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My old Schools Coach at Newbridge College, Paddy Butler, was a great motivator and instilled in his players the importance of seizing their opportunity. He loved the saying "If not now then when, and if not you then who" and it has been something that I have tried to pass on to the teams that I now coach. It is certainly something that is relevant to the Irish team this week as they prepare for a trip to Cardiff to play Wales who are 2 wins from 3 like us.
There has been a lot of talk in the press since the Scottish win of dissent in the Irish Camp. This has been created by some conflicting messages coming out of press conferences and interviews and also some reaction to a couple of the Players being abused on social media sites like Twitter and Facebook.
One ‘fan’ went on to Brian O’Driscoll’s Twitter and said that his time was up and thanks for the memories. Jamie Heaslip and Cian Healy, two of the more frequent tweeters in the squad, also came in for some stick.
Players are only human and they can take this criticism to heart, particularly young players. This week Keith Earls was quoted that he was affected by some of the criticism he received on the Lions tour of South Africa. He refused to read any of it anymore instead relying on a few trusted people for feedback and support. The use of Twitter and Facebook by the players is a great way of helping make rugby more popular but if you want to take the praise you need to be able to take the pain too.
Jamie Heaslip was reported to have criticized Declan Kidney for dropping Jonathon Sexton and Fergus McFadden but what the full transcript showed was he was actually praising the strength of depth in the squad and just advising the two dropped players to go to the management and find out what exactly they need to work on so they can fight their way back into the side.
The Press in Ireland have changed over the past few years and I suppose that is down to the increased popularity of the game but also their seems to be an influence from the UK press who traditionally have been more sensational. Players need to be very aware when giving Interviews as to how their comments are likely to be used. We only have to look at the Stephen Ireland example from last week to see the potential disaster.
This week the big “work on” for the team will be making sure that we are squeaky clean at the breakdown. When we won the Grand Slam two years ago we were innovators in the use of what is called the “Choke” tackle. This is were the tackler fights to hold up the attacking player and then clamp on the ball like a limpet on a rock. In the old rules this often won us a penalty with the attacking player not releasing. Worse case scenario we slowed their ruck ball down so much we had a very strong defensive line set. The new rules specify that the tackler now releases the Ball Carrier completely as soon as one knee hits the ground. We have been very slow to adapt to these rule changes so far and for the Italy and France game the Irish Management seemed to be sticking to their guns and blaming the referee’s for making bad calls. We were saying that the referees should have been using the Maul law rather than the ruck laws as their reference point. I expect the Scotland game (13 penalties conceded) to have drawn a line in the sand under this tactic and we will have used the 2 week gap and the training sessions in camp to come up with a new way to contest the ruck and force turnovers or to slow the ball down.
In the Southern Hemisphere, teams are making a tackle and then clapping their hand to show the referee that they have released the ball carrier and then they are entitled to try and rip the ball. England just get two players and they drive over the tackled player which either forces a turnover or worse case scenario makes the attack put more players into the ruck to win the ball which limits their attacking options. The Irish Management is made up of some very bright coaches and it will be interesting so see what they come up with because this technique is likely to determine how successful we are over the next 12 months at least.
Wales are hoping that James Hook can have the similar effect that he had against Scotland when he also played outhalf as their attack looked pretty sterile against the Italians with him playing centre due to injury. Wales are one of the most predictable teams in play against in the Northern hemisphere as they attack all the way to the touchline with their front five then recycle through the backrow on the return and then use their back line. It should be meat and drink to this Irish team. However think back to how close the game was 2 years ago in Cardiff when we were flying and given the lack of confidence in our team at the moment I am going to let my Head rule my Heart and go for Wales to win @ 8/11. In the other matches I fancy Scotland plus 16 against England and the Italians plus 16 at home to France. Hopefully we can get 3 from 3 again this week. Good Luck. Bernard
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