SIX NATIONS SCOTLAND v IRELAND:IT'S ALL very well and good talking about a squad system; it's another thing actually adhering to the principle. It's also all well and good making changes when a team has played poorly or lost, but changes in that scenario are as much a punishment as anything else. But when you make four changes to the only unbeaten team in the Six Nations after three rounds, then a squad system truly is being cultivated.
If it works, if Ireland do emerge unscathed and victorious from Murrayfield, then it may have served to freshen up the performance this Saturday and ensure a greater degree of freshness about the squad heading into the final game of the campaign in Cardiff seven days later.
Back in 1983, the last time an Irish side remained unchanged for three consecutive games, that starting line-up also went through the four-match Five Nations campaign unchanged. But that was then, and this is now. The championship is more congested and matches are far more intense, and while conditioning and fitness have moved into a different world, there are also far more options available to Kidney than there would have been to Tom Kiernan 26 years ago.
In 2005 Ireland were also three from three at this juncture but their challenge faded in defeats at home to France and away to Wales as Eddie O’Sullivan kept changes to a minimum. In all, only 18 players were used in the five starting line-ups – with two of the changes forced by injury – and only one change was made for the final two games.
Had Ireland played the same 15 players in each starting line-up on this occasion there was a possibility that the edge could have gone off their performance levels again. It’s tough on Jerry Flannery, Jamie Heaslip, Tomás O’Leary and Paddy Wallace.
Flannery is probably playing as well as ever recently, his scrummaging has come on a ton in the last year, his darts have been on the bull’s eye and he is more dynamic than Rory Best on the ball – indeed he is Ireland’s second highest ball carrier to date in the championship after Paul O’Connell. Yet Ireland will not lose significantly in picking Best, who is possibly still the superior scrummager and is a fine tackler who has improved his ball-handling skills.
Heaslip’s close-in work-rate has been superb and his pace and huge gallops in open play have been a standout feature in the three games to date – inspired, in part, perhaps, by having Leamy breathing down his neck.
Shoulder surgery in the summer delayed the start of Leamy’s season until Munster played the All Blacks in November, whereupon he suffered a bang on the head and then sustained a knee injury a week later against the Scarlets. If it were not for all of that his huge competitiveness, innate football skills and hardness would probably have continued to be a fulcrum of backrow and team as they had been for the last four seasons. Once again, it’s hard to see how Ireland will suffer for his recall.
Ireland perhaps need to become a little more dynamic with the ball in hand, kick less and get their forwards and backs carrying the ball a little more. O’Leary’s box kicking improved significantly against England and takes a huge weight off O’Gara’s shoulders, especially in Ireland’s own half, his defence has been as solid as ever and his break maximises the new rules. But possibly now is the right time to inject the higher tempo which Stringer brings to Ireland’s game, and his form has been rejuvenated since November.
D’Arcy’s credentials were highlighted by his tries against France and last weekend against the Ospreys. Blessed with such wondrous footwork, not many players could have scored those tries, and as with Best, Stringer and Leamy, Ireland’s performances could not have been said to suffer when D’Arcy has been brought on.
Leamy (35 minutes in total) and Best (62 minutes) have appeared in all three games, Stringer (22 minutes) and D’Arcy (64 minutes) in two each, so it’s not as if they’ve been confined to token cameos either; all of which should serve to minimise any disruption by their inclusion from the start and probably explains why Kidney and co weren’t tempted to go further, even though Geordan Murphy was superb for Leicester last weekend.
Furthermore, of course, it’s not as if the quartet who have been demoted are out of the picture – all are on the bench and all will aspire to return to the starting line-up a week later. It would be no surprise if three or four of them did.
Kidney wasn’t claiming to be doing anything that hadn’t been done before – the All Blacks’ and Wales’ rotational policies while winning Tri Nations and Grand Slams being cases in point – in admitting that the demoted quartet weren’t exactly thrilled with the news.
“It’s probably a little bit new to them, I would be the first to admit that,” said Kidney. “They weren’t excited about it but they were totally professional, absolutely professional. I’m not saying it’s new, it’s been done elsewhere. Possibly it’s new here, especially as we’ve won three games and played exceptionally well. We’ve based it on the players that have come in have played well and are training well but that meant others had to lose out.
“Someone else in the back line or the forwards could have been changed, that’s not a threat, just positive reinforcement in how the guys are going. They had to work really hard to get in. You don’t change it for the sake of it.”
No, it’s not for the sake of it. As ever with Kidney, he’s not trying to be clever, and he’s too clever to portray himself as clever. But it is clever.
