Ireland urged to lift ‘flat’ crowd
Sexton wants quick start to improve atmosphere Fogarty insists there is more to come from team
Ireland are aiming to give the Aviva Stadium crowd something to shout about in the opening minutes against Wales today, after captain Johnny Sexton described the atmosphere as “flat” for the clash with Scotland last week.
Sexton noted a subdued ambience in the venue during the warmup ahead of last Saturday’s nervy 19-12 victory, commenting on it to his team-mates at the time.
“It was flat,” Sexton said. “I actually said that to the lads when we were coming in after the warm-up. I felt like we needed to start well to get the crowd into it and we didn’t really do that.”
Rob Herring, who has been given first crack at replacing long-time hooker Rory Best in the Ireland team, agreed with his captain when asked about it yesterday.
“Scotland were probably in the ascendancy for the first five or six minutes, so hopefully we can flip that around this week and get the atmosphere going,” said the South Africa-born Ulster player, who is fighting off the challenge of Leinster hooker Ronan Kelleher.
“We’ve got to have big moments in the game and get the crowd up for it and get them behind us.”
Despite having lost only once to Wales at the Aviva Stadium in the Six Nations since the ground opened a decade ago, the mood in Ireland this week has been one of mild trepidation ahead of meeting last year’s Grand Slam champions, who have won eight games in a row in the competition.
Wales were quick out of the blocks against Italy in Cardiff last Saturday and head into today’s game with palpably more confidence than their hosts, who are still adapting to life under Andy Farrell.
Ireland’s coaching team have been doing their best to sound confident, though, with scrum coach John Fogarty insisting yesterday
that there was “plenty more to come” from Ireland.
“We’ve had a number of weeks prep for Scotland, we’ve another week in us now,” Fogarty said. “There have been huge positives out of last week. The win has really been important.
“We’re unbelievably excited about where we can go with the team, but we’ll do it step by step and tomorrow is another step for us. It’s important that we take it.”
All eyes will be on the midfield battle today, and particularly the 13 channel, where Robbie Henshaw will lock horns with Nick Tompkins following the injury suffered by Garry Ringrose, his Leinster teammate, in last weekend’s win.
Henshaw is viewed primarily as a 12 and it will be interesting to see whether the British and Irish Lion can impose himself on a player making his first Six Nations start.
In the back row, meanwhile, the Ireland trio of Peter O’mahony, Josh van der Flier and CJ Stander go up against Aaron Wainwright, Justin Tipuric and Taulupe Faletau in a head-to-head Storm Ciara will do well to extinguish.