursuit of excellence and winning. We want the Irish rugby squad to have an ethos of being the best and asking how they achieve that. The identity and drive should be similar to the All Blacks – the aim should be to be the best. At present, playing skillful, intelligent and heads-up rugby is the way to achieve  that – so let’s do it.

This misty-eyed vision of Irish rugby possessing something special just because we try hard belongs in the amateur era, and should be challenged at all times. In fact, we’re sure the wooden spoon-accumulating teams of the 1990s also tried really hard, but they weren’t successful because they weren’t very good. Let us forget the guff and concentrate, eyes open, on winning.

A decline in inter-provincial bickering

One of the most marked features of the last decade, and particularly the last three years, has been the rise is embittered rants directed between the provinces. Friendly rivalry but collective purpose has taken a back seat to partisan and destructive thoughtlines, which are having a progressively corrosive effect on the national team.

Consider the “Jamie Heaslip needs a kick up the hole” meme which did the rounds among non-Leinster fans for much of last season – the value of Heaslip was seen in his absence in Hamilton, and the purpose of the inital argument was merely to push forward lesser players of other provinces (note this section is being written by Egg, our resident Ulsterman, and should thus be exempt from Leinster-centric criticism). Any kind of objective assessment could conclude nothing but Jamie Heslip is Ireland’s best number 8 by a stretch. If we want to rotate and get other players test experience, great, let’s do it. But let’s do it for that reason, not because Heaslip is personally not your cup of tea.

So besides “think of the children” type hand-wringing, what can be done? Loads actually – and much of it by the IRFU and national setup. One might cringe at the “Team England” setup they have in Twickers, but the English team have an identity – they aren’t merely the best of Leicester, Sarries and Saints (or whoever), unlike Ireland. Why can’t the IRFU make its employees take part in accessible family days? Or rotate the Carton House sessions around the country – bring in Adare Manor, Inchydoney or Galgorm Manor? Bringing the players to the fans might sound corny, but it works. And imagine the reaction to the Sexton/O’Gara debate to see the pair of them posing together for pics with children, and having the craic – its tempers some bitterness already, and makes the Irish setup something more than a vehicle for provincial box-ticking.

Some way of making the Six Nations less Hooray Henry would be good as well – we understand there are bills to be paid, but is there a reason why Six Nations tickets are virtually hereditary? The Irish team are distant from the fans, and thus it’s easy for a provincial identity to dominate. Why can Fan Zones not be set up in (say) Georges Dock, the Titanic Quarter or other public areas to show games on big screens and provide a family-friendly access point?

The IRFU to embrace social media

This is easy, and embarrassingly obvious. Compared to the provinces, the use of modern media by the IRFU is laughably poor. They are virtually never on Twitter and Facebook for example. The Supporters Club is a joke – for your €50 you get a fridge magnet and a drum, then nothing – not even an e-mail to say your membership is ready for renewal. If there are returned tickets, you might get a communication, but you usually don’t. Its pretty easy to communicate events, results (of teams at all levels), messages etc – the fusty image of the IRFU is well-deserved, and moving into the 21st century might dispel some of the cigar smoke.

When we see (and be certain, we will) swathes of empty seats at the November internationals, we should ask why haven’t the IRFU shifted them? Price is a factor, but some of the answer certainly lies in fans not knowing they are there – paying money for a SC subscription and not being told tickets are available is frankly Stone Age. And even if people don’t want to pay to see the Pumas, run competitions for free tickets on social media sites, radio, internet – its a no-brainer. Fill the stadium already!

Caps for Connacht

Consider Fionn Carr (2009-11) or Gavin Duffy and Mike McCarthy this year. What do they have in common? That they haven’t picked up as many caps as their form deserved, and that they played for Connacht.

Now, let’s say you are younger player and are behind an established player in your province. You can expect start 6-8 Pro12 games a year, but are essentially waiting on an injury to stake a claim to the jersey. You are offered the chance to join Connacht – what do you say? Right now you say no. But what if you knew you could go for a pre-defined period (12 or 24 months, not a permanent move) and play 14-16 Pro12 games and 2-4 HEC/Amlin games, and would be in Ireland contention?

You might re-consider. It might benefit the likes of Luke Marshall, Paddy Butler or Jack Cooney to spend some time in Connacht, but it would amount to career suicide at present. If you could earn Ireland call-ups by playing well, then return to your home province as a genuine contender to start, it changes the dynamic – it widens the player pool, gives players experience, and broadens the national teams appeal. Connacht’s current squad is thin, and is padded out by Pacific Islanders in any case – we’re pretty sure they would welcome the cream of other provinces developing youngsters for a season or two.

Luke Fitzgerald

This is a player who peaked three years ago and has been bedevilled by uncertainty and injury ever since. Yet he is also the most naturally talented of his generation. It would be a crying shame if his boundless potential was not completely realised, and he is talented enough to be the recipient of some special project plan – the national setup and Leinster need to work out how best to utilise his ability in the long term, and plan accordingly.

Obviously, Fitzgerald himself needs to be on board too – he has spoken out before about wanting to be a fullback, but he needs to be informed that, at present, he is 3rd choice (at best) and is behind the last two ERC players of the year – a career at full-back is not going to happen. Whether it’s at 12, 13 or 11, the natural talent that he has needs to be nurtured … assuming he comes back from injuries the same player.

by whiffofcordite on August 16, 2012  •  Permalink
Posted in England, Ireland, Six Nations, Wish List

Posted by whiffofcordite on August 16, 2012

https://whiffofcordite.com/2012/08/16/santa-baby/

National Game Plans, Political Infighting and Corporate Days Out

Well, that just about wraps up our summer series.  Thanks for all the comments and interaction, we hope you enjoyed the trip down memory lane.  For us anyway, it wasn’t just an exercise in dewy-eyed nostalgia, but an attempt to put in a wider context where Irish rugby has found itself and how it got there.  Because, looking back, Irish rugby is in an entirely new place and experiencing something it’s never had to deal with before.

In 2012, Irish rugby is more fragmented than it’s ever been.   We’ve had spells of woeful inadequacy, but the rugby public suffered as one.  We’ve also had periods of greatness, and the joy was shared in by all.  In 2012, your view of the past season is almost certainly coloured by what province you come from.  Leinster fans had a great time.  They’ll be able to look past the national team’s failures and their memory banks will be dominated by the Heineken Cup win and great rugby their team played.  Ulster fans likewise had a memorable year.  But Munster fans had neither provincial nor international success to celebrate and probably took the national team’s ills harder  because they had little to compensate for it.

The rise of the provinces has been a key ingredient in the success of Irish rugby over the last decade – we hope this came out clearly in the eight game series.  They have pooled talent into an appropriate number of teams to ensure competitiveness, brought new fans into rugby grounds and – most importantly – given us historic days out that won’t be forgotten any time soon.  And they’ve won shedloads of silver.  The IRFU has been rightly praised for getting its structures right in that the provinces exist as entities within their own right, but ultimately feed the national team.  The idea that provincial success is now detrimental to the national team – peddled by certain journalists looking to justify a pre-conveiced opinion – is simply ridiculous.  It is nonsensical to suggest that if Leinster, Ulster and Munster were struggling to get out of their pools that Team Ireland would somehow be better off.  We reject it utterly.

The IRFU and Kidney need to make sure they don’t allow themselves to go down this path.  Indications are that they are already doing so.  It looks as if the provinces have grown to the stage where the IRFU does not know what to do with them.  In the last twelve months we’ve had the new player succession rules, some pretty spotty low-budget recruiting, and from Kidney, sounds about the provinces not generating enough match-time for certain players and how he’d ideally have the players in camp rather than competing in Cup finals.  They need to be very careful here.  French rugby is currently marooned in a club vs. country wasteland.  In the last Six Nations they won two of five games and the Top 14 was unwatchable this year.  If France – with its huge player pool, wonderful history, passionate supporter base and superb youth sports programs – can be brought so low by political in-fighting, what chance does a small country like Ireland have?

So much commentary (including our own) is fixated on Kidney’s selection and tactics, but there is a bigger picture: if Deccie is going to see the provinces as a nuisance to be battled with, then he has no chance of succeeding.  Our understanding is that his relationship with the provincial coaches is close to negligible.  This is a road doomed to failure.  The coach who does succeed will be the one who can harness what the provinces are doing for his own gain.

