Ireland lose their grip on grim encounter

RUGBY: Scotland 10 Ireland 6:THE KEY to seasonal openers is not to expect much, or even anything, and in that respect at least this didn't disappoint. From an Irish perspective, this limb loosener wasn't without its pluses, but a grim encounter was compounded by letting the game slip away at the end.

Not that a 6-3 win would have had the Southern Hemisphere quivering.

Ireland were a scratch side and played like one. But while collective rustiness was inevitable with so many untried combinations, one of the primary points of the exercise was that the rustiest elements came through unscathed and better for the outing: 80 minutes in the case of Rob Kearney, an hour for Tomás O’Leary and, perhaps best of all, 20 minutes for Jerry Flannery.

On top of this, Mike McCarthy had an industrious 80 minutes, the first hour at blindside and the last quarter in the second row, though at times he seemed off the pace of Test match rugby (such as it was), while there was also a first cap for Felix Jones 20 minutes from time as well.

Kearney’s full blow out was especially encouraging and mentally it will have done him the world of good.

All things considered, he looked fit and sharp, and very in tune with his fullback duties, with no evidence that his knee operation had dimmed his speed or running ability.

After last season’s near write-off, O’Leary’s form is arguably the biggest concern, though it’s early days yet and it was too much to expect the barnstorming, all-running, all-action O’Leary of, say, Twickenham the season before last when he was probably the best player on the pitch.

O’Leary was far from bad, defended well and wasn’t helped by some of the sluggish ruck and scrum ball which was presented to him while, again, the outing will have done him good. But he needs games to sharpen his passing and find his old confidence, the problem being the more games he’s given the less opportunities for the other four scrumhalves in the squad.

For example, if Conor Murray isn’t blooded in Bordeaux next Saturday, when will he be? Reportedly going very well in training, he’s surely worth a look.

Donnacha Ryan and, on a trying afternoon for the Irish number eight, Denis Leamy, also put themselves about impressively enough though, understandably, no-one left an indelible mark on the game.

Coming from outside the original 43, Niall Ronan appeared to try too hard. Carrying plenty, he will especially rue a wasteful and poorly executed kick off good turnover ball.

The scrum, where both props had difficulties, struggled a little. Wayne Barnes’s penalty count was 9-4 to Scotland, plus two indirect penalties, with the scrum responsible for both of the latter and one of the former.

Declan Kidney was not especially concerned by this, maintaining he knew where players and units were in terms of their pre-season development. While the Scots had the slicker lineout, though without mounting much of a defence, Ireland still nicked three balls. True to form, Leo Cullen and co also negated the Scots’ lineout drive.

Perhaps the biggest negative on the performance was the lack of variety, tempo and venom in the attack.

A team’s attacking game rarely flows at the start of the season, whereas it can often be easier to find a defensive rhythm. Sure enough, much of Ireland’s best work was without the ball.

Given an intensive 15-minute workout from the kick-off, everyone put their hands up and contributed to the effort. Repeatedly the Scots launched big, straight runners and repeatedly they were held up in the tackle by one or usually more Irish players in trademark fashion to negate off-loads and either slow down ball or force a maul and ensuing turnover.

“We’re not going to face that, from what I’ve seen, from the other teams, so it’s harder to get your off-loads away,” said Andy Robinson.

“The way Ireland have worked out to defend, no other side in the world is defending that way and it’s very effective, as you saw today.” Praise indeed.

That said, the Scots targeted the 12 channel and still made several line-breaks, and a more clinical and skilful back line would have won the game sooner than they did when Nick de Luca put Jo Ansbro over after Barnes and co had missed Graeme Morrison blocking Paddy Wallace.

It didn’t help that Fergus McFadden shot up, though otherwise he showed what a clinically efficient tackler he is, and that Kearney and Jones appeared to get their wires crossed.

Along with Kearney, Luke Fitzgerald and Andrew Trimble also looked sharp and eager for work, though they were rarely used up the middle. Despite Ireland’s attempts at width, Fitzgerald mainly had little option but to kick ahead and was indebted to covering tackles by O’Leary and McFadden after chipping into John Beattie’s gap, whereupon Beattie butchered the try chance.

There was also a noted work-rate for counter-attacking though, coming from such a low base, it merely led to recycles around half-way rather than piercing the advancing blue line. One painstaking attack of 20-plus phases towards the end of the first half highlighted the failure to take the ball at pace. At one point Cullen took slow ball standing as first receiver and you simply wondered, why?

A marker has been laid, and at least it should be bettered in the coming weeks.

Scoring sequence: 33 mins Sexton pen 0-3; (half-time 0-3); 50 Paterson pen 3-3; 66 Sexton pen 3-6; 77 Ansbro try, Jackson con 10-6.

SCOTLAND: C Paterson (Edinburgh); N Walker (Ospreys), J Ansbro (London Irish), G Morrison (Glasgow Warriors), S Lamont (Scarlets); R Jackson (Glasgow Warriors), R Lawson (Gloucester); A Jacobsen (Edinburgh), R Ford (Edinburgh), G Cross (Edinburgh), J Hamilton (Gloucester), R Gray (Glasgow Warriors), A Strokosch (Gloucester), J Beattie (Glasgow Warriors), R Rennie (Edinburgh). Replacements: J Cuthbert (Bath) for Walker (21 mins), A Dickinson (Sale Sharks) for Jacobsen, A Kellock (Glasgow Warriors) for Hamilton, D Denton (Edinburgh) for Beattie (all 57 mins), D Hall (Glasgow Warriors) for Ford, G Laidlaw (Edinburgh) for Lawson, N De Luca (Edinburgh) for Paterson (all 71 mins).

IRELAND: R Kearney ( Leinster); A Trimble (Ulster), F McFadden (Leinster), P Wallace (Ulster), L Fitzgerald (Leinster); J Sexton (Leinster), T O’Leary ( Munster); T Court (Ulster), S Cronin (Leinster), T Buckley (Sale), D Ryan (Munster), L Cullen (Leinster), M McCarthy (Connacht), N Ronan (Munster), D Leamy (Munster). Replacements: K McLaughlin (Leinster) for Ryan (51 mins), J Flannery (Munster) for Cronin, J Hayes (Munster) for Buckley, M O’Driscoll (Munster) for Cullen, I Boss (Leinster) for O’Leary, F Jones (Munster) for Fitzgerald (all 61 mins), M Horan (Munster) for Court (62 mins).

Referee: Wayne Barnes (England).

Attendance: 28,288