BACKLASH WILL BE BRUTAL
Ireland captain Best wants his team to bring a physical edge to proceedings at a storm-battered Murrayfield as the bullied look to become the bullies against Townsend’s dangerous Scotland side
EDINBURGH CASTLE closed its doors on the world yesterday as 110kmh winds buffeted the Scottish capital.
Storm Erik ripped through the city, but at Murrayfield they were battening down the hatches in anticipation of another front coming across the Irish Sea; Storm Schmidt.
All week, Ireland have been stewing on their non-performance in their opening bout of the Six Nations.
Joe Schmidt read the players the riot act on Sunday and then left them to build towards a response against Scotland this afternoon.
The defeat to England was an emasculating one.
Eddie Jones’ charges went after Ireland’s strengths, picking apart their aerial game and dissolving their superiority at the breakdown.
They ruled the skies and dominated the ground, it was Blitzkrieg rugby and its beauty was in its simplicity.
To concede four tries at home and lose so comprehensively in front of their own fans hurt the Six Nations champions.
It also put them on the back foot when it comes to having any chance of retaining their title.
Certainly, the forecast isn’t promising them tries as they begin to chase points, but in this World Cup year the most important focus is getting back to winning ways.
And the way to do that is to tighten up and go through the Scots for a shortcut.
A week of disruption continued into the Captain’s Run yesterday. Seán O’Brien’s move to London Irish became public knowledge, before Devin Toner’s ankle surgery came to light and then O’Brien sat out the training session as a precaution.
Rhys Ruddock has made the trip and is on standby in case of emergency, but having already changed a third of his team during the week, Schmidt will be loath to make another alteration at the 11th hour.
With such chaos, there is comfort in the game-plan and the weather will help simplify matters.
Capable
There is one consistent theme running through the changes; Schmidt has called on big, physical players who are more than capable of doing damage in the tight exchanges.
And in the wind and rain at Murrayfield, Ireland will bring a straightforward, brutal approach.
The bullied will become the bullies; to hell with the aesthetic.
“It’s a very different feeling and it’s not one you particularly want to get used to,” captain Rory Best (pictured) said of the pressure that comes from losing.
“It was a nice feeling, the other way, coming into post-match press conferences having won but maybe not played well. It’s frustrating but it’s a lot better than coming in having not played well and lost.
“So, look, there’s a bit of pressure on. Everyone’s probably waiting a little bit with bated breath to see what comes out.
“We can’t really affect that, all we can do is make sure everyone has their own little routine, and you have to go back to what you know a little bit and make sure that everyone gets that bang on. “Ultimately we have to bring more of an edge than we did last week.
“Yeah, it’s around all aspects of the game but ultimately there is a little bit of physicality that was missing last week.” If Ireland replace that missing physicality they will win the game. Scotland are an exciting team with a full-court game, but they can’t match the Irish pack and midfield for power. With 18 wins in 20 matches, it’s been important for Ireland to remind themselves that they deserve their position as one of the elite teams in the game. What they learned last weekend was that they can’t rely on that reputation when it comes to performing.
“We needed to take a good look at ourselves and see what we needed to do better throughout the pitch,” Best said. “But sometimes the danger is we are so fixated with what may or may not be there that you forget what has worked really well for us. “Then you can also not take a look at the opposition and this opposition in this ground are formidable.
“I think we have got that balance right. “At the
start of the week, the Sunday night meeting, Monday morning, was tough.
“We took a long review of the game and chatted about our preparation and asked the question, ‘what did we think was different?’
“And you know that was an individual thing. We just asked the question to get an answer internally.
“Then we took a good look at the Scottish.
“Look, last week’s defeat was incredibly frustrating, and it is important you don’t go trying to find things that maybe are not there.
“But the flip side of that is, that it would be stupid and naïve to go, ‘don’t worry, it’ll be fine next week’ because the it’ll-befine-next-week philosophy is something we have never lived by and as long as Joe is around and as long as I am around it won’t be a motto we will live by either.”
England showed the way with the way they ripped out of the blocks at the Aviva Stadium.
From the kick-off when they pinned Keith Earls back to their fast lineout and their play in the build-up to Jonny May’s try, the visiting side were sharper.
“I think we need to start well and we need to cut out the mistakes,” Best said.
“We have got to understand at this level it is about putting moment after moment after moment and just when you think you are doing well, that is when you are at your most dangerous, because that is when you relax and as soon as you relax, that is when you are in trouble.
“That (start) gave them (England) massive belief and it kind of just took that hesitancy that we had in the warm-up and it just became a little bit more than that.”
At 2.15 today, we’ll know if those lessons
Beating Scotland cannot be take for granted, they’re a fine team but the weather won’t suit them
have been absorbed.
With Rob Kearney back in the No 15 shirt, the back-field should be marshalled better than it was last week but there are question-marks about the full-back’s match fitness.
Likewise, O’Brien, Conor Murray and Johnny Sexton are all at various points of returning to play. The half-backs need major improvement.
Garry Ringrose removes a creative edge from the Irish backline, but Chris Farrell brings a substantial ball-carrying threat with a subtle pair of hands to boot.
Up front, Quinn Roux’s lineout calling will come under huge pressure as Scotland apply pressure to Best’s throw in difficult conditions, but Jack Conan and O’Brien should add a different dimension to a predictable carrying game.
The coach is fully aware of the criticism his side attracted in the wake of the defeat and has spoken about the potential for lost momentum ahead of the World Cup, particularly against the team his side face in their first pool game, but he’ll be confident Ireland can get the job done.
Beating Scotland cannot be taken for granted, they’re a fine team with plenty of threats but the weather won’t suit them.
Utimately, Ireland has the better pack of forwards and a more powerful backline.
It won’t be pretty, but they have enough to get back on the right track if they can cut out the mistakes and go back to the basics of their physical game-plan.