It is tempting at this point to rush towards Muddy Williams’ touted concept of the ‘national game plan’, apparently the approach taken in New Zealand.  But such notions appear fanciful, in the medium term at least.  The Irish talent pool just isn’t deep enough.  The coaches at Ulster, Munster, Leinster and Connacht each have to cut their cloth according to what’s available.  For example, Ireland has just two top-grade fly-halves, and they play and see the game very differently.  Each is good enough to have the team’s style of play built around their talents.  But it would be bizarre to tell Rob Penney to make Munster play more like Leinster, or to ask Schmidt to get Sexton to kick the corners a bit more.   Their jobs are tough enough as it is.  And who decides what the national game plan is anyway?  Presumably the national team coach.  So, Kidney telling Schmidt how to play rugby?  It sounds like a practical joke.  It just doesn’t seem workable on any level.

There’s no obvious solution, but it’s hard to escape the thought that Kidney could do more to embrace what’s happening in provinces, especially Leinster.  But just as Eddie O’Sullivan was unwilling to follow a Munster-based approach in spite of picking so many of their number, Kidney seems to be trying to get players who clearly so enjoy what they do at provincial level to play a very different way.  Throw in his mantra-like repetition of the venerated status of test rugby, and you’re looking at a coach that’s increasingly stubborn and embattled.  It’s no platform for success.  Kidney needs help from the IRFU here, too.  It would help if the provinces didn’t feel they were being dictated to in terms of who they can play and when.  All that said, both Joe Schmidt is on record as having welcomed the ‘increased dialogue’ between national and provincial coaches last week, while Rob Penney enjoyed a ‘robust talk’ with Kidney on arriving at Munster.  Maybe the tide is turning, slowly.

Secondly, the players, Kidney and the IRFU need to make an investment to win back an increasingly disillusioned support base.  If the IRFU is wondering why the provinces have such pulling power, they might just take a look at the product they provide: cheap, accessible tickets to tightly packed grounds, family-friendly set-ups, a strong bond with the players, away trips to the South of France and great rugby towns like Bath and Northampton.  Little wonder that the more corporate, expensive and often dull Six Nations is not terribly attractive.  Casting one’s mind back over the last few years, you have to go back to 2007 to recall the last genuinely thrilling Six Nations.  Sure, the 2009 Grand Slam was incredible, but looking at it objectively, it wasn’t a classic series by any means.

Supporting Ireland is no craic at all these days.  Tom Fox wrote in a recent piece for Setanta that nobody really ‘owns’ the national team.  Fans will never allow their provincial team to be slagged by another team’s mob (go onto any of the fans’ forums for proof), but everyone is happy to dump on the national team.  There are easy scapegoats for all.  Leinster and Ulster fans blame the coach no matter what, while Munster fans see a Leinster-dominated team and blame the players.  It’s tiresome.  Some effort needs to be made to bring a bit of fun, a bit of excitement into the national team.

When you watch YouTube videos of Shaggy’s try in Twickenham or BOD’s hat-trick in Paris, there’s a sense that they were more innocent times and that something’s been lost.  It’s a sad day when suporters see the Six Nations, such a great old tournament with such rich history, as something to be got over.  In 2008, after Munster almost beat the Kiwis, ROG said that ‘maybe we need to buy into the green shirt a bit more’.  And maybe the same applies to the fans today.  We could all do with falling in love with the national team again.  But the powers that be have to make it easier for us.

by whiffofcordite on August 14, 2012  •  Permalink
Posted in Deccie Kidney, HEC, Ireland, Leinster, Munster, Six Nations, Ulster

Posted by whiffofcordite on August 14, 2012

https://whiffofcordite.com/2012/08/14/national-game-plans-political-infighting-and-corporate-days-out/

Eight Games That Defined Irish Rugby: Match Eight

The Match: Ireland 21 South Africa 23, 6 November 2010

What it Defined: Ireland’s inability to build on the 2009 Grand Slam

The State of Play

Following Ireland’s miracle 2009 – Grand Slam in the locker, plethora of Lions selections, out-muscling of the Springboks, zero defeats – it was inevitable that they wouldn’t maintain that standard.

In the following year’s Six Nations, Ireland’s efforts were considered a failure by the standards they had set for themselves over previous years. In a season when you visit Paris and London, three wins is par, but when one of your defeats is at home to a previously-winless Scotland in a game you were playing to win the Triple Crown, it puts a different spin on things.

There were three notable take-aways from the championship, and the most important was last – in that Scotland game we saw the first glimpse of Ireland throwing the ball laterally across the line for little gain. Going wide at every opportunity now seemed to be in vogue, but Ireland appeared to have little idea of what to do with the ball. In the Scotland game, the Jocks couldn’t believe their luck, and dominated the breakdown. Previous to this, there were commendable efforts to expand the gameplan, and Ireland had no problem scoring tries – 11 in total, and 3 each for Tommy Bowe and Keith Earls. However, most of the scores were off first phase set-piece ball, and you got the impression these moves would eventually be found out.

Secondly, the back and forth switching between Ronan O’Gara and Jonny Sexton started. ROG started the first two games, then Sexton the next three (after Sexton finished the November internationals as incumbent). This, amazingly, continued for the two years up to and including the World Cup – the lack of clarity in a key position seemed indicative of a drift in purpose.

Thirdly, Ireland’s rock solid discipline from 2009 (apart from the Wales game) was showing signs of breaking down. In Paris, Ireland had somehow withstood a furious start from the French to still be in the game when Jerry Flannery aimed a reckless fly-hack at Alexis Pallison – he somehow avoided a red card, but Ireland conceded two tries with him in the bin, where he joined Cian Healy who had already seen yellow for a shameless and lazy tug on Morgan Parra.

In their home games against Wales and Scotland, Ireland repeatedly gave away penalties. It took until very late to put Wales away as Stephen Jones hoovered up three-point opportunities, then, in the Scotland game, Dan Parks punished repeated offending to kick Scotland to victory – the mindless boos surrounding his winning kick encapsulated a frustrating campaign.

That June, Ireland went to the Southern Hemisphere to play New Zealand, NZ Maori and Oz. They lost all three games, but it wasn’t a tour wasted. A horrendous sequence of injuries meant a raft of young and up-and-coming players got gametime – and most did well for themselves – even Ed O’Donoghue.  Okay, maybe not Ed O’Donoghue, but the point stands.

In the New Zealand test, Ireland were reduced to 14 men after 10 minutes and were 31 points down at half-time. Yet, in a contrast to this years Hamilton test, they rallied and ended up scoring 4 tries; only the second time NZ have conceded 4 in their last 50 games (the other being the Bledisloe Cup game in HK last summer). Then Australia had great difficulty in shaking off the tourists in the final game, winning by 7 after trailing for much of the frst half.

Ireland may have gone 0-3, but it looked like they had engineered a good position to build upon after a difficult, but ultimately fruitful, tour.  They also looked to be finding their feet with regard to the ‘new game’.  Kidney and Kiss talked about rugby being a ‘game of keep-ball’ and of defending the ‘two-second ruck’.

Next year, Leinster started the season like Thomas the Tank Engine with three defeats from four (the time Joe Schmidt lost the dressing room according to G. Hook), but were building up to Stephenson’s Rocket by the time the November series rolled up – they had started the HEC in seriously formidable fashion, and Tullow man Sean O’Brien and the finally fit Mike Ross had been hugely impressive. The series would be Ireland’s first in the spanking new Palindrome, but the Old Farts had disastrously misread the rugby public – obscenely expensive packaged tickets put off many punters, and the opening game, against a Springbok side itching for revenge following a series of defeats to Ireland, was far from a sell-out.

The Irish media, meanwhile, were delighted with themselves – there was nary a dissenting voice – Ireland would comfortably dispatch an injury-hit South Africa and be all set for NZ 2 weeks later. Matty Williams has identified this as the point when Irish rugby got into the comfort zone – confidence turned to arrogance, and the need to constantly grow was left behind. At the time, this half of WoC (Egg) felt like Scrooge for doggedly insisting this South Africa team weren’t going to roll over and have their tummies tickled, but was in a small minority.

The Game

The alarm bells began to ring even louder when the Ireland selection was revealed – the message was clear – out with the new and in with the old. The tightheads were Mushy and Tom Court, tyro second rows Dan Tuohy and Devin Toner were ignored for O’Callaghan and Micko, and a woefully out-of-form Denis Leamy got picked on the bench ahead of O’Brien – Deccie was going with what he knew.

