Giteau relishing chance to face new opposition

IRELAND v AUSTRALIA:MATT GITEAU yesterday spoke about the aura Brian O'Driscoll brings to a game of rugby, and though modesty forbids, the same could be said about himself. Blessed with an extraordinary array of skills, from goalkicking and tactical kicking to a superb running game, like O'Driscoll he's also brave beyond words. As test tens go, Giteau is in the premier division along with Dan Carter.

As such, no opposing player will have kept Ireland guessing more this week, and especially come Sunday at 3pm in Croke Park, than Australia’s talisman. Much has been made of how much Will Genia’s service and sniping threat has further liberated Giteau, but for the player himself, it’s been the arrival of the Queensland outhalf cum centre, Quade Cooper, which has really lightened his load.

Robbie Deans likes to have alternate playmakers at what the New Zealanders call first and second five-eights.

And statistics showed that Cooper actually received more ball than Giteau in the Wallabies win over England last Saturday.

“I thought in particular Quade Cooper was outstanding,” ventured Giteau yesterday. “Obviously a lot was written about Will (Genia) and there’s no doubt that Will played well but I thought Quade, especially at the start of the match, got his hands on the ball very early so he was able to settle into the game. And field position-wise, we were able to set up a right and left-footer. So that certainly takes more pressure off.”

Recalling Australia’s last visit here, in November 2006, when they were beaten 21-6 with Lote Tuqiri making a rare outing in midfield, Giteau admitted: “We probably left Lote out to dry a little bit. He probably felt like he was defending in isolation a lot of the time.” The communication in defence between Giteau, Cooper and Digby Ioane last Saturday was something Giteau lauded, though like Rocky Elsom, he accepted that Ireland has a superior array of strike runners to threaten them.

“I think when you look at the quality of players they’ve got in their backline, it would be stupid to think they’re not going to throw the ball around or threaten you across the paddock. They can play with width but they’ve also got those big runners, either on the wings or in the centres. They’ve got good attacking runners there. And I think with Ronan’s (O’Gara) kicking game, if he is playing flyhalf, especially with the way the weather is here, he can control the game really well.” An archetypically easy-going Aussie, and articulate and good-humoured with it, revealingly, Giteau is enjoying a break from his customary opposition cast list – in his 77 Tests to date, he has played New Zealand or South Africa 35 times.

“It’s just refreshing to be playing Northern Hemisphere teams, especially throughout the Tri Nations and we’ve now got four Bledisloe Cup matches and you’ve got the Super 14, you’re always playing South African and New Zealand sides. It’s just refreshing to play Northern Hemisphere style teams. They play a totally different style of rugby, new players and new challenges so from that side of things it’s always good to come up here and play England, Ireland, Scotland and Wales.” Although Giteau was 19 when he made his debut for the Wallabies in 2002, he didn’t necessarily think this was symptomatic of an Australian culture of giving players their Test debuts earlier than most.

“It could be the NZ culture. When I was chosen, that was almost out of the blue and that was a real big thing, almost like it would be here, whereas now, throughout our squad, it’s almost the norm that a lot of younger guys are given their opportunities a lot earlier than, I suppose, in other countries. And I think that’s the biggest thing that Robbie brings, not only for the younger players but the experienced players, just to be able to go out there and play your natural game because that’s basically what got you picked.”

No Aussie press conference this week would be complete without reference to their captain, and in particular any signs of Rockymania. “He’s brought a lot of his trophies over with him,” quipped Giteau, with Stephen Moore revealing that Elsom had brought with him a T-shirt saying ‘I’m big in Europe’.

Nor, they chided, was their skipper sharing any free taxi rides on their couple of days off. “No he sticks by himself, Rocky,” smiled Giteau. “He’s very selfish that way! Just carries his trophies with him, that’s it.”