Irish under threat where Eagles dare

Not for the first time on an Irish summer tour, the visitors are looking for some self-redemption on the second Saturday. Defeat to Argentina was akin to a punch in the solar plexus, leaving the tourists metaphorically on their knees, and though victory over the USA Eagles today won't have them doing a jig all the way to Toronto tomorrow, it would at least put a spring in their step.

Indeed, Ireland require victory by a handsome margin in Manchester, New Hampshire, today if they are to restore real self-esteem after the events in Buenos Aires. Thus, if the Pumas in their own lair were a credibly dangerous foe, the Eagles on their own land are by comparison more of a banana skin.

After the tricky 26-15 and 25-18 wins over the USA in Dublin and Atlanta six and four years ago, and the 53-8 win in the World Cup last October, defeat would be a disaster. Even a scratchy, hard-earned win would do little or nothing to apply balm to the largely self-inflicted wounds of Buenos Aires, unless the Eagles turn out to be a hell of a lot better than expected.

It shouldn't come to the former, whatever about the latter. The USA are on what Noel Murphy used to call a learning curve, with a new coaching staff and an infusion of more than a dozen players into their squad for their Epson Cup games against Japan and Canada over the last two Saturdays - half of whom are in today's starting line-up.

These remodelled Eagles have taken flight, having beaten Japan in Osaka - usually a cussedly awkward mission for them - and Canada in Manchester last Saturday. They celebrated that as if it were a World Cup final and have assuredly improved their lineout, replacing the wildly inaccurate Kirk Khasigian with the adopted Kiwi Robbie Flynn.

Significantly, they scored three of their four tries against Canada via close-range lineouts, though somewhat naively the Canadians reduced their defensive capacity here by having two men contesting the throw each time.

Still, the Americans tackled big and hard, especially around the fringes, and can be expected to do so again. That said, their

attacking ambit didn't look particularly broad against the Canadians, in what was a largely stilted, set-piece game wherein the Eagles played much of it through the effective boot of new outhalf Grant Wells.

In theory therefore, this game should be more about what Ireland are capable of doing. Applying the basics well, if Ireland adhere to their faster-paced, high-intensity, high-tempo game with plenty of width, they should do damage.

Admittedly, today's venue, Singer Family Park, is a relatively narrow, tree-lined pitch, more akin to a sylvan setting such as, say, the Kinsale Sevens, than a front-line Test arena, and this could clip Ireland's wings a little. Furthermore, Ireland are still without front-rank backs such as Brian O'Driscoll, Girvan Dempsey and Denis Hickie, which blunts their cutting edge a little, while the outside three of Tyrone Howe, James Topping and Geordan Murphy is utterly untried.

That said, Murphy has looked sharp and classy in training, and after Peter McKenna's travails in the cauldron of Buenos Aires, and Dominic Crotty's delayed arrival, you sense this could be a good day for the young Leicester full back.

No one is better positioned to analyse this game in advance than Eddie O'Sullivan, the Eagles' assistant coach until the World Cup and Ireland's since. He says: "They'll be very proficient in most areas of the game. Their lineout, continuity and tackling will be good, they've a good kicking outhalf, I believe, and they'll put the ball in behind us. I guess everyone would expect us to put them under pressure in the scrum, and I think that would be a fair expectation for us. But the game won't hinge totally on the scrum."

The key to Ireland winning, and perhaps winning well, as O'Sullivan sees it, is: "If we can create good, `going-forward' phases from our possession then I think we will cause them problems, because when we do that we can match anybody for intensity and we can match anybody for exposing their weaknesses. But as you saw last week against Argentina, no team looks good when static and if they can stagnate our ball or slow us, we'll be in trouble."

This will be an unnervingly tricky game, in which Ireland seem almost set up for a fall. They will need to be a deal meaner and more aggressive than they were last week in making their own tackles and out-scrumagging and out-rucking the Eagles before applying their own all-singing, all-dancing stuff. In the heel of the hunt, it's up to them.