The tourists may have been missing the likes of Francois Steyn, Schalk Burger, Heinrich Brussouw, JP Pietersen and Fourie du Preez, but they came out strong and hungry – the Irish barely saw the ball for the first quarter, and when they did, were guilty of simple errors. One such was Eoin Reddan’s telegraphed pass off a line-out, which was snaffled up by the wily-but-not-exactly-Usain-Bolt Juan Smith for an intercept try from halfway.

Fly half Jonny Sexton’s radar wasn’t functioning for Ireland, in stark contrast to the metronomic Morne, and by the time Gio Aplon finished in the corner with 15 to go, Ireland were 23-9 down and looking well-beaten. To their credit, they took advantage of the Springboks taking their foot off the pedal, and substitute Radge inspired two late tries, and almost nailed the difficult conversion for the draw. However, it was too little too late, and a disappointing performance.

The teams:

Ireland: Kearney; Bowe, B. O’Driscoll, D’Arcy, Fitzgerald; Sexton, Reddan; Healy, Best, Buckley; O’Callaghan, M. O’Driscoll, Ferris, Wallace, Heaslip

South Africa: Aplon; Basson, Kirchner, de Villiers, Habana; M. Steyn, Pienaar; Mtawarira, B. du Plessis, J. du Plessis; Botha, Matfield; Stegmann, Smith, Spies

The Aftermath

The game saw Ireland descend into the cycle of inconsistency, indecision and unclear gameplans which culminated in the Hamilton disaster.

The following week, back in the Aviva (someone had to pay for it!), Ireland struggled past Samoa – Sean O’Brien and Devin Toner, calling the lineouts on his debut, came into the side, but Ross sat it out again – John Hayes resuming familiar duty on the tighthead side. New Zealand completed a routine 20 point victory the next week, then Ireland had one of those nasty and mean-spirited Pumas games to round off the series – they won, but it’s difficult to look good when your opponents only want to fight. The series had left Ireland looking tired and devoid of inspiration, with the management seemingly hunkering down with the team as it was for the World Cup.

The 2011 Six Nations campaign started with a flirt with ignominy – Ireland deserved to lose in Rome, but were rescued by Mirco Bargamasco’s unreliable boot and some late poise from ROG. They lose at home to France, beat Scotland in a drudge-fest, then lost to Wales in one of the most mindless performances from Ireland in recent years – the ball was kicked away over 50 times, and they looked entirely devoid of attacking ideas. They conceded a try from a shocking piece of umpiring, but, to be truthful, they didn’t deserve to win. All of which left them needing to win at home to England to even get close to par for the tournament.

This was their best performance since the Springbok win in 2009 – full of poise, aggression and attacking intent. It looked like they had finally turned a corner and were moving forward again The early Mike Ross (now one of Deccie’s untouchables following Mushy’s inability to make it through 80 minutes in a Wolfhounds game) scrum followed by Sexton and Earls attack felt like a keystone moment. Allied to the form of Leinster in Europe, it seemed Ireland were going to approach the World Cup with a confident, heads-up approach.

It was better late than never, but it was hard not to be rueful of a missed opportunity.  Ireland had left it until the last game of the series to get their best team on the pitch and by now frustration with Declan Kidney’s selection policy was in full swing.  The way Ross and O’Brien went from being persona non grata in the Autumn to 80-minute key players spoke of a lack of joined-up thinking on behalf of the management.  It was not as if they had not been on the radar in the Autumn – indeed, there was a loud clamour for both of them to be given proper exposure to test rugby, but it dadn’t happen.  How could they have missed something so obvious – that Ross was vastly superior to Buckley, Court and Hayes in the key position of tighthead prop?

The World Cup turned out to be more of the same, confirming Ireland’s as a team which flatters to deceive, swinging from the sublime to the ridiculous in every series of games. From almost losing to Italy to spanking England in that tournament, in the World Cup warm-ups it was a desperate defeat to Scotland (admittedly with a scratch side) followed by nearly winning in Bordeaux.

In the tournament itself, Ireland failed to get a bonus point from the USA, then followed that up with a purposeful and aggressive destruction of Australia, Tri-Nations champions and one of the pre-tournament favourites, in Auckland. Ireland were blessed by good fortune with the conditions and injuries to the Australian pack, but it was a tactical masterclass.  That was followed by yet more chopping and changing at out-half, and a smooth and smart win over Italy. Confidence was high going into the quarter-final against Wales, but Ireland flopped. O’Gara was in, and he had one of his worst days in green. Wales were wise to the ball-carrying of Sean O’Brien and Stephen Ferris and chopped them by the legs on the gain-line, and Ireland sank without trace in the second half.

A curate’s egg, then, no doubt about it – which was the real Ireland? The one who ruthlessly destroyed the Wallaby forwards, or the one swatted aside by (an admittedly top class) Wales? The sense of an opportunity of a lifetime passed up was (and is) strong – Wales went on to lose to an uninspired France side, who then put the heart across New Zealand, whose reponse to pressure was typically frenzied, albeit that they scraped over the line this time.

Perhaps the answers would come in 2012 – the coaching team got a re-jig, with a new three-pronged attack coach (mostly Les Kiss) replacing Gaffney, a new manager and Axel pinched from Munster for the injured Gert Smal. The attack functioned well enough after an inauspicious start, but Mick Kearney managed to alienate officialdom by implying they had no confidence in Wayne Barnes following his binning of Fez in the first game. Axel promised a fresh approach akin to that he had been working on in Munster, but lapsed into moaning about refs (a tiresome and increasingly desperate ploy from the Irish management) almost immediately.

Following a HEC campaign which saw three Irish provinces make the knock-out stages for the first time, confidence was high for the Six Nations. But the same problems remained – almost beating France in the re-fixed Stade game was merely a portend for a craven capitulation in Twickers where the lack of depth at tighthead was cruelly exposed by the English. By now every Kidney team selection was being greeted with howls of derision.  It appeared the coach was ploughing on regardless – of the 19 players selected, all 4 changes were injury-enforced, with no tactical or rotational changes at all. Donncha O’Callaghan, who had fallen to 4th in the Munster lock pecking order, started every game. It was indicative of the lack of direction of the team and an increasingly embattled management team digging their heels further and further into the ground.

No-one will forget what happened after that – two Irish provinces made it to the HEC final, yet the national team performance graph was more volatile than ever, swinging from almost beating New Zealand in the Second Test with a display of calculated power and poise, to losing 60-0 a week later. Meanwhle, the coach cut a desolate figure, resorting to taking pot shots at Ulster over the lack of experience of the reserve tighthead, and hunkering down for his last year.

This is where Ireland are at now – a player group low on confidence, without a discernable medium-term plan and seemingly unimpressed with the coaching ticket. Yet it’s a player group high on skill, high on intelligence and heavy with medals.  Scratching for 8th place in the world is not reflective of its ability.  It’s a similar place to where they were when Deccie took over.

How can Ireland put the type of long-term structures in place to maximise achievement on the international stage? How can they move on from the boom-bust cycle, briefly punctured in 2007 and 2009, that has characterised the team since 2000? How can the governing authorities modernise the sport at national level, where the inaccessiblity and eye-scratching dross of the national team contrast sharply to the provinces, motivated as they are by the ruthlessly commercial and Darwinian HEC scene?

If this sounds like a lament for a lost lover, it should – after Ireland reached their pinnacle in 2009, they have generally flattered to deceive and are a teasing frustration for the fans.  Someone needs to put a bit of sparkle into the national team.

by whiffofcordite on August 9, 2012  •  Permalink
Posted in Deccie Kidney, Ireland, RWC11, Six Nations

Posted by whiffofcordite on August 9, 2012

https://whiffofcordite.com/2012/08/09/eight-games-that-defined-irish-rugby-match-eight/

Eight Games That Defined Irish Rugby: Match Six

The Match: Ireland 30 France 21, 7 February 2009

What it Defined: Ireland’s Grand Slam and unbeaten calendar year in 2009

The State of Play

At the end of 2008, Irish rugby is doing everything it can to move on from their disastrous World Cup.  Eddie O’Sullivan resigns in the aftermath of the following Six Nations, and is replaced by another Corkman, Declan Kidney.  That’s about all they have in common, though.  Where O’Sullivan is technical, dictatorial and a control freak, Kidney is a man manager, an enabler and a delegator.  At some expense, he is backed by a world class coaching team: Alan Gaffney, Les Kiss and Gert Smal.

