Sunday’s word happened to be “stagnancy”.
It is rather apt that on the day I sat down to pen this week’s musings
the exact word to sum up Ireland’s lethargic performance against Italy was
sitting right in front of me, albeit deliberately hidden as an anagram.
Stagnancy, for those that do not recognise the word, is the product of being
stagnant i.e. having a lack of movement or motion or flow. And if someone
presented that word to Joe Schmidt right now he would also probably use it to
sum up Ireland’s laboured victory in Rome.
A first win in the Italian capital, yes, but one that will do nothing
to improve Ireland’s confidence that they can retain their Six Nations crown.
Italy for all their improvements are still the weakest side of the six and
should always be targeted as a win, and also as a confidence booster if you are
lucky enough to be drawn against them early in the campaign.
And so Ireland should have seen this game as exactly that – a glorious
opportunity to put something resembling a cricket score past the hapless
Italians and return back to the Aviva this Saturday with a healthy points
difference and plenty of confidence that they could see off a misfiring and
inconsistent French outfit. Indeed the only thing that would have made
Saturday’s game easier is if it was in Dublin and not Rome.
Maybe it was the fact that we were missing Jonathan Sexton as a
playmaker at fly-half, or maybe it was that our hosts put up more of a fight
than we thought they did, but Ireland certainly did make life difficult for
themselves as much as possible. A stuttering second half, a mirror of the
first, was broken by a yellow card to Leonardo Ghiraldini which swung the
momentum firmly in the visitors’ favour and eventually saw their slight
dominance turned into two tries from Conor Murray and Tommy O’Donnell.
Instead of being a jubilant victory, you could sense some relief from
Irish men and women the world over, none more so than RTE’s pundits who had
stated at half-time the next score would determine which way the game would go.
Ronan O’Gara, who provided some good insight into the game, accurately
predicted that should Ireland get the next points then they would avoid being
sucked into an arm wrestle – a statement that rang true.
Surprisingly was the fact that Ireland failed to utilise their main
weapon, the driving maul, until well into the second half. Early into the game
it was already blindingly obvious that the Italians were struggling to match
the well set power of the Irish pack in the loose, and had Ireland stuck with
simply trucking it up the pitch from the line-out, then one suspects Pascal
Gauzere would have reached for the pocket sooner. Ghiraldini was given his
marching orders from a driving maul hauled down short of the line, surprisingly
the only Italian player to be sin binned for that offence.
While the forwards struggled to come to the collective decision to stick
it up the jumper and drive as one, the backs were also struggling to get it
beyond the two centres. Robbie Henshaw, your typical run-of-the-mill bash it up
the middle centre was being deployed at inside centre, while Ireland’s greatest
full-back Jared Payne was once again shoved into the outside centre jersey and
told to make a go of it.
I’m not saying that either are bad centres, because they are not, but
I am saying they were played out of position.
Henshaw could make a very good go at playing inside centre, and did so
in Rome where he was prevalent but rather ineffective, however he is much
better utilised at outside centre where his pace and physicality is at the
fore. Meanwhile Payne is a much more dangerous runner when he has the space to
do so from full-back – his ability to spot a gap in the defensive line is one
of the best in the northern hemisphere and, to be quite frank, he is wasted in
the 13 shirt. A very gifted footballer Payne is, but only when played
correctly.
What Joe Schmidt has achieved in his time with Leinster and in his
first season with Ireland is possibly unrivalled by any other coach today, and
as such there has become something of a “what he says is truth” following
behind him now. Saturday highlighted that even the best get things wrong, and
while Ireland did win, it was far from convincing. With a pair of centres who
will not play the Schmidt brand of rugby and a pack who seem oblivious to the
fact that they can, and will, steamroll over many other packs in Europe, things
are maybe a little less rosy than they seem on the surface.
France await, with England following soon after. Things only get
tougher.
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