Cavalry must be allowed to charge Scots
THAT settles one argument about Ireland’s dry spring. It has been argued that Joe Schmidt does not charge his team with ambitious tactics because the players do not have the instinctive talents needed to play that way.
Jamie Heaslip’s try before halftime rebutted that case in a style rarely risked by Irish sides. From Simon Zebo’s lay-off to the supporting run of Jared Payne, from Johnny Sexton’s pass to the cavalry charges of Andrew Trimble, Fergus McFadden and finally Heaslip, this was magnificent.
True, it was also against an Italian side that had already fallen apart, but there was still a purgative feel to the try. The players celebrated as if they understood the significance of scoring in that manner as well.
Week after week they have heard the allegation that this team is deficient in ambition and imagination. Even against crumpled tomato cans, this score registered as a dazzling case for the defence.
Repeating such an emphatic performance against Scotland in six days’ time is the requirement now. Praise has a fragile shelf life and any reversion to uncertainty or conservatism will spoil the memories of this day.
No team is entitled to unstinting praise and there have been reasonable criticisms of the coach and his players since the start of this Six Nations. They have had to listen to some bunkum, too.
Obvious targets have been irresistible. Payne’s recall to the team was interpreted in some quarters as a rejection of native talent as he was picked instead of Stuart McCloskey. Payne has been the subject of this cheap analysis before and there is the suspicion that as a New Zealander born and reared, he presents a soft point of attack for critics.
He quietened them here, scoring an intercept try but also centrally involved in scores for Andrew Trimble and Heaslip. Robbie Henshaw buccaneered beside him, and Sexton co-ordinated hungry Irish intent for as long as the match was competitive.
He was also the recipient of a late hit. This is now a Six Nations tradition alongside kilts, daffodils and berets. It is not a championship weekend unless some cowardly opposing forward has come lurching out of the defensive line and landed a fat, late clatter on the exposed out-half.
Sergio Parisse did it here, hitting Sexton after the Ireland No 10 had thrown a pass in the 25th minute. It was not as malicious as the battering delivered by Yoann Maestri in Paris and nor did it register with the force of the Ben Youngs hit against England, but it left Sexton winded once more.
Parisse is a shadow of the player he was, and it was unedifying to see a man with such a great past reduced to this needless bullying.
Italy did not have the heart to even cheat much, though. They are truly woeful, and one of the problems facing this tournament must be their future. With Georgia and Romania improving, Italy’s unquestioned presence in the Six Nations should be reassessed.
They could be just the target practice Ireland needed. Substitutes were introduced early and often, allowing Sexton and others to be rested for the Scotland match. It also immersed Ultan Dillane and Kieran Marmion in the Test experience, and the introduction of that pair, as well as Nathan White and Finlay Bealham, meant Connacht had five players on an Irish team in a championship match.
They joined the rampant Henshaw and the westerners’ making up a third of the national side was nothing more than a reflection of Connacht’s terrific form.
Less than a decade ago the future of the province was being subjected to one of its periodic spells of scrutiny. Now, they are proof that cultures and attitudes can change.
Ireland showed here they have the capacity to change as well. It will be much more difficult to maintain this style against Scotland, and harder again in challenges like the ones South Africa will present in the summer. It can be done, however.
Long before the finish, this had lost all the feel of a Test match. Fans were amusing themselves with Mexican waves and it was one of the first days of the year that tasted of spring. The early kick-off and the short-sleeves temperature lent the entire experience a complacent air, but there was authentic value in this Irish effort.
Most teams they face will be more resolute than the Italians. They have regressed to a shocking degree and Conor O’Shea will have a daunting job if he decides to replace Jacques Brunel. Restoring them is like trying to stir fire from a bucket of damp ashes.
That is not Schmidt’s concern. His team selection was wholly justified by this handsome win but he must inspire the same adventurousness within his group at the end of a long, often disappointing campaign, and against a Scotland side that is on a different level to poor pitiful Italy.
This victory was exactly what the team and their supporters needed, though. A season that could have silently died away instead threw flamboyant, unexpected shapes.
It was fresh, unexpected, and delightful to watch.