After a summer tour led by interim coach Michael Bradley, on which Ireland play reasonably well, the full scale of Kidney’s task is laid bare in the autumn internationals.  Ireland beat Canada in Thomond Park before the main course: New Zealand and Argentina in Croke Park.  The atmosphere before the New Zealand game is white-hot, and there’s a feeling that Ireland can do something.  After all, both Leinster and Munster are in good form in the Heineken Cup and it’s a good time to face New Zealand.  But they never fire a bolt, and New Zealand barely need to get out of third gear to win 22-3.  Ireland’s feeble performance is shown up by Munster’s reserves, who bring a second string New Zealand team to the brink in thrilling style the following Wednesday. Ronan O’Gara, watching in the stands, comments that Ireland ‘need to buy into the jersey a bit more’.

The Argentina match is an aberration.  It happens to be Ms Ovale’s first time going to an Irish international, and so awful is the game, it is a wonder she has made it back for another since.  Argentina lose Hernandez in the warm up, and appear to lose interest in the scoreboard, and choose instead to turn the game into a brawl.  The match is played almost entirely between the two 10-metre lines, virtually every ruck is punctuated by fisticuffs, but Ireland grind out a 17-3 victory, eventually conjuring up a decent attack as Tommy Bowe gathers a cross-field kick to score a try.  The victory is significant in one sense: Ireland have maintained their second-seeding for the World Cup draw, but other than that there is little to take from the series.

Kidney and his team are taken aback at the lack of confidence in the Irish players, and at the poor atmosphere within the group.  Some weeks later, players and management convene at Carton House to try to resolve some issues before the Six Nations.  Here, Rob Kearney makes his now famous, possibly overstated, but probably very significant ‘Munster look more united than Ireland’ comments.  While it’s hard to gauge just how big a deal it was, the team do appear fractious and cranky with one another on the pitch, and it’s not hard to imagine that factions along a provincial line may have developed within the squad.  With Kearney’s comments, it appears the elephant is finally removed from the room and the team can move forward.

A new tactical approach is also devised.  By now, many of the Munster forwards (who make up most of the pack) are frustrated with Eddie’s wide-wide gameplan, and would prefer a more attritional approach.  Deccie hands the forwards a licence to take on the opposition pack, and resolves to play a more territorial game.  He wants the players to play it as they see it, but to try and ensure each phase is played further up the field than the last one.  It’s essentially the formula with which he had so much success with Munster.  The players leave camp with a sense of a lot of baggage having been removed, and a greater clarity around the gameplan.

The good news is that the Six Nations is in its ‘odd year’, where Ireland face France and England at home.  And the schedulers have pitted Ireland against France in the first round.

The Game

While some are convinced that the new broom needs to sweep out the vast majority of Eddie’s Untouchables, Kidney decides to persevere, recognising that these great players have something left in the tank – he tinkers with some of the lineup, but it’s largely the same faces.  Flannery starts at hooker, and in the back row, Ferris, having impressed in the autumn is given the No.6 jumper.  Paddy Wallace is a surprise pick at 12, albeit as a favourite of Deccie’s from the underage days, and Gordon D’arcy, recently back from a long spell out with a broken arm that wouldn’t reset properly, is able to take a place on the bench.  For France, the selection is typically Lievremont.  He picks an exceptionally athletic backrow of Ouedraogo, Dusatoir and Harinordoquy, but puts Chabal in the second row and plays Sebastian Tillous-Borde at scrum half, while Parra kicks his heels on the bench.

The 2008-09 season is blighted by the ELVs, but this is one of the few games which rises above the torpor.  In short, it’s a cracker.  Ireland lose a try early on as Chabal smashes aside the last line of defence, but they rally.  After great work by Rob Kearney and Tommy Bowe up the left touchline, Paul O’Connell pops a pass into Jamie Heaslip.  The Leinster No.8 gallops into the space, before bamboozling Clement Poitrenaud with a sidestep to get over the line.  It’s a classic try from a player who is becoming central under the new coaching regime.  Ireland lead 13-10 at half time – the general feeling in the stands is that they’re playing their best in some time, but kicking too much to France’s livewire back three.

The second half performance is outstanding.  Off a set piece, Brian O’Driscoll breaks the line and wrong-foots Malzieu to get in under the posts.  Minutes later, Gordon D’arcy, off the bench for the bloodied Wallace, wriggles over the line from five metres out.  In an iconic image, he is mobbed by his team-mates, thrilled for him after such a long and difficult spell out.

The other memorable image, for WoC anyway, is that of Paul O’Connell hauling Jamie Heaslip – by now the man of the match – up from the ruck, slapping his back and grinning widely, after Jamie has won the match-winning penalty.  We are not writing with hindsight when we say that the sight of the Munster captain commending the Leinster tyro so vigorously really made us sit up and take notice.  Maybe there was a new hunger, a greater unity of purpose to this Irish team…

The Aftermath

The rest we know.  Ireland went on to win the Grand Slam, the nation’s first for 60 years.  There’s little need to go back over the details of Bowe’s try, ROG’s drop goal, Paddy Wallace’s hands in the ruck, Stephen Jones’ mercifully just-short penalty again – and we’ll skip the bit where Palla got so nervous before the game that he would let out a little yelp every time the camera cut to the empty Millenium stadium, couldn’t watch England v Scotland and instead had to go and play tennis for an hour to try and take his mind off the match.  It’s worth recalling a few details though.

For a start, Ireland never played as well, or as freely, again in the series as they did against France.  The stats showed that they passed less and kicked more than any other team.  Rob Kearney had looked electric counter-attacking in the previous summer tour, but with the game now dominated by defence and referees allowing the tackler huge leeway around the ruck, he was reduced to catching and kicking.  Tomas O’Leary’s game was tailor-made to the ELV-based gameplan.  With quick ruck-ball in such short supply it hardly mattered how quickly you passed to the fly-half, who was only going to kick it anyway, so his passing limitations were scarcely exposed, while his physicality around the ruck effectively gave Ireland an extra flanker.  After the France game it was a case of shutting up shop and trying to grind out wins.  Line breaks were in short supply, Fitzgerald barely touched the football and BOD’s ability from one metre out was Ireland’s best scoring threat.

Kidney’s management was astute from first to last.  While we’ve grown to be frustrated by his gnomic utterances over the last three years, when media expectation is building and all anyone wants to do is get the coach to talk up his grand slam hopes in front of a microphone, he’s the man to manage it.  One game at a time, not even thinking about it, sure isn’t this why we got into the game – he gave the media absolutely nothing.  When Warren Gatland cracked and said the Welsh disliked the Irish players more than any other nation’s, it appeared that Kidney had gained a slight advantage over his opposite number.

His greatest stroke was changing four players for the Scotland game.  Probably mindful that some players might be looking a week ahead to the Wales match, he shook up his team for the first time in the championship, dropping four players, some of whom were among his best.  Crucially though, he changed only where he knew he had quality reserves, so the team would be losing little.  Heaslip, O’Leary, Wallace and Flannery made way for Leamy, Stringer, D’arcy and Best.  Heaslip, in particular, was having an outstanding championship, and was not happy about it.  As it happened, Leamy got injured early on and Heaslip played most of the game, scoring the winning try, set up by a break from Stringer, who passed with metronomic accuracy.  Three of the four – all bar Wallace – were reinstated for the Wales game.  It was terrific, proactive management and had the desired effect.

It must also be said that Ireland were lucky.  They were lucky that France were having a season of experimentation.  Lucky that Danny Care lost his head and that by the time England got themselves to within a point it was too late in the game.  Lucky not to be further behind at half time against Scotland.  Lucky that Stephen Jones missed a penalty he would expect to score, and lucky that Gavin Henson, traditionally Wales’ kicker for long distance, didn’t insist on kicking it.  Lucky that Wales miscalculated and put the ball out on the full so Ireland could set up the winning score.  Most of all, though, they were lucky with injuries.  While Deccie deserved praise for making the four changes before the Scotland game, it must be recognised that doing so was a luxury.  At no time since that game has he felt he could make such changes, and now only really changes players when injury strikes.  Effectively, Kidney could put out his preferred XV in every game.  These days, to be able to do that five times in a row, is unheard of.

The contrasting legacy of Ireland’s two most recent coaches effectively boils down to a missed restart against France and a late missed penalty by Wales.  Fine margins.

