The French public doesn’t hold out a huge amount of hope for their team’s chances in this years World Cup so they are pretty satisfied with the performance and victory over Ireland in Bordeaux on Saturday evening. There is no doubting the quality of the players that France can choose from but the cut throat nature of the domestic Top 14 season where qualification for the Heineken Cup or survival often means that the players are forced to make decisions regarding playing with injury etc. with the club in mind rather than country as is the case in countries like Ireland where players are contracted to the Union. A record defeat at home to Australia in the November internationals and a shock defeat to Italy in the 6 nations has further dampened confidence levels with many believing that Mark Lievremont has got it wrong with his decision to only play two warm up matches, both ironically against Ireland.
Having said that playing France away is always a huge task and even more so in the south where Rugby is king and the atmosphere in the Stade Chablan-Delmas was electric. In fact in terms of an occasion it was far removed from the dour and lifeless event we witnessed the previous week in Edinburgh. This was a proper test match. France came out of the blocks really quickly and Ireland had to test their defensive system for the 2nd week running. I thought the system looked strong in generally and Vincent Clerc who has a habit of scoring against Ireland try was the only major lapse which came about through some illegal blocking on the inside of Leo Cullen which created the space. Blocking is a huge part of rugby at the higher levels now and it is very difficult for the referees to pick up on it as they are usually following the ball. Most defensive coaches now use drills modified from American football where the defenders shrug off the block and keep the integrity of the defensive line.
In the first half Ireland didn’t commit many defenders to the breakdown and those that did enter the ruck weren’t successful in slowing down the speed of the Ruck ball. This is unusual for Ireland as a big part of Irelands tactics on defense since Declan Kidney took over and Les Kiss became the defense coach has been to really concentrate on slowing down the opposition’s ball at the breakdown. I imagine it was certainly a topic for conversation at half time as Irelands policy and attitude changes massively in this area in the 2nd half and we benefited with some turnovers but also the quality of the ball was so slow that France had no option but to kick which allowed us to Counter attack when it was on which happened for Rob Kearney’s great break down field or put the ball in behind via a kick as Felix Jones did. Ronan O’ Gara showed that he is in great form and if he isn’t the first choice outhalf for the big World cup matches its unlikely that any other country has such a quality back up.
The introduction of Jerry Flannery, Paul O Connell and Jamie Heaslip lifted the players and we were unfortunate to not draw the game at the end as we had the French under huge pressure. Tony Buckley replaced Mike Ross and this introduction showed us how important Ross is to our chances of success. You cant win a match at International level unless you have a tight head that can lock out the scrum and unfortunately for all his great work in the loose Tony Buckley struggles against the better teams he isn’t able to do this consistently. This week Ireland plays two matches with a friendly against Connacht Thursday and another test match against France Saturday at the Aviva. This will be the last chance for players of the borderline to stake a claim for a plane ticket to New Zealand. The attitude of every player who has played so far has been excellent but from now on the management will start to streamline selection with an eye on building relationships and understanding within the first choice team.
Its likely we will see Kidneys likely starting fifteen barring injuries this week for the France match and I expect to see O’Connell, Heaslip, Sexton, Wallace and O’Driscoll to start. Their involvement and the fact that it is at home and really is a must win game for us to ensure we start to build momentum will be enough to ensure that we get the win.
