Scotland expose abject Ireland's limitations

On a forgettable day for Warren Gatland and his Ireland team at Murrayfield, Gerry Thornleyreports on a dismal performance

IN THE pantheon of Irish duds, this latest offering is right up there. Comparable in many ways with the Twickenham debacle of two seasons ago, and with any of the previous eight games in Murrayfield, we presumed days like this were a thing of the past. Oh fools that we are.

Recalling the more recent Murrayfield horror shows of four and two years ago, when Ireland lost by 38-10 and 30-13 respectively, at least Ireland threw an illusory blow or two before subsiding. At least there was the opening seven-point salvo and the continuing excellence two years ago of Dion O’Cuinneagáin. There wasn’t even that here. By the time an abject Ireland threw a punch they were already on their knees.

The contest ended pretty much with the kick-off, when no Irish forward was remotely near enough to field Gregor Townsend’s steepling kick. What made this particularly galling was the team and its supporters had travelled in expectation as much as in hope. Therein, of course, lies the rub to a degree.

For Warren Gatland and the rest of the management team this was a bad day at the office. During the week Eddie O’Sullivan had described the half-dozen changes to the previous Championship outing against France and the attempt to imbue the team with more pace and flair as a calculated gamble. In pretty much all instances the gambles failed.

Prized among these was assuredly the decision to pick Guy Easterby and drop Peter Stringer. As much in his stature as in his size, Stringer had become something of a lucky totem for this team, debuting in the reviving win over Scotland 18 months ago and only being on the losing team in three of his 11 Test starts, without ever really letting Ireland down. A fear had been that Easterby would overplay his hand and – combining a delivery to Ronan O’Gara that was significantly more ponderous than Stringer’s quicksilver service – that he did.

The younger Easterby, Simon, struggled too. He hardly counted at the breakdown or on the gainline, and even his agility and soft hands at the tail of the line failed to provide the lineout service that was the main set-piece plank for Ireland two seasons ago.

However, in their hasty desire to revive the well-balanced and mightily successful back-row of that campaign by recalling the Llanelli back-rower at the expense of Alan Quinlan or Eric Miller, the management erred. Clearly the younger Easterby hadn’t enough rugby under his belt after virtually missing all of last season.

Nor did the selection of Shane Horgan ahead of Kevin Maggs stand up too well. Ireland’s porous midfield suffered as Townsend, John Leslie, James McLaren and Glenn Metcalfe punched the holes that led to their first three tries.

All the talk of this being a form selection never particularly tallied with the selection of Jeremy Davidson ahead of Gary Longwell and Mick Galwey especially.

Yet talk of a player here or there, or even three or four brings to mind thoughts of the Titanic and deck chairs.

Perhaps this Ireland aren’t as good as we or they thought they are, but for all Scotland’s in-yer-face pressure defence, their spoiling at the breakdown and their competitiveness on the Irish throw, the hosts can’t suddenly be that good. This was a scrappy match riddled with mistakes and Scotland won in a canter. They were a decidedly moderate outfit last season and even allowing for the flawed flair Gregor Townsend gives them at outhalf, they cant all of a sudden have become technically superior, collectively, or in most of the 15 head-to-heads. Not to this extent anyhow.

Scotland looked stronger and more explosive in contact across the gain line and in terms of stamina too, judging by the way the Irish jerseys went hiding all over the pitch for Andrew Henderson’s try. As Irish bodies struggled to the breakdown when Denis Hickie broke out to half-way, as no one failed to fill in at scrumhalf when the ball came out, and as so few had the will or the legs to react when Metcalfe chased Townsend’s ensuing punt downfield, this looked like a return to the bad old amateur days of yore.

Yet whatever mistakes were made selectorially or in the physical preparation of the side, it’s hard to credit Scotland could be this much better technically or physically. One can only deduce t the team weren’t mentally switched on anything like they should have been, that both they and the management pressed all the wrong buttons.

The tactical gambit of slowing down the arrival of Ireland’s forwards to the line-outs, ostensibly to disguise the intended target of delivery, certainly didn’t fool the Scots. As faulty as Keith Wood’s throws were, so too were the calls after freeing up one of the jumpers, which instead repeatedly found Scott Murray and co. Coupled with the repeated decision to kick penalties for touch and ponderously at that, not to mention that Scottish forwards persistently hitting the rucks harder all afternoon, it meant only one team were playing with any sort of tempo.

It’s hard to recall Wood having such an ineffective game. As heavily marked as two years ago here, at least Wood looked fit then. In a rudderless display, focusing in on the Irish huddle after Scotland’s killer third try through Leslie, there was a lot of blowing but very little talking. Nor did any of the leaders rise to the challenge, for Anthony Foley was curiously anonymous and Ronan O’Gara had his worst game for Ireland and probably his worst representative game ever.

As one player, whose viewpoint is usually succinct said afterwards, “mentally we weren’t right. We were over-confident. It’s that old bloody favouritism tag again”.

Pretty pathetic in this day and age really. You’d have thought that in 2001 and in the sixth year of professionalism, Ireland had moved on from that.

Clearly not. And after this, you wonder if they ever will.

SCOTLAND: G Metcalfe (Glasgow); J Steel (Glasgow), J McLaren (Glasgow), J Leslie (Northampton), C Paterson (Edinburgh); G Townsend (Castres), B Redpath (Sale); T Smith (Northampton), G Bulloch (Glasgow), M Stewart (Northampton), J White (Glasgow), S Murray (Saracens), G Simpson (Glasgow), S Taylor (Edinburgh), B Pountney (Edinburgh).

Replacements: G Graham (Newcastle) for Stewart (64 mins), A Henderson (Glasgow) for Leslie (64 mins), S Grimes for White (72 mins), J Petite (Glasgow) for Simpson (76 mins), A Nlcol (Glasgow) for Redpath (79 mins), D Hodge (Edinburgh) for Townsend (79 mins), S Scott (Edinburgh) for Bulloch (79 mins).

IRELAND: G Dempsey (Leinster); G Murphy (Leicester), B O’Driscoll (Leinster), S Horgan (Leinster), D Hickie (Leinster); R O’Gara (Munster), G Easterby ( Llanelli); P Clohessy (Munster), K Wood (Harlequins, capt), J Hayes (Munster), J Davidson (Ulster), M O’Kelly (Leinster), S Easterby (Llanelli), A Foley (Munster), K Dawson (London Irish).

Replacements: K Maggs (Bath) for Murphy (23 mins), E Byrne (Leinster) for Hayes (35 mins), P Stringer (Munster) for G Easterby (54 mins), D Wallace (Garryowen) for Foley (64 mins), D Humphreys (Ulster) for OGara (64 mins), G Longwell (Ulster) for Davidson (75 mins).

Referee: C White (England).