Ireland and Kidney’s purple patch didn’t end with beating Wales.  They went the calendar year unbeaten, signing off with a distinguished autumn series in which they drew, somewhat fortuitously, with Australia and beat South Africa, piloted by a new fly-half, Jonny Sexton, from a newly resurgent Leinster.  It was among the best performances of Kidney’s tenure.  Everything was rosy in the garden.  It had been a remarkable season.  But the game was going to change.  The IRB, frustrated with the hideous kick-and-chase monster the game had become, were about to change the “interpretation” of the breakdown law, requiring tacklers to clearly disengage from the tackled player before competing for the ball.  It was enough to hand the initiative back to the attacking team.  Rugby would become a phase game again, and Ireland would have to adapt or be left behind.

by whiffofcordite on August 2, 2012  •  Permalink
Posted in France, Ireland, Six Nations, Summer Series

Posted by whiffofcordite on August 2, 2012

https://whiffofcordite.com/2012/08/02/eight-games-that-defined-irish-rugby-match-six/

Eight Games That Defined Irish Rugby: Match Four

The Game: Ireland 14-10 Georgia, 15 September 2007

What it Defined: the decline of the Eddie O’Sullivan era and the 2007 World Cup catastrophe

The State of Play

Ireland are travelling to the world cup in rude health, with a fully fit squad and sky-high expectations.  In short, Irish rugby has never had it so good.  The team is settled and the age profile of the team is optimal, with all its key leaders in the 25-29 bracket.  They have played a lot of very good rugby over the previous twelve months.  In the November internationals they reach new peaks, comfortably beating South Africa and Australia and thrashing the Pacific Islands.  The Six Nations is thrilling, heartbreaking, but ultimately encouraging.  Ireland lose it on points difference to France, but most commentators agree Ireland are the best team in Europe.

Huge credit is given to (and lapped up by) their one-man-band of a coach, Eddie O’Sullivan.  Uninterested in delegating and something of a control freak, he has full control of all elements of the team.  Perhaps his greatest accomplishment is the conditioning of the players, which has seen Ireland shed its long-held reputation as a 60-minute team.  Much is made of their visits to the cryotherapy chambers in Spala, Poland, where the players sit in sub-sub-zero temperatures for short periods of time, which improves the recovery speed of the muscles.  When a bunch of photographs of the players messing on the beach goes viral, the nation marvels at these specimens; tanned and toned, muscles rippling.  To reflect the coach’s achievements he is handed a four-year contract before the World Cup has even begun.

But there are a couple of problems looming, though nobody is overly concerned yet.  After the Six Nations, both Munster and Leinster limp out of the Heineken Cup in the quarter finals.  It means it’s a long time without high-intensity matches.  The summer tour to Argentina sees Ireland lose twice, and draws clear lines of demarcation between the first XV, “Eddie’s Untouchables”, who don’t travel and the rest of the squad, the tackle-bag holders, who do. The tour was ominous – granted, the first XV weren’t there, but the ease with which Argentina dispatched Ireland was a worry.

And Ireland’s pre-tournament preparation did not go well.  They’ve played poorly, losing to Scotland and only beating Italy in Ravenhill thanks to a highly dubious last-minute try.  The idea of playing a club side, Bayonne, once in camp in France, backfires, with the locals delighting in the role of hired hands set out to soften the opposition up for the main fight with France.  O’Driscoll is punched off the ball and leaves the match with a fractured cheekbone.  Eddie’s squad is rather lopsided, with a wealth of blindsides, but no specialised cover at 7 or 8.

The first game of the tournament sees Ireland play badly against Namibia, the tournament’s lowest ranked side. Eddie picked his Untouchables, with a view to playing them into form – they win 32-17, but it’s an inauspicious start – France and Argentina would put 150 points on the Namibians collectively, yet Ireland actually lost the second half 14-12.

Now the alarm bells were ringing – it was Georgia next, and any opportunity to play some of the dirt-trackers was gone as the imperative was to get the first XV back to life. This was the last opportunity before the real games come, against hosts France, and a fired-up Argentina side which has blown the tournament open by beating France in the opening game.

The Game

The first half is a pedestrian affair.  Ireland get a try, through Rory Best, but David Wallace is sent to the sin-bin and Georgia score the resulting penalty to trail 7-3 at half-time.  Then things go pear-shaped.  Peter Stringer throws a floaty pass towards O’Driscoll, and it’s intercepted for a try.  The body language between O’Driscoll and Stringer as the try is scored is not indicative of a team which is enjoying its rugby.  Girvan Dempsey replies with a try in the corner, which Ronan O’Gara converts to give Ireland a 14-10 lead.  But they cannot put the Georgians away, and as the game enters the last ten minutes it is the minnows who are piling on the pressure.  Winning the physical battle, they pick, drive and maul their way towards the line.  Indeed, they get over the whitewash, but Denis Leamy’s body is under the ball, and Ireland breathe again.

Ireland win 14-10, but it is the closest any established nation has come to such humiliation – had the Georgians showed a bit more poise and not attempted a swathe of miracle drop goals in the second half, the victory was there for the taking.  Ireland’s form is now beyond crisis point.  They have also failed to secure a bonus point, meaning if they lose to France and beat Argentina they could still go out.  The tournament is shaping up to be a disaster – Ireland appear poorly conditioned (but how, when they looked so good?) and Eddie has been forced to stick rigidly to his first team in an effort to play them in to something approaching form, but it hasn’t happened.

This half of WoC (Palla) remembers watching the game through his fingers.  With flights booked to Paris for the following week, it simply didn’t bear thinking about that the long awaited trip could be to see two dead rubbers in the French capital.

The Aftermath

The rest of the World Cup panned out with the inevitability of an unfolding horror story.  Ireland did up their game to an extent against France, but ran out 25-3 losers, two classic poacher’s tries by – who else? – Vincent Clerc enabling the hosts to pull away on the scoreboard.  It left Ireland needing not only to beat Argentina, but win by more than seven and score four tries in the process.  It never looked like happening, and Argentina dominated the match, winning 30-15.  In the first half, when David Wallace, of all people, was gang tackled and driven back 20 metres, it was clear the jig was up.  Juan Martin Hernandez was the game’s dominant figure, dropping three goals with all the fuss of someone buying a pint of milk.

Ireland went home humiliated, having entered the tournament as one of the favourites.  It was an astonishing fall from grace.  What had gone wrong?  Any number of theories were put forward, with the rumour mill going into overdrive.  Ronan O’Gara – having played with all the conviction of a man struggling to remember if he’d left the iron on at home – was having personal problems.  Geordan Murphy had packed his bags after being dropped from the bench for the French game.  Brian O’Driscoll and Peter Stringer had come to blows after the Georgia game.  It went on and on, and was very ugly – the intrusion into certain players lives was completely unnecessary, and quite shocking.

Other reasons with more foundation were offered up.  What was clear was that the players were poorly conditioned for test rugby.  Sure, they looked great on the beach, but they weren’t battle hardened.  The preparation was flawed, and once the team started underperforming, Eddie was unwilling to change the team – save for Peter Stringer, who became something of a fall guy.  The players were miserable in a poor choice of hotel in Bordeaux and became bored and irritable.

Frankie Sheahan offered an interesting nugget in a recent Sunday Times article: he felt the coaches had become too concerned with player statistics.  Certain players were being absolved from blame for particular outcomes because they had hit so many rucks, or made so many tackles.  He felt it contributed to an ‘I’m alright, Jack’ mentality within the squad.  When he talked to Rodrigo Roncero at the post-match dinner, Frankie asked him if the Argentina camp had relied on individual performance statistics.  ‘No’, Rodrigo replied, ‘we don’t care how many tackles a player makes, whether it’s 1 or 100, so long as somebody makes the tackle when it has to be made’.  It spoke of a coach whose philosophy had reached its sell-by date.

The strangest thing was that when the players returned to their provinces, the majority found their form again quickly.  Ronan O’Gara went back to Munster and immediately played as well as he had ever done.  Indeed, he piloted them to the Heineken Cup that year, while Leinster won the Magners League.  The players themselves were at a loss to explain it all.  Shane Horgan recently recalled irate fans demanding answers as to why they had been so poor, and his thoughts were: ‘You want answers?  I’m the one who wants answers!’

Eddie had one more Six Nations to put things right, but by now he was a busted flush.  He belatedly and reluctantly let a bang-in-form Jamie Heaslip have a game, and was rewarded with a performance (but no victory) in Paris, but the final two games saw Ireland lose at home to Wales and get thrashed by a Danny Cipriani-inspired England.

