RUGBY SIX NATIONS CHAMPIONSHIP: FRANCE DULY set up next Saturday's pivotal meeting against Ireland with a fairly routine 18-9 win over Scotland at Murrayfield yesterday.
Next Saturday’s tea-time rendezvous in Stade de France has all the makings of one of the defining games of the RBS Six Nations and France’s mixed performance will have given Declan Kidney plenty of food for thought.
In many ways, it was a not dissimilar victory to Ireland’s 29-11 win over Italy. After Mathieu Bastareaud’s first two tries in Test rugby on his road to redemption, they eased past the winning post in another low-scoring if dominant second half and in truth won far more convincingly than the scoreline suggests.
They destroyed the Scottish scrum, mauled strongly and their close-in support play and offloading opened up the Scots repeatedly, albeit without finishing off as they might have done.
Admittedly, Ireland will have a day extra to prepare and to recover from the rigours of the opening weekend while also, most pertinently of all perhaps, for their walking wounded to recover fitness. Insomuch as it matters, the noises emanating from the Irish camp yesterday reiterated Declan Kidney’s post-match assertion that Ronan O’Gara and Paul O’Connell will resume training early this week after bangs on the knee and above the eye respectively.
Against that, Andrew Trimble’s tight hamstring “is a concern ahead of selection for the France game” according to an IRFU statement yesterday, and “he will be monitored over the next 24 hours to see how he recovers.”
Eleven players have been added to the match 22 that was on duty against Italy, including Stephen Ferris and Donncha O’Callaghan as they continue their rehabilitation from the leg and knee injuries that ruled them out on Saturday.
Well though Leo Cullen played in harness with Paul O’Connell in helping to shred the Italian line-out, the expectation is O’Callaghan will recover and will probably be recalled.
Manfully well though he carried again, David Wallace could do with some assistance, notably in the form of Ferris’ ballast in the collisions and offloading skills.
The first-half tries by Jamie Heaslip and Tomás O’Leary were two of the few occasions when Ireland’s support play and clearing out sustained promising approach play.
For all the possession and territory they enjoyed, Ireland put very little tempo and width on the ball. They will need to be significantly more intense at the breakdown next week and also work harder off the ball to improve their support play.
“We need to get our support play much better,” admitted Kidney, “and how to play off set-pieces. They went well, but how to strike off them when they went well.
“Defensively I thought we were okay. Our kick chase needs to improve, and our counter-attack in how we exploit that if a team does that to us again. We probably didn’t do that as well as we could. It’s probably a collective thing, rather than individual.”
Also admitting he was disappointed Ireland didn’t score another couple of tries, Kidney nevertheless believes they will be better for the run, citing the improved performance by the Wolfhounds over the last two weekends.
“I wouldn’t be delirious about the performance but I wouldn’t knock it either; try to keep a balance on things. I think France will play a different game than Italy and that will present its own challenges. Everywhere we need to improve, we’re under no illusions about that. We’re not trying to fool people. But if we go too much down that road, then we’ll all get too anxious and we won’t improve.”
The other nine players added to the squad are Tony Buckley, Gavin Duffy, Chris Henry, Marcus Horan, Denis Hurley, Shane Jennings, Johne Murphy, Jonathan Sexton and Dan Tuohy.
