O’CONNELL: IT’S A FINE LINE
Ireland coach admits set-piece will face bigger tests
IRELAND'S line-out might have looked fantastic to here — two games in, the boys in green have yet to lose one in the current Six Nations.
But Paul O'Connell is far from suggesting the sideline set-piece is the finished product.
Certainly the line-out malfunctioned during key parts of the recent Rugby World Cup and it may take the further set of games against Wales, England and Scotland to show whether it has improved.
Neither France nor Italy, said the former Ireland and Munster legend, provided an adequate test.
“Well,” admitted ‘honest' forwards coach Paul O'Connell, “France having a red card for one of their secondrows helped us there.
“Paul Willemse probably isn't a big jumper for them but he's certainly a big lifter and it would have upset how they would have defended.
“Italy haven't challenged as much in the air in recent years as other teams, so that's part of it.
Changed
“We haven't changed a massive amount. I'd say we're doing what we do a little bit better, across the board. How we lift, how we jump, how we call, how we throw and all those things contribute.”
Perhaps part of O'Connell's reticence is linked to what was caught by the TV cameras at the Rugby World Cup, Andy Farrell and himself exchanging words, during the fixture with the Springboks.
“In the World Cup, certainly in that South Africa game, they threw something different at us. We got our drill a little bit wrong and it led to a poor start to the game. Once we got over that, we were pretty much fine for the rest of the game.
“New Zealand got three line-outs off us in that game of which we got two back straight away, one we unfortunately high-tackled from and we ended up in our corner.
“They're two very good defensive line-outs, those two teams that we played in the World Cup and we learned a lot from those games.
“One of the things was being able to manage a little bit of trouble and trying to get out of it and the other thing we learned [about the lineout] from the World Cup is it's like every part of your game — it's never just one thing.
Drill
“There's drill in it, there's the call in it, there's the thrower in it, there's the selections you put on the menu on the first day — and I would say we've kind of improved a little bit in all of those regards without working on one particular thing.”
Meanwhile, there was very little revealed as to whether Hugo Keenan will miss the next game.
“Hugo didn't train today, but he hasn't been ruled out for the Wesh game yet.
“He's progressing with his rehabilitation, he was there at training today and took part in the organisational bits, but I have no full update.
“He's still available for selection for Wales, but I'm not sure what will happen in the next few days.”
It is unclear as to who Andy Farrell will turn to should Keenan be ruled out, with Ciaran Frawley, Jordan Larmour and Jacob Stockdale as likely candidates.
“Hugo plays a big role, he's obviously been injury free for a long time. There's a lot of IP there that we might miss out on if he wasn't playing.
Smart
“He's an excellent player and in full-back, covering the back-field defensively, he has a lot of work to do in attack as well, recreating our attack by moving side to side.
“He also plays a big leadership role for us, he's a very smart guy. He's a problem-solver within the group and highly regarded within the group. Whether he's there or not he'll continue to play that role.
“It's good for us in some ways because it makes us play someone else there if he doesn't make it — he was around training today, so we'd hopeful.”
The prognosis for Garry Ringrose, Peter O'Mahony, Bundee
Aki and Tadhg Beirne be is more positive.
“Garry looks like he is on track to play, he trained today. We didn't do a massive session today but he trained today and was in good shape. No one else (other than Keenan) sat out training, no, so they're all good to go I believe.”
A lot of fit players will mean a lot of selection headaches.
“It will be tough for sure. It's something we've struggled on in previous games when we've made lots of changes, we haven't really hit our straps and we've been sloppy at
times.
Sloppy
“That's not to say we weren't sloppy last weekend at times. We certainly were, but to keep them to nil, to score 36 points and have a few tries disallowed.
“It's a good indication of where we are, the selection meeting will be tough but it will only be good for us, I think the guys that get picked will be over the moon to get picked and eager to stay in there and the guys that don't get picked will push hard.
“So it's a great place for us to be in.”