Eddie did the decent thing and resigned, leaving the team at a pretty low ebb.  There was only one choice of replacement: the man who had led Munster to two Heineken Cups in three years, and a coach his polar opposite in almost every way: Declan Kidney. The players were crying out for a new approach, and they were going to get one.

by whiffofcordite on July 26, 2012  •  Permalink
Posted in Eddie O'Sullivan, Eight Games, Georgia, Hellish Tournament, Ireland, Uncategorized

Posted by whiffofcordite on July 26, 2012

https://whiffofcordite.com/2012/07/26/eight-games-that-defined-irish-rugby-match-four/

Eight Games That Defined Irish Rugby: Match Three

The Game: England 13 Ireland 19, 6th March 2004

What it Defined: The emergence of a consistently successful Ireland side

The State of Play

After the Night of the Long Knives following the All Blacks defeat in 2001, Eddie was always going to get some time to get things right – and he needed it. In the 2002 Six Nations, Ireland mixed the sublime with the ridiculous – veering from feeding Wales a painful 50-burger to being on the end of two shellackings in Twickers and Paris.  The inconsistency that had been Gatty’s downfall wasn’t going to go away quickly.

Next season, it looked like they had begun to sort themselves out. After being unable to beat Scotland for a decade, suddenly Ireland were finding it very easy – a 3rd win in 4 years got them off to a great start, and it was followed up by a routine win in Rome. The character of the next two wins had the Irish public sensing something different – a tough grinding win over France in Lansdowne Road was followed up with a last gasp one point win in Cardiff (shurely shome mishtake Mish Moneypenny). The mental toughness we had been looking for seemed within reach … as did a Grand Slam as England came to town.

Until, of course, it was slapped down in spectacular fashion by Johnno and co. at Lansdowne Road. The game will be remembered for the English captain’s perceived snub of Mary McAleese, but that preceded a right beating from the English, who were thoroughly sick of being denied Grand Slams by Celtic upstarts. A 5-try 42-6 demolishing was the result, but Ireland were quietly pleased with progress, and this was one hell of an England side.

The World Cup in Oz that autumn was about one thing in the minds of the Irish rugby public – atonement for Lens. Ireland had been drawn with Argentina again, as well as the hosts, and someone was going to bite the bullet. In the event, Ireland staggered past an obdurate Pumas side in a stinking game – Quinny’s try-scoring injury put him out for a long time, and both Argentinian props were accused of gouging in the aftermath.

The newly carefree Irish almost caught the Wallabies napping in the final pool game, but a last minute Humph drop goal sailing left meant it was the French instead of the Scots, and after 30 minutes Ireland were whacked and bagged at 24-0 down, eventually losing 43-21 – a defeat which prompted the retirement of all-time legend Woody.  It was about par for Ireland World Cups, but the players had a ball in a terrific base.  Shane Horgan rated it as a career highlight, but lamented that it came a year too soon for what was a young team.

The following years’ Six Nations started with defeat to France, but that was followed up by another handsome victory over Wales. Despite the loss of Wood, the trip to Twickenham was crucial for Ireland – another defeat and they were essentially back where they were after 2000 – some pretty wins, but no cigars.

England themselves were reigning world champions and at the peak of their powers – they had scored 11 tries against the concession of one in their first two games – we tend to associate the 2004 England side with their shambolic 2006-10 cousins, not the powerful machine which won a series in New Zealand and the World Cup in the nine months preceding this game – make no mistake, this was a formidable team, one of the best (if not the best) of the professional era.

The Game

This was the first Great Eddie Performance – a ruthless and well-executed devastation of the opposition’s weak point: the lineout. Thommo had the worst day of his career, and Mal O’Kelly the best, in tandem with the incredible Paul O’Connell. The English set pieces never got going, and Ireland kept them under incredible pressure throughout the first half. Despite an opportunist try from Matt Dawson, Ireland went in 12-10 in front thanks to four Ronan O’Gara penalties.

England came out flying after the break, with a Ben Cohen try in the corner ruled out by the TMO for a double movement. It was a tight call, but probably correct.  Ireland responded with one of the memorable moments of the last decade, and another Eddie Classic – an all-singing backline move started by a sublime step-and-go from Gordon D’arcy – suddenly playing to his great potential – and finished by Girvan Dempsey. Every step was training ground rehearsed.  Egg can recall the dirty Vinnie Jones-esque tackle on Dempsey by Cohen as much as the try itself, but it was beautiful to behold (although look how deep the whole line stands!).

Ireland closed it out after that with the sort of tough hard-nosed performance they needed to produce – it was a display full of grit, desire and marked confidence in their gameplan. Gordon D’Arcy and Paul O’Connell were excellent in their first games in Twickers and would be mainstays of the team for years to come. The England team they beat were missing Johnson and Wilko, but had a plethora of World Cup winners, and were led by Lawrence Dallaglio.

The teams that day were:

England: Balshaw; Lewsey, Robinson, Greenwood, Cohen; Grayson, Dawson; Woodman, Thompson, Vickery; Borthwick, Kay; Worsley, Hill, Dallaglio.

Ireland: Dempsey; Horgan, O’Driscoll, D’Arcy, Howe; O’Gara, Stringer; Corrigan, Byrne, Hayes; O’Kelly, O’Connell; Easterby, Gleeson, Foley.

The Aftermath

The game was the catalyst for Ireland to win three Triple Crowns in four seasons – their most consistent period of success in history. The first was secured three weeks later at home to Scotland and prompted wild celebrations. The team of 2004 was largely the team that played for this entire World Cup cycle and through to France 2007, missing only the silky-haired Jirry Flannery – at that point just back in Munster after a sojourn in Connacht – and the soon-to-re-emerge David Wallace.

The following season, it was Wales’ turn, and they won a rather fortuitous Grand Slam, but this was the catalyst for Eddie’s best years – a Triple Crown followed in 2006 (as did a horror beating in Paris – something which was becoming a familiar marker), and that Autumn, Ireland beat both South Africa and Australia, and reached the heady heights of 3rd in the world rankings.  The South Africa and Australia teams were somewhat developmental in nature, but that was lost on a public giddy with excitement over Ireland’s form.  Ronan O’Gara surely never played flatter than in that series, and two new stars from Ulster emerged: powerful winger Andrew Trimble and wrecking-ball blindside, Neil Best.

The peak of the side was due to be in 2007, and it corresponded with the knocking down of decrepit old Lansdowne Road in favour of the sparkling new Palindrome – Ireland were to play their home game from 2007-2010 in Croke Park, the 80,000 seater occasionally atmospheric home of the GAA. The emotion and unfamiliarity of it all were undoubtedly contributors to a slightly off-key performance in the first game of the series, against France. Ireland were but a lucky bounce away from a home win that would likely have led to a Grand Slam.  As a fan, there are some defeats you never quite get over, and for Palla Ovale this is one – he simply sat, motionless in Croke Park with his head in his scarf for an extended period of time, before going straight home to bed.

The team were more proactive however – they were primed against England in their next home game. The emotional peak and nationalistic fervour conspired to inspire Ireland to their most complete performance to date – a 43-13 pummeling of a shell-shocked England. The momentum took them to a 50 point win in Rome, which would surely have been good enough for the Championship had France played Scotland simultaneously. In the event, it was another Triple Crown, and this one was greeted rather less positively than the previous two – it was, quite rightly, perceived as a chance of a lifetime having been missed, and Ireland felt short-changed.  They hadn’t climbed their mountain yet, but the mentality was one of winners.  A Triple Crown was no longer good enough.

After the physical and mental peaks of the Six Nations, surely Ireland would be firing on all cylinders again for the World Cup in October?

by whiffofcordite on July 24, 2012  •  Permalink
Posted in Eddie O'Sullivan, Eight Games, England, England's missing heroes, Ireland, Uncategorized, Wazza

Posted by whiffofcordite on July 24, 2012

https://whiffofcordite.com/2012/07/24/eight-games-that-defined-irish-rugby-match-three/

Eight Games That Defined Irish Rugby: Match One

The Match: Italy 37-22 Ireland, December 1997

What it Defined: Ireland’s initial ineptitude in the professional era.  It was the prescursor to Ireland’s lowest ebb, the infamous defeat to Argentina in Lens, 20 months later.

The State of Play

The last tournament of the amateur era was the 1995 World Cup in South Africa. It gave the world the iconic pictures of Nelson Mandela and Francois Pienaar, Tony Underwood’s “tackle” on Jonah Lomu, Suzy the waitress, the Battle of Boet Erasmus and the tragedy of Max Brito. Ireland, and Irish rugby, contributed nothing to the tournament.

