The Russian game was Paddy Wallace’s first start for Ireland despite this being his 3rd World cup. Now 29 of Irelands 30 man squad have played some part in the competition with Damien Varley who flew out last week to replace Jerry Flannery being the only exception. Andrew Trimble continued his pre tournament form and is the only one who may force his way into the starting team for the Italian match this weekend although the man that he is trying to replace Keith Earls also had a fine game although he was playing in the center rather than wing. The only players that I felt might have harmed their chances were Tony Buckley and Johnny Sexton. Tony Buckley is one of the strongest and biggest players at this World but he still hasn’t mastered the art of propping. He was penalized 3 times at the scrum and that isn’t good enough playing against a team of the standard of Russia. It’s too big a risk to include him in the match squad for the Italian match or any of the knock out games if we make it through.
The Ronan O’ Gara V Johnny Sexton debate isn’t going to go away with O’Gara making another huge statement for his case for selection. It was ironic that just as Johnny Sexton who came off the bench was lining up a kick at goal the stadium announcer announced that Rog was the man of the match and Sexton proceeded to shank the kick badly. O Gara got the backline moving very well and he used the kick pass tactic of which he is a master incredibly accurately. I am a huge fan of Sexton and think that he overs more overall than O Gara but given his issues with place kicking that he is experiencing at the moment allied to O Gara’s form then I would select O’Gara ahead of Sexton for the Italian match. The Italians are still going to be the huge challenge that they were before we beat Australia last week and it is going to be a very tight match in which field position and goal kicking will be crucial.
There has been a lot of hype about Nick Mallets comments that Italy have a better scrum than Ireland. I feel that he is just trying to boost his own players confidence and also influence the Referee ahead of the clash. Mallets contract hasn’t been renewed post the World Cup so in effect he has nothing to lose as this game is do or die for him. The Italians did dominate the scrum in Rome in the Spring and the technique that they used was unusual in that they didn’t try and drive us backwards but instead brought the height of the scrum down very low and kept the ball at the eights feet. Our props weren’t used to having to stay at this height for long periods and eventually collapsed and were penalized. This time I don’t expect us to be caught out and forewarned is forearmed.
I thought that Jamie Heaslip showed good form against Russia and when he links up again with Ferris and O Brien this weekend then our back row has the edge over the Italians despite their number 8 Sergio Parisse being World Class. It promises to be a tense affair but I believe we are good enough to overcome the challenge and win our Group outright which will pit us against Wales in a quarterfinal.
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