Irish focus on scrum

The Ireland team enjoyed the first of two closed sessions this week at Greystones RFC yesterday in preparation for tomorrow's Test against Argentina at Lansdowne Road. The squad trained for an hour and three quarters, a session that encompassed the usual areas of focus prior to an international.

There was, however, particular emphasis placed on the scrummaging, an acknowledgment of the high regard in which the Argentinian scrum is held. Yesterday the scrummaging machine took a pounding as the Irish eight grunted and groaned their way through the practice.

Perhaps it is symptomatic of Sunday's World Cup squad announcement that not one Irish player spent any time on the sidelines nursing an injury during the whole week of training. The desire not to miss an instant obviously relegated the bumps and bruises to an afterthought. The desire, focus and intensity appears to be there, characteristics which should be manifest at Lansdowne Road tomorrow.

Ireland will train again briefly today to fine tune their game plan.