Good start half the battle as Best and Ireland chase a rare scalp

FRANCE v IRELAND COUNTDOWN:Whether with Ulster or Ireland, Rory Best has had his fill of defeats on French soil, writes GERRY THORNLEY

WITH AUSTRALIA beaten in the Southern Hemisphere last September, short of finally overcoming the All Blacks there could be no bigger one-off scalp in Test rugby for an Irish player than toppling the French in Paris; something as rare as hen’s teeth.

Only Ronan O’Gara survives from the victorious crew of 2000, and for the Ulster men in the squad such as Rory Best there hasn’t even been a provincial win on French soil. Hence, being cognisant with the history can be inspiring as much as it is daunting.

“From one side of things it is a massive challenge in that we haven’t done it in so long but on the flipside we have the opportunity to write ourselves into the history books as the first team to win there since 2000,” said Best yesterday.

“When you get to this sort of level and you’re dealing with the players and the competitiveness that we have, they are the little things that you want, you want the really big moments that you can look back on in your career and there is no doubt that Sunday evening can be one of those for us.”

Ireland’s cause in Paris hasn’t been helped by a penchant for slow, or at any rate loose and error-strewn starts, and the message appears to have been hammered home. “I think we’re going to have to pull out something that we have talked about a bit; there’s too many times over the last 10 years that we went there and after 20 minutes the game has near enough been over.

“And we fought back well and almost won it from sometimes 10 or even 20 points down, so from that point of view we want to go there and impose our game plan, not to be shaped by the way the game goes and hope that we cut out silly mistakes.

“Certainly any of the times I’ve been there we’ve been very uncharacteristically loose in the first 20 minutes. The game gets off to a ferocious start and we try things that we wouldn’t normally do. And it’s something that we’ve talked about and tried to eradicate. It comes from training, we’ve talked yesterday and today about going through the phases, not turning the ball over cheaply.”

Best was possibly disguising his surprise that Dimitri Szarzewski was retained ahead of William Servat, the better set-piece operator if a less dynamic presence around the pitch, particularly in comparison to Szarzewski’s big tackling.

“It looks like they’re trying to give them a relatively equal amount of game time. Servat came on and was pretty powerful in closing out the game for France on Sunday, but having said that Szarzewski played pretty well and he was obviously picked to play against us the last time.”

With Vincent Debaty also proving more effective as a replacement, Ireland’s frontrow will be especially mindful of what’s coming at them circa the hour mark.

“We know what’s coming off the bench,” said Best. “We’ve seen the impact that those boys can have. So we also have to be aware of that.”

The return of Julien Bonnaire, in tandem with Imanol Harinordoquy, is also sure to put Best’s throwing under the greatest strain imaginable from the off.

“Yeah, I think there’s no doubt in terms of world rugby, Bonnaire and Harinordoquy are world-class operators. They’ve made that change now and it’s a good challenge for us. We’re going to have to be on our game and on the money with our lineout.”

Ball to the tail won’t be too commonplace, and Best acknowledged that the Italians nicked one there last Saturday simply through good marking, while he held his hand up for missing Paul O’Connell at the front in the build up to Sergio Parisse’s try.

“They marked quite well but I probably threw it just slightly early, because I saw Parisse come slightly forward. They’re not a bad defensive lineout and I think it was probably more a kneejerk (reaction) because of what happened, especially the one that we lost at the front that they ended up scoring on, which always makes it look worse than it actually was.”

Unlike their Leinster, Munster and Ulster counterparts, Best, Stephen Ferris and Andrew Trimble have yet to sample a provincial win on French soil, though they came mightily close to storming the most impenetrable Top 14 fortress in Clermont in January.

“That was probably one of the best atmospheres outside of internationals that I have ever played in,” said Best.

“It was incredible and the fact that we got on with it, were not overawed and played our own game is something we have to take into this weekend.

“It is very applicable. The Stade de France is a brilliant place to play but sometimes you get a little bit overawed by the whole thing. I just think the way we coped in Clermont, certainly from our point of view, gives us a big lift that we can go there and focus solely on what we need to do to win the game.”

Best’s value within the group as one of the leaders is huge, and in accordance with that status, and given the absence of his big mate Denis Leamy, he has been afforded a room of his own.

“I don’t know if it is a case of no one else wanting to share with me,” he said with a smile, “or if it is because of my seniority.”