They were in a group with New Zealand, Wales and Japan – New Zealand administered a predictable beating, and it only got worse from there. They played Japan in Bloemfontein, and took them on up front, fearing the Japanese three-quarter line would run riot – the sprightly Japanese didn’t buy it, and just after half-time had Ireland in trouble at 21-26. Ireland resorted to the maul and pulled away to win by 22, much to the displeasure of the assembled Afrikaners. Next was Wales, and it was essentially a play-off to avoid being left behind in the coming professional era. The game was an abomination – Ireland’s tactic was to kick the ball over the dead ball line and force Wales to drop-out – it worked in that they won, but the paucity of skill was embarrassing. France administered the lethal injection in Durban a week later.

Four of that squad of 28 played abroad, and a few months later, the amateur game was dead.  Professional rugby in Ireland started with all the pace and certainty of a concussed sloth – the union didn’t want to contract the players without something for them to do, so the players found something for themselves … in England.  The IRFU had no idea how to keep squads of professionals busy, and the players did what could be expected of them – bailed to where the clubs had embraced professionalism.

In January 1997, following a defeat to Italy in Lansdowne Road, Murray Kidd was booted out and the IRFU hired Brian Ashton. Ashton was then considered the best club coach in the hemipshere, and had resigned as coach of Bath in 1996 after leading them to unprecedented success alongside Jack Rowell, then as head coach. The Ooooooooooooooooooohhh in Bath essentially came from Ashton (and Barnesy), and Ireland had him – it is like Romania signing up Heineke Meyer or Joe Schmidt tomorrow. He signed a 5-year contract, and he was the IRFU’s statement that they were finally embracing the pro era. They also committed to getting four full-time coaches in the provinces by the next season, and setting about bringing the players home – moves on this were considered key by Ashton.

A difficult first Five Nations, where Ireland tried to play it wide, but resorted to boot any time pressure came on, did not augur well. Ireland won one match, beating Wales in Cardiff by 26-25, whereupon a dismal “development” tour to New Zealand and Samoa (NZ Academy 74 Ireland 15, anyone?) did not improve matters. When Ashton came back the next season, only two provinces had full-time coaches (Mike Ruddock in Leinster, and Warren Gatland in Connacht) and the player exodus continued.

The 1997 autumn/winter internationals saw Ireland play New Zealand and Canada in Dublin and Italy in Bologna. After losing to New Zealand and beating Canada ,the players headed off to face the Italians – a team with a point to prove to one of the (then) Five Nations. Italy had beaten Ireland on their last two meetings, including Murray Kidd’s last game in charge.

At this point, Ashton did the logical thing and arranged training and rendez-vous where it was most convenient to the players… Sunbury, near London. Predictably, the IRFU exploded – the players had left and now the management had as well. Expectations were minimal, and while skill levels improving due to exposure to the professional English league, organisation was a shambles.

The Game

Italy looked upon the visit of a shambolic Ireland the way a wolf would look upon the visit of a plump chicken – the slick Italians had a pseudo-professional league running for years – the likes of Campo, Naas Botha and Michael Lynagh all played there during the amateur era, so they took to the professional game easily, and had an impressive recent record against Five Nations sides, including a win in Paris earlier in the year. In the 1995 RWC that Ireland stunk out, Italy nearly beat England and finished above Argentina – they were a proper side.

The team was skillful, experienced and confident, and was marshalled by the superb Diego Dominguez at 10 – they fully expected to beat the Irish, and further improve their credentials for joining an expanded Five Nations, something they had been pursuing since the 1980s.

The first half was even, with the boots of Humph and Dominguez the only scores registered. Italy then pulled away in the second half, scoring three tries, all from their backline (no, seriously), and they cruised to a 15 point win, with the Irish try a late consolation effort by Darragh O’Mahoney.

The Ireland line-up contained ten players plying their trade in England, including Kevin Maggs, David Humphreys, Mal O’Kelly and Keith Wood, who would go on to win 297 Test caps between them. The full line up was: Nowlan; Hickie, Maggs, McCall, O’Mahoney; Humphreys, Hogan; Corrigan, Wood, Clohessy; Johns, O’Kelly; Erskine, O’Grady, Miller.

The Aftermath

It proved the second last game of the Ashton revolution – with two provincial vacancies, no players at home, and a serious case of culture shock, it was inevitable. Ireland had no national coach, two full-time professional coaches, no structures, and had all their best players abroad – they were at rock bottom. They appointed the only man they could think of – Warren Gatland. Gatty came in with a serious dose of goodwill, to no little relief. He had to prove his way back then, and built up a rapport with the press – something Ashton conspicuously did not – but still, his experience was limited to Galwegians and Connacht.

The inevitable culmination of Irish rugby’s chaotic structures was the now infamous Lens debacle, when Ireland were defeated by a gamey, but limited Argentina side.  The paucity of imagination when you saw 12 Irishmen trying to plough over the Puma line with Humph screaming for the ball to kick across to Conor O’Shea, alone on the left wing, was a low point for everyone involved in Irish rugby.  It was a very public humiliation, with the eyes of the rugby world seeing Ireland lose to one of the teams outside the cosy cartels of the Sanzar trio and Five Nations.  It was the sort of thing that just shouldn’t happen.  It meant Ireland had to suffer the humiliation of qualifying for the next World Cup.  The horror, the horror.

But while it seemed like the end of the world to much of the nation watching, behind the scenes the tide had started to turn. Gatty’s honeymoon had continued right the way through to Lens, and enabled him to survive that horrorshow. Despite the continuing grim results, there was a recognition that Ireland were being left behind, and some continuity was required – the union brought in another former Connacht coach from the USA to help Gatland – Eddie O’Sullivan.  The players were filtering back home (not all due to an IRFU masterplan; English clubs were going bust at a fast rate) to play in a putative Welsh/Scottish/Irish league and the new European Rugby Cup, where new young players untainted by the 1990s were starting to make names for themselves. The initial desire of the clubs to play in it (Shannon vs Toulouse!!) was rebuffed by the IRFU in favour of the provinces – the one thing Irish rugby had going for it. As Nigel Wray said, there was no such place as Saracens. The identification of place was to be a crucial element in the development of Irish rugby. It was darkest before the dawn…

by whiffofcordite on July 17, 2012  •  Permalink
Posted in Ireland, Summer Series
Tagged , , , ,

Posted by whiffofcordite on July 17, 2012

https://whiffofcordite.com/2012/07/17/eight-games-that-defined-irish-rugby-match-one/

The Games That Defined a Nation

It’s been a frenetic season; hard at times to catch one’s breath.   It started and finished in New Zealand, kicking off with an emotional roller-coaster of a World Cup and ending with a freakish three-game series in which Ireland went from almost creating history to abject humiliation seemingly in the blink of an eye.  In between we had a glum enough Six Nations and a second successive Heineken Cup win for Leinster.  We had the rise of Ulster and the end of an era, and dawn of a new one for Munster.  Throw in the politicking of the IRFU’s foreign-player rule-changes and it’s been one chaotic season.

Between the hand-wringing over Deccie’s selection policy, Ireland’s propping crisis and the unceasing, unyielding nature of the rugby calendar, it’s hard at times to keep the bigger picture in view – to get your head out of your season ticket holder commemorative scarf for long enough to take stock of the whole situation.

So over the next month we’re going to take a step back from the hullabaloo and ask: Where is Irish Rugby And How Did It Get Here?  From the dawn of professionalism to today’s provincially divided landscape, via 15 years of heroism and heartache, we’re going try to plot its recent history through Eight Matches That Defined Irish Rugby.  These are not he eight best games, the most successful, the most heartbreaking or even the most memorable, but those which, for our money, had the most significance beyond what happened as 30 large men thudded into each other for 80 frenzied minutes.  Of course, you’ll disagree with our choices and opinions, and as ever, we welcome your comments.  Game One follows tomorrow.

by whiffofcordite on July 16, 2012  •  Permalink
Posted in Ireland, Summer Series

Posted by whiffofcordite on July 16, 2012

https://whiffofcordite.com/2012/07/16/the-games-that-defined-a-nation/

Stealing our jobs

The days might have gone when Irish rugby folk looked on in wide-eyes amazement when Aussies came over to tell them it wasn’t the best idea to booze when recovering from injury, but we still are in thrall to the glamourous tanned lads who, in many ways, tell the story of Irish professional rugby as well as any Irish players. John Langford leading the troops through moats of molten lava in the south of France, Stanley Wright barbecuing Fido before the pound got him, and Clinton Shifcofske fumbling Garryowens on a sodden Belfast night are all part of Irish rugby lore, and Isa, Dougie and Ruan have picked up the baton, albeit in a rather more effective fashion.

