Looking to old pals to kick-start revival

Interview with Alan GaffneyThere was a period of mourning in the Irish media when the most accessible and candid coach to arrive on these shores since the dawn of professionalism was scooped up by his own. For one week only Alan Gaffney is back and yesterday he held court out in Portmarnock.

Unfortunately well known to Australian coach Eddie Jones, who played under and even received his first break in coaching from Gaffney at Randwick RFC, when a vacancy came up regarding the national backline the favour was repaid.

It hasn't gone smoothly, though. Just three days after Munster gave him a memorable send off by beating Llanelli and winning the Celtic Cup at Lansdowne Road, Gaffney was planning for the Tri-Nations.

The last seven games have seen Australia experience their most traumatic period in a proud rugby history. They can't seem to buy a win. Although, unlike Ireland, they stubbornly refused to buckle before a rampaging Springbok or All Black pack. Only twice have they been comprehensively spanked during this disastrous run.

In recent weekends France and then England exposed a horribly inadequate scrum. Still, like the summer defeats, they stayed within turnover ball of stealing a victory. Again, in contrast to Ireland, they have skill levels in certain areas to make any team sweat for 80 minutes.

"I think we had 29 per cent possession in the game (against England) and to be one try all with six minutes to go, and having someone in the bin when they scored both their tries, I think we toughed it out pretty well. We played some good rugby but we didn't deserve to win the game.

"In the previous week against France we made nine clean line breaks. They made four. They won the game. We didn't. They converted the limited opportunities they had. We didn't covert our opportunities into points."

This could be Eddie O'Sullivan speaking but the scenario is different. This is not a crisis like Irish rugby experienced on regular losing streaks down the years because every stumble has been against quality opposition. Playing Ireland, really, is a near perfect opportunity to get the "monkey off our backs" (as Gaffney puts it) before tossing the poor animal away altogether at the Millennium Stadium a week later.

One similarity to Ireland is a lack of strength in depth. Australia have failed to unearth a world-class prop for years. They are forced to make do this week with Bill Young at home and Matt Dunning, having been filleted by English beast Andrew Sheridan, injured.

"Anyone who saw the game on the weekend will know the scrum was under enormous pressure. We haven't got a lot of riches to play with. Not much more than Ireland I suppose. We've got to make do with what we got - as Matt Dunning said, it's not as though we have 10 125-kilo tighthead props to ship over here.

"We've got reasonable strength in our backline and obviously good strength in the backrow. We've got some good players in the tight five but there are a lot left at home.

"This is not an excuse but we can't really afford to have that many players at home - such as Billy Young, Dan Vickerman, Jeremy Paul and David Lyons. Then there is the plethora of backline people who just aren't here. Larkham, Rathbone, Flatley, Tune and Sterling Mortlock."

While it is important for Ireland to respond to the recent humiliation, Saturday has even greater resonance for Australia. An eighth defeat on the trot, with Ireland going two-nil in recent meetings at Lansdowne Road, could mean curtains for the whole coaching ticket. Developmental times or not.

Australia's Losing Streak

Jul 23rd: v South Africa 33-20, Johannesburg

Jul 30th: v South Africa 22-16, Pretoria

Aug 13th: v New Zealand 30-13, Sydney

Aug 20th: v South Africa 22-19, Perth

Sep 3rd: v New Zealand 34-24, Auckland

Nov 5th: v France 26-16, Marseilles

Nov 12th: v England 26-16, London