Paris fallout puts focus on the fundamentals

FOLLOWING the fortunes - or misfortunes - of the Irish rugby team has never taken anyone along a pleasure laden road. Yet, there has never been any heartbreak as the frequent defeats were taken in more or less the same spirit as the victories. One might even say that the losses often made the wins much sweeter.

The Paris fiasco is a different matter, however. Leaving aside the Peter Clohessy situation, for the moment, there was a decided lack of spirit in the Irish performance. We seemed to have abandoned our traditional fire and fury for a rather tame game plan".

I had the pleasure of speaking to Willie John McBride on Sunday evening and he was in a state of some bewilderment. "I don't know what the game is about any more. We always played with lots of fire and passion, but that doesn't seem to be the case any longer. The other night I was saying just that to Ronnie Lamont and he told me I was getting old. But take this for a pack that I played in: Millar, Kennedy, McLoughin; McBride, Molloy; Lamont, Goodall and Slattery. I think we would have done very well. I believe that we no longer know how to play Irish rugby," he said.

His point about the lack of a traditional approach was mentioned by many in the aftermath of the match. Needless to say, people were not condoning foul play, but rather calling for what the former president of the GAA, Con Murphy, once called (in reference to hurling) "legitimate abandon".

It has always amazed me that expectations for the Irish rugby team have been so high for so long. Although the numbers playing the game have been increasing, rugby still remains well behind Gaelic football, soccer and hurling. The IRFU is largely dominated by people who came into the sport through the fee paying schools. A very large sector of the population Was never come into contact with rugby.

What the Irish pack seems to lack at the moment is mobility and athleticism. Many players seem to be uncomfortable with the ball in their hands, although, happily, in Victor Costello, this is not the case. This was particularly noticeable against the Scots, who were willing to throw the ball around at every opportunity. When Irish players threw the ball around last Saturday it usually went to ground.

Some commentators suggest that the organisational structures of Irish rugby are the problem. Jim Davidson, on BBC Northern Ireland, was forceful about this, but did not specify an alternative. Donal Spring, in this newspaper, called for a close look at the structures and suggested that clubs up and down the country are never consulted about decisions. He went on to suggest that the annual general meeting of the IRFU is not representative of the clubs and the grassroots.

So much has been written about the Clohessy affair that one hesitates to say any more. There are some who believe Clohessy when he says that what he did was not deliberate. Without being able to get into the man's mind, it is impossible to say for in whether his claim in this regard is justified. The video tape pictures are pretty damning, though.

There is talk, too, that Clohessy may have been under instruction to "get in among" some members of the French pack and simply went too far on the spur of the moment.

What people must accept is that rugby is a game, like hurling, where very serious injury can be caused by wild play. In these circumstances, players must impose very strict self discipline, both for the protection of their opponents and for the protection of themselves and their team mates.

It is silly to expect a referee and two linesmen to police the game of rugby with its myriad of "laws". The scrum and the line out are only two facets of the game which cannot be left to the officials. Players must have the right attitude or else the game becomes a shambles.

Nobody seems to know how many "laws" cover the line out - dozens it would appear. Collapsing the scrum is another area where the thin line between accident and deliberate intent is hard to define. How can a referee decide when a scrum is collapsed deliberately. There is so much going on in the front row during scrums that no one could possibly police it.

The same can apply to open play. Last Saturday, for instance, the referee missed a blatant forward pass leading up to one of the French tries. This was accepted without question by the Irish players, although the score put the outcome beyond redemption.

It is significant that neither the referee or the linesmen spotted the Peter Clohessy "stamping" incident, but it was the television pictures which revealed what had happened. That in itself illustrates how difficult the refereeing job is and how vital it is that players impose their own discipline.

Apart from all that, Ireland is no longer the force in rugby which it once was. Ireland must be prepared to take its place in the second rank of rugby nations. In three World Cup competitions, we have managed to get into the last eight. That may no longer be a realistic target with countries like Italy, Canada, Western Samoa and others making huge strides. We mustn't forget that Italy beat us in a match before we went to South Africa.