Unfair to make Murphy the fall guy

On Rugby:Is it a sad state of affairs, or at any rate a commentary on how bad things became, that another moral victory is hailed so loudly? writes Gerry Thornley

Would the Irish team of two years ago have closed out the deal if faced with the same experimental French mixture of pacey outside backs, a few older heads and a host of Test novices, five of them pitched into the fray at varying stages in the last half-hour? The answer to both is probably in the affirmative.

Whatever about Eddie O'Sullivan, and Saturday's comeback cannot reflect badly on him, the Irish fans were due a performance. Heaven knows how many tens of thousands of euros was spent by tens of thousands of Irish fans in Bordeaux and Paris throughout September, but the Irish captain might have extended the sense of debt he expressed to the manager to those fans - or the IRFU or the head coach might have done so.

Undoubtedly it was a welcome improvement in performance, and it was great to see Brian O'Driscoll running hard and finding more space, and players coming onto the ball hard and clearing out with greater intensity.

There had been signs of an improvement even in a mixed bag of a first 50 minutes, at which point Ireland, lest it be forgotten, trailed 26-6.

More than anything, you could see the body language change. The confidence which that reflects, and the way it revives the support of the fans, should sustain them no end over the next two weeks and carry on into the Scottish game, which looks to be coming at an ideal time.

The Scots have looked the most limited team in the tournament, unable to add to the basic mix of physical forward play, strong defence and goalkicking with which Frank Hadden initially revived their fortunes. It hasn't helped them that Nick de Luca, of whom so much was understandably expected, still hasn't recovered from the early mistakes he made against France. At the outset of a Test career that, sadly, can just happen.

But the glitches in a dog-legged defensive system against the wizardry of Shane Williams, especially on Nikki Walker's wing, might be rectified with the return of Rory Lamont and Simon Webster, and it might add more strike power out wide, while Simon Taylor might also return.

The Scots pack will test Ireland, and will probably seek to make Croke Park an arm wrestle, but Ireland should now be in better fettle when Wales and Warren Gatland come calling a week later for the Triple Crown and, quite possibly, a fourth win from four.

Even so, an opportunity has been missed. It already looks as if history will show that the 2008 Six Nations was a curiously non-vintage, if entertaining, affair. A semi-rebuilt England continue to have issues with their game management, particularly in the last quarter or so. The two teams with the remaining unbeaten records and real momentum are Wales, who nonetheless are a work very much in progress, and we await to see if Marc Lievremont continues to don white coat and stethoscope for the remainder of the championship.

As revealing as any camera shot at the Parc des Princes on Saturday was that in the taut endgame of the new French coach chatting and smiling with his assistant, Didier Retiere.

Yes, yes, yes, the Irish scrum has improved over the last 18 months and deserved credit for the work it has possibly put in over that time. But one ventures it will be a while before any visiting scrum in Paris is granted such latitude - or such an avenue back into a 20-point deficit.

France are in part paying for the policy of the Top 14 clubs in the professional era which has resulted in 41 foreign props on their books at the start of this season. But one of their injured Test quartet, Sylvain Marconnet, played 30 minutes for Stade Francais at the weekend.

The bottom line, sadly, is that another tilt at a first Grand Slam since 1948 has been lost and, with it, possibly a first championship since 1985 - unless France lose to England and/or Wales while Ireland witheir remaining matches and, if needs be, come out best on points difference.

It is now 23 years since the last of Ireland's 10 outright titles, this country's longest wait since the 1951-74 interregnum, which is eclipsed only by France's overdue wait for their first title and Scotland's 38 years of hurt between 1938 and 1984.

The biggest shame about the careers of players like Mick Galwey, Peter Clohessy and Keith Wood was that they never had real silverware to show for it, and while the Munster contingent at least have one Heineken European Cup to their names, it would be a terrible shame if this generation of O'Driscoll, O'Gara and co weren't to have at least one title to celebrate.

Already Denis Hickie has missed out - and how his finishing and pace - so unIrish - is missed.

With France having made the pitch look big again, flying wingers are a priceless commodity again. Vincent Clerc has scored 20 tries in 30 Tests, and seems at the peak of his powers, having scored 24 in 35 matches in 2007. And he has scored six tries in three games against Ireland. Right now, he looks the best winger in the world.

It was Geordan Murphy's misfortune to be his opposite winger on Saturday, and so he has been roundly condemned for "going Awol" for Clerc's first-half hat-trick, and for his last-play grubber for Girvan Dempsey which Cedric Heymans ran into touch.

But if one examines the first three tries, the first one especially, Ireland had taken the ball through six phases before Lionel Nallet counter-rucked David Wallace into Eoin Reddan and won the turnover. Murphy had helped clear out the ruck previously before taking up a position to the left in midfield. Normally, through phased attack or defence, the outside three rotate, and Dempsey had taken up the right wing position before he too moved infield prior to the turnover.

This left Denis Leamy on the wing, with Rob Kearney still too far over to the left as the covering last defender. Whatever the defensive flaw here, that try seemed as much a system failure as Murphy "going Awol".

As for the second, when David Skrela attacked the blindside space between Leamy and Murphy, most coaches and former players this reporter has spoken to confirm the initial impression that the flanker ought to have closed the space better rather than leave Murphy to effectively cover two men.

Similarly for the third - which was two phases after another turnover - Heymans exploited the yawning space inside Murphy before putting Clerc away again.

At the very least Murphy was left exposed for the second and third, and one wonders if any Irish right-winger could have stopped any of them. As for the last play, the original fault arguably lay more in moving the ball away from the forwards in the first place, as Ronan O'Gara conceded.

This might seem like an elaborate means of defending Murphy, but it isn't. Undoubtedly, his body language does not suggest he is happier on the wing - where this was only his second game since the Croke Park defeat to France almost a year ago - than fullback, where he defends better and his ability to run trailers or hit the line and put players into space is best employed.

gthornley@irish-times.ie