In the context of the IRFU coming over all Tea Party about immigrants, we though it would be a good time to review the provinces’ cohort of evil women-stealing job-doing welfare-scrounging diversity-bringing native-educating mind-expanding Johnny Foreigners plying their nefarious trade in green Erin.

Recall for this season Ulster, Munster and Leinster are allowed four NIQs (players who can’t play for Ireland) and one “Project Player” (someone who will be eligible for Irish selection after a period of time), and Connacht are allowed “something else” – the technical term for us not actually knowing the formal arrangement.

Munster

NIQs: BJ Botha (tighthead prop), Wian du Preez (loosehead prop), Casey Laulala (centre), Doug Howlett (ligind winger). Project player: CJ Stander (flanker)

After years of grim recruitment abroad (Nick Williams, Sam Tuitupou, Will Chambers et al), Munster have probably surprised even themselves by ending up with a very useful set of foreigners. BJ came down from Ulster last year, reputedly as the best-paid NIQ in the country, and locked the Munster scrum in a way it hadn’t been in years – along with POC, Rog and Keith Earls, he is one of Munster’s irreplacables. On the other side of the scrum Wian du Preez quietly does the business, and is on a longer contract than Botha, so might be around for a while, as he is the only non-Irish loosehead starting for a province. Not much needs to be said about Doug Howlett – if he can teach Simon Zebo 10% of his defensive positioning knowledge, the Corkman is in for a long career.

Casey Laulala is a more curious case – he is exclusively a 13, which is of course the position that Munster’s best back, Irishman Keet Earls, wants to play from now on. It’s unlikely they brought Laulala, a very useful player, in to cover the games when Deccie has Earls wrapped in cotton wool, so you’d imagine someone will play out of position … let’s hope it ain’t Earls. CJ Stander signed last week, and looks a really good fit – a former U-20 Springbok captain, his strength is his ball carrying, a facet of the game in which Munster were notably deficient last season. The Bulls are unhappy to see him go, but we would eat every one of our hats if ever pulled on an Irish jersey – a man who is being lined up for a long Bok career does not walk away for the prospect of playing with Niall Ronan and James Cawlin – he’ll be back on the highveldt in time for RWC15.

Rory McIlroy Rating: 4/5 – a good tighthead prop (the best-paid import in Ireland), the All Blacks all time leading try scorer and a Springbok underage star? Clearly some prominent local celebrity is funding this cadre. Our money is on Pat Shortt.

Ulster

NIQs: John Afoa (tighthead prop), Johann Muller (second row), Ruan Pienaar (scrum half), Not Nick Williams (tackle bag holder). Project Player: Jared Payne (full back)

Ulster’s cohort of fancy Springboks was the envy of certain prominent parochial journalists last year, and with good reason – Ruan Pienaar was the stand-out scrum-half in Europe, Pedrie Wannenburg wowed the galleries with his sumptuous offloads, Stefan Terblanche wellied the ball into orbit and Johann Muller led the team with granite certainty from the second row. Wannenbosh and Terreblanche have moved on, but the others remain. Pienaar is genuinely one of the rugby world’s superstars, and has played for his country in 5 different positions – his game management from the base of the scrum is matched only by Dmitri Yachvili and Will Genia, and his goal-kicking is lethal and reliable. Muller is one of Ulster’s pack leaders, and sometime forwards coach – the hope is he continues to have huge influence on the younger guys coming through – the turnaround in Dan Tuohy from Gloucester reserve to dynamic international lock is at least partly attributable to Muller’s excellence.

John Afoa, despite a hard time in the scrums in the HEC final (kudos to DJ Church), is a destructive and aggressive prop – at times he seems to be everywhere around the park. He’s come into the spotlight recently as the evil genius who stunts Deccie Fitzpatrick’s development, but he will remain first choice at Ulster next year. Which is something Nick Williams will assuredly not be. The ineffective splinter gatherer, formerly of Munster and Aironi, is a laughably bad signing – he can only play 8 and will be behind the returning Roger Wilson (an underrated player and great bit of recruitment). Let us hope he wasn’t Anscombe’s call, because, if he was, its a pretty inauspicious beginning.

Jared Payne has switched from injured NIQ to project player now that Robbie Diack is Irish. He played only 3 times last season then crocked himself – he had a reputation as a daring counter-attacker in Auckland, and that’s something Ulster missed last year – Craig Gilroy apart, the outside backs were rather bosh-tastic.

Rory McIlroy Rating: 3.5/5 Unless Caroline Wozniacki has spent all of Rory’s fortune, there is no good reason he would fund the signing of Nick Williams – Humph has to take the blame for that one

Leinster

NIQs: Isa Nacewa (winger), Heinke van der Merwe (loosehead prop), Quinn Roux (second row), TBA. Project player: Richardt Strauss (hooker)

Isa Nacewa is mentioned in the same breath as Jim Williams and Dr Phil as the most influential foreigner to grace Irish soil, and rightly so – his outlook and professionalism have coloured Leinster’s approach under Joe Schmidt and his awareness of space is a thing of beauty; the try against Leicester in last years’ HEC quarter-final was one of the best we have seen in person. The rest of Leinster’s cohort are in the engine room – Heinke VDM comes on for DJ Church when he gets tired in big games, and mans the Pro12 shift with power and efficiency – he’s basically a prototype Afrikaner prop who can scrummage well and hit rucks hard. Beside him, little Richard Strauss is finalising the words to Ireland’s Call – he’s  qualified in the autumn and will offer some good hands and the support lines of a former flanker.

Leinster had two vacancies following the departures of Nathan White and Mat Berquist, and the first signing is underwhelming to say the least. While Quinn Roux has talent (he was ahead of Eben Etzebeth in the Stormers depth chart before getting injured this year), but it’s an odd signing – it seems he is over here on a gap year and no more – it stinks of penny-pinching, and Leinster are kicking the second row can further down the road – Leo Cullen is no longer top level, and Devin Toner isn’t quite there – this line is a flashing red light for next season. Let’s hope he doesn’t look upon the gap year as an excuse to head to Coppers on a Monday night. We have no insider knowledge of who the TBA is likely to be (or if there will be one), but if the last two guys the IRFU have shelled out for (Williams and Roux) are any guide, a cheap bosher will be making half-time oranges in D4 next year.

Rory McIlroy Rating: 2/5 Bono it ain’t.  The mystery celeb who is funding Leinster’s expansion has been credit-crunched (Johnny Ronan?) – Quinn Roux is a mystifying signing, and the AN Other at this stage of the year is not a good sign

Connacht

NIQs: Ettienne Reynecke (hooker), Rodney Ah You (tighthead prop), George Naoupu (number 8), Dan Parks (outhalf), Fetu’u Vainikolo (bosher). Project Player: Nathan White (tighthead prop), Danie Poolman (winger)

There seems to be a bit more leeway given to imports in the west – Connacht have 5 NIQs and 2 project players. The standout member is former Scotland stand-off Dan Parks – his international career may have ended in ignominy, but he made the most of his opportunities, and was an intelligent and committed international player, who was outstanding in the 2010 Six Nations. Parks will bring poise and experience to a squad thin on guys who have played at the highest level – he will kick goals and will look excellent in green. It could be a precursor of a move into coaching, and this would be Connacht’s gain – he strikes us a classic progressive Aussie coach – Matt Williams with a monster boot if you like.

The (evil) tighthead prop Nathan White has come in from Leinster. He gained positive reviews from his time in D4 but if he ever starts ahead of Ronan Loughney, Deccie will blame him for Ireland’s woes. Rodney Ah You is another one who can be blamed for the Twickers debacle, given he wears 3. The rest of the squad is composed largely of South Sea boshers, and it’s hard to see how this benefits Connacht, or Ireland – its basically dead money that could be invested in young Irish lads.

Rory McIlroy Rating: 1.5/5 Dan Parks aside, the local boy who made it big worldwide (member of Westlife?) is doing this on the cheap – either that or he has a fetish for the bosh – Ooooooooooooooooooooohh!!

by whiffofcordite on July 4, 2012  •  Permalink
Posted in Connacht, Evil Foreigners, Ireland, Leinster, Munster, Ulster

Posted by whiffofcordite on July 4, 2012

https://whiffofcordite.com/2012/07/04/stealing-our-jobs/

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