Ireland and Best must trust their routines to hit mark in Paris

THE CALL is made on the way to the touchline, reinforced audibly when the players take their positions in the lineout. Rory Best must remain impervious to the maelstrom of noise, from crowd and opponents, implicitly trusting his routine, his mind uncluttered by peripheral distractions.

He rehearses mentally then aligns his body, eyes, chin, hands and feet in an ordered checklist before picking a point in the foreground of his vision through which the throw will arc. He is awaiting a visual trigger to release the ball. He knows within a nanosecond whether he’ll hit his target, before any catch is made.

It’s an issue of feel he likens to hitting a golf ball flush, an effortless sensation. Rhythm and technique are core dynamics in each case.

He smiles: “Every hooker has their own routine, a process of visualisation and execution. You can immediately feel if a throw is right, without consciously following the trajectory.

“You also know instantly if there’s a wobble on release or if you’re slightly off. Every single lineout is important. If you lose one then the structures, in terms of attack or defence, are disrupted and you’re introducing an element of chaos as players are asked to react quickly to a turnover. It can be very damaging for the team.

“In those circumstances you are almost overcome by a desire to do something immediately to try and get the ball back, make up for the error but you can’t afford to let it affect you. You can’t start hoping there’ll be no more lineouts or dreading every time the ball goes into touch.

“There are times when you know you have thrown the ball exactly as intended to the right place and the opposition reads it. Remember they don’t have to catch it, just get a hand to it. You have to be so aware of your facial expression or any physical tells that might offer a clue to the opposition, like say blowing out your cheeks just before you throw. There is so much video analysis that precious little is missed.”

He knows Ireland face an excellent defensive lineout unit in France, spearheaded by the returning Imanol Harinordoquy.

An outstanding performer for Ireland in the World Cup, it was fitting Best should score what he describes as a rare try, against Wales last Sunday. But he points to the acute disappointment of defeat, especially after having the advantage on the scoreboard going into the last 10 minutes and then failing to translate that into a victory.

“I think that’s what made this defeat so hard to take at the minute. Obviously we have to move on for what is a massive challenge [in Paris].”

He recalls the feeling in the dressingroom afterwards as something they are loathe to revisit this weekend.

“Regardless of what happens one week, you have to park it and move on. That’s one of the good things about having France this week. We know the pressure is on. We have to move on and learn from the mistakes because it’s a very exciting proposition to go to Paris and do something that hasn’t been done there; this being the 12th season [since Ireland’s last win]. It’s a massive challenge but this is why you play the game, to go to the top teams and the top venues.

“We can’t do our usual and be 20 points down in 20 minutes. We have to hold the ball. The amount of ball we gave Wales, we can’t do that. We have to get it and not make any silly mistakes, put them under pressure and try and get them on the back foot.

“When we kick, our kick-chase has to be very good. We can’t leave mismatches in the midfield where you are expecting front five forwards to deal with, 10 metres either side of them, players like Malzieu and those boys running at you.

“We need to go there and attack them but play quite smart. We can’t give them the opportunities they want, which are turnovers. The team that can win the front-five battle, the arm wrestle, goes a long way to winning the game. If we beat them up front and deny them ball then it’ll go a long way.

“They pride themselves on their forward play. We need to match that and better it; something we have spoken about.”

Best offered an insight into the impact the game-defining penalty, yellow card and subsequent citing last week had on Ulster and Ireland team-mate Stephen Ferris. “All you can do is put an arm round him; especially with someone like Stevie, a big, physical player who wears his heart on his sleeve. You just knew by his demeanour he was feeling it. We have all been in that position where we feel an action on the pitch has cost the team.

“With the citing it just seemed to add to his woes. He was very down about it, which was sad to see. We were inwardly quite confident there would be no case to answer but you just don’t know. It is a very contentious issue at the moment and quite rightly so; people don’t want to see any serious injuries.

“In those hearings you just don’t know how it is going to go. It was a different Stevie on Wednesday evening compared to what we had earlier in the week. It was good to see him back.”

Best is adamant the historical millstone of failure in Paris is viewed by the current crop of Irish players not as encumbrance but opportunity. “We are gearing ourselves up to go there mentally. Physically, we haven’t done a lot this week with the short turnaround; it was quite a tough game on Sunday. The key thing is we arrive in Paris knowing what we want to do and how to get that win.”