Every squad player has a role to play between now and next Saturday to ensure training is the very best it can be in aiming to secure that elusive victory in Paris

FRANCE OFFERED an inkling of what Ireland can expect at the Stade de France in Paris on Saturday in their victory over Scotland at Murrayfield yesterday. The French will be more polished in terms of performance, having had the benefit of an 80-minute blowout against the Scots.

There were a number of aspects to the French performance that caught the eye, notably their blitz defence, their scrum and their ability to outflank teams in the blink of an eye with one long cut-out pass.

France’s defence coach Dave Ellis also fulfils the same remit at London Irish so I’d be well versed with his thoughts on that aspect of the game. He emphasises the responsibility of every defender in a blitz defence and how every player has to buy into the system or it’ll break down.

In trying to stymie or unlock the blitz, a team must be patient first and foremost and the kicking game is invariably the key: that comes in the shape of cross-field punts and little dinks in behind the onrushing line of defenders. Ireland will need to vary their approach and mix it up. They’ll have to look to the blindside occasionally too.

One area where the French did look susceptible was to a sharp switch against the grain of the defence, snapping back inside or using a runner off the inside shoulder. The Scots managed this to pretty good effect and made some decent headway. I’d expect Ireland to try and get someone running a late snap into François Trinh-Duc’s channel.

Imanol Harinordoquy remains the pivotal figure out of touch, both in securing possession for his own team and also going after opposition ball. France have four jumpers at lineout time they can go to and are usually pretty comfortable on their own ball. The French pack were dominant in the scrum: Ireland’s work at set-piece on Saturday is going to have to be exemplary.

Declan Kidney and Gert Smal will have noticed the Scots enjoyed a certain amount of success by throwing over the tail of the lineout: it guarantees quick, front foot possession and an easy opportunity to take the ball over the gain line. The Scottish forwards also made progress by picking and going straight through the middle of rucks, especially when they managed to offload to a supporting player in the tackle.

Ireland and France will both crave turnover ball because that’s where most of the opportunities will arise. The French are probably the best exponents of unstructured play in the world game, with every forward capable of throwing a killer pass should the chance present itself. The backs preserve space for one another and then attack it.

The Ireland squad will benefit from an extra day’s rest. France’s itinerary was less straightforward. Given the injuries before and after the victory over Italy, Kidney will be grateful his team wasn’t playing yesterday, giving him just a six-day turnaround. On that theme the coach will learn a great deal more about the strength of his squad over this fortnight.

Speaking of squads, it is virtually impossible to overestimate the importance of the players who do not take part on match day. Their attitude and professionalism in training has a massive bearing on how successful the preparation for a game can be and is fundamental to winning.

It’s a very difficult task because every player wants to play but those that don’t make the match squad have to hide their disappointment because any tantrums or sulking will be detrimental to the chances of the team. It’s like erecting a façade in training, hiding your feelings and being relentlessly upbeat and positive.

The Ireland coach emailed every player who took part in Ireland squad sessions en route to last season’s Grand Slam and thanked them for their professionalism, generously pointing out the squad could not have accomplished what they did without that positivity and support.

Those who do grumble and moan are often referred to as an acid or cancer within a squad. Another term used for them would be energy sappers. The head down philosophy, their subjective, one-eyed outlook on food, training and life in general when things aren’t going their way can introduce negativity into a group of people.

You have to put your own interests aside for the greater good of the team when you’re part of a group affectionately known as the “mixed veg”, who hold tackle bags and run the plays of the opposition. We’ve all been there, all done it, but not perhaps with the same grace. A team that wins on a Saturday will have put in a huge amount of work and a large slice of the credit will go to those who helped to fine tune the game plan in training.

So this week in the Ireland training camp it won’t be just about the match squad but the others who muck in during the week to ensure that training is the very best it can be and who help in a very real way towards trying to secure that victory in Paris next Saturday.