Winning in Paris is not such a tall order these days
Seeing Red over Blue hue
IN 1990, Ron Waldron was appointed coach of Wales on the strength of having turned Neath into the best club side in Britain. Waldron’s philosophy was simple — pick Neath men — but flooding the side with players he had coached at club level produced only won two wins, both against Namibia, before he made a chastened exit in 1991. During his time with Ireland, Declan Kidney was frequently accused of favouring Munster players he knew and trusted from his two stints coaching the province. It was an unfair charge. For the Grand Slam in 2009, Kidney picked eight players from his native province in his firstchoice side (six forwards and the half-backs) but the reality was that Munster had the best pack in the country, Ronan O’Gara was unchallenged at out-half and Tomás O’Leary was in the form of his life at No 9. Similarly, Leinster have comfortably been the best Irish province over the last four years and that can be used to justify their overwhelming dominance in this Ireland squad. What is fuelling high stool angst down south is that Leinster second-stringers such as Jack McGrath (below), Rhys Ruddock and Jordi Murphy have been preferred to Munster frontliners (Dave Kilcoyne, Tommy O’Donnell, James Coughlan) at a time when the southern province is going very well. Joe Schmidt may be ‘doing a Waldron’ on it but the crucial difference is that Schmidt is winning and, even when Ireland lose on his watch, the team is progressing. That is the KO punch to end any argument. However, there is another intriguing aspect to Ireland’s blue hue — it has reawakened an age-old interprovincial bitterness that had been diluted by several years of Leinster dominance and a string of relatively tepid encounters. March 29 at the Aviva should be very tasty indeed.