Rory Best accepted the daunting assignment of facing the post-match media scrum and was quick to acknowledge his role in the defeat, writes JOHN O'SULLIVAN
EXPERIENCE DOESN’T offer a salve for the exposed nerve-endings, just perhaps a better understanding of the emotions involved. Every time that Rory Best walked to the touchline at Croke Park, wiped down the ball, squinted at that narrow tunnel between the respective packs and tried to pick an abstract point in the Dublin skyline, he must have felt the glare of 80,000 pairs of eyes.
When the lineout is going well the minutiae of throwing seems incidental, a barely conscious process but when the engine of a team misfires everyone turns to the mechanic for an explanation. It’s not an easy process because of the number of component parts that must fire simultaneously.
Ireland’s lineout has been the mainstay in terms of an attacking platform throughout most of the Six Nations Championship. The Scots took a wrecking ball and unceremoniously demolished it. Seven turnovers meant that Ireland were literally out of touch in this aspect of the game on the day.
Best threw a couple crooked and he’ll take responsibility but in looking for the root cause it’s fairer to look at the dynamic of the unit. Paul O’Connell took responsibility, pointing out that he’d made some iffy calls; Stephen Ferris explained that it wasn’t down to Best and O’Connell but a communal miscalculation.
The last place Best probably wished to dwell on Saturday night was to become the focal point of another scrum, this one of the media variety. It is a measure of the man that he accepted the assignment and brought to it an unembroidered honesty.
“Sometimes you just have to hold your hand up and say it was a poor day. I didn’t throw particularly well and it was just one of those things that we’ll have to go away and learn from. When things are going grand, like in the last two games, you take all the plaudits. Now you have to take all the criticism too and that’s just team sport. If you can’t win your lineouts, especially down towards their line, you’re going to struggle: especially with the lineout we have. That’s just something I’m just going to have to take on the chin and live with.
“I don’t want to take anything away from them. They’re a fantastic team. They played particularly well today and put a lot of pressure on us. But at the same time we pride ourselves on our lineout as well and we fell well short of the standards that we set.”
While pride is packed into every sportsperson’s kitbag, Best pointed out that the disappointment was not because of personal failure or unit malfunction, but that they had missed out on a Triple Crown and a chance to complete their time at Croke Park with yet another snapshot of success.
“I’m not sure if ‘stung’ is the right word, it was just one of those things that at this level teams are going to their homework and put pressure on us, and it’s just one of those things that whenever one or two go it’s very hard confidence -wise to get it back up.
“Unfortunately a lot of the can will fall with me and it’s just something I’ll have to deal with when I get back home. I’ll just have to show with Ulster that it was a one-off, a blip; unfortunately it happened. We wanted to build on the last few years, produce a big performance and get a Triple Crown out of it. Obviously we fell short on all of the above and we’re very, very disappointed.
“Anytime there’s a match and silverware on the line, especially at home, we want to win it. In the dressing-room there are 22, 23 bitterly disappointed men. We’re very, very competitive; we really pride ourselves on winning things and performing when it counts. And unfortunately we didn’t do that and a very good Scotland team really held us out.”
In the last decade successive Irish teams have worked hard to dispel the myth that only the comfy blanket of being underdogs fits snugly. Best was adamant that trying to back up last season’s Grand Slam certainly didn’t inhibit Ireland in their goals this season.
“I don’t think it has particularly been a burden. We are a very competitive bunch, we pride ourselves on the big performances – you look especially at Munster and Leinster in the Heineken Cup games.
“They’re the sort of games as a professional athlete you want to play in. You want to play in the big games when there’s a lot at stake. So from that point of view trying to back up a Grand Slam, while it was always going to be difficult, I don’t think it was particularly something that got to us.
“I think it’s just unfortunate at this level that the margins are so fine, that if you don’t play to your full potential every game in what is a great competition, you’re going to fall short. If you look at Scotland, they were a couple of minutes away from beating Wales and with a drop-goal or penalty against England; they would have been going for their own Triple Crown.
“So in that regard it’s a tight competition and definitely one of the best in the world. It gives us a good set- up going into the tour Down Under, and even looking ahead to World Cups.”
