ON RUGBY:Yes Ireland are on the right track with their more expansive game plan, but with this expansiveness has come costly errors – and a failure to kick for territory when required, writes GERRY THORNLEY

FOR ALL the desire to broaden their scope, failure to win matches – particularly at home – must be sowing seeds of doubt within this Ireland squad. Getting the balance right between more of a ball-in-hand game and winning rugby is proving tricky, and privately, management and players alike must be analysing last Sunday’s game more avidly than most.

For all the talk about building toward the World Cup, the best way of doing so would surely be to arrive in New Zealand next September as European champions. Furthermore, some of this squad are unlikely to have another crack at a Grand Slam again.

Ireland are on the right track and put France under tremendous pressure for much of the contest, but there were seven clear occasions when they opted for running moves from around about the position where Ronan O’Gara opted to find touch inside the French 22. It’s worth noting Dan Carter kicks for territory, and O’Gara couldn’t have been making a clearer statement had he been using a loud hailer.

Ireland also need to re-evaluate their kicking game when they do take that option, for France kicked to regain possession by, ironically, better use of the garryowen. Five times they achieved this, which was five times more than Ireland largely because all their up-and-unders were over-cooked, thereby allowing French catchers to take the ball under no pressure. And it was Aurelien Rougerie’s take off a Francois Trinh-Duc up-and-under which eventually led to his break to put Maxime Medard over.

Once again there’ll be a call for changes, many of them along provincial/tribal lines. Recall the demand for David Wallace to make way for Seán O’Brien, for a moment. Wallace was magnificent again on Sunday, and led the Irish stats for ball carries and tackles (along with Jamie Heaslip). His level of fitness and ballast in the collisions is simply remarkable for a 34-year-old.

That all good coaches and successful teams remain relatively unchanged is not un-coincidental, and this has to apply to Ireland given the relatively small pool of players. Were the sorely missed Jerry Flannery, Stephen Ferris (though all three Irish backrowers were excellent on Sunday) and Tommy Bowe to come back into the equation, they would perhaps improve things.

Scrumhalf is the big call. Tomás O’Leary’s error count was the highest on Sunday, and while that’s often the lot of a scrumhalf, he has had an injury-interrupted season. In further mitigation, the back spasm which had him in doubt until the day of the game had sidelined him from training all week. But what Ireland would have given for the largely silky smooth performances of both Morgan Parra and Dimitri Yachvili.

Although O’Gara is putting him under immense pressure, Jonathan Sexton is worth preserving with and he did not play badly – though the game management surely has to incorporate more of his excellent kicking from hand. Also, he had received treatment three times before missing the conversion to O’Leary’s try.

Allowing for green-tinged glasses, Ireland could again legitimately feel aggrieved about the refereeing. Quite how the likes of Mark Lawrence and Alan Lewis have apparently been demoted while Romain Poite – truly awful in Rome – and Dave Pearson have been promoted to top-flight status is curious.

A review of the game doesn’t suggest Pearson was as bad as Poite, but the official match stats were wrong in that the actual penalty count was 10-7 to France, with a couple of indirect penalties against them as well. There were certainly a few contentious ones, particularly at the breakdown.

Thierry Dusautoir clearly appeared to hold on to the ball when tackled by David Wallace in the build-up to Morgan Parra’s opening three-pointer; the French strayed up offside without once being penalised; while the final and ultimately decisive three-pointer against O’Brien looked particularly harsh given he released the man after the tackle and stayed on his feet. No one’s perfect, of course, including referees. Mistakes happen, and there were plenty of them on Sunday.

Gordon D’Arcy can readily be pinpointed for the missed tackle on Rougerie, which given the considerable size difference between the two backlines, was perhaps always likely to happen once. But D’Arcy has punched way above his weight for almost a decade at Test level and his missed tackle was a rarity.

Let’s give Seán Cronin a break too. For him to make an impact he needs more than four and a half minutes. When he fatefully knocked on with Ireland’s last attack he had been on the pitch for three minutes and 10 seconds, and while he had already made four tackles, it was his first touch.

Quite why Leo Cullen was brought on with 79 minutes and 55 seconds on the clock is a mystery, though it perhaps it was to ensure the clock did stop and give Ireland time to think how they could possibly turn over possession from the French put-in.

On another weekend which will hardly have had the Southern Hemisphere quaking in their boots, the evidence of last Saturday at Murrayfield especially suggests Ireland’s trek there should be a walk in the park. The Scots had a monopoly of possession and territory yet rarely looked like ending their run of tryless outings at Murrayfield stretching back seven matches.

This was despite the seven minutes when Wales had both Bradley Davies and Lee Byrne in the sin-bin. Four times they butchered moves in the Welsh 22 and in the midst of this they even elected to take a shot at goal rather than go to the corner. Dan Parks appeared keen for a close-range lineout only to be over-ruled by Alastair Kellock. To not back yourselves to score a try against 13 men is lamentable.

Of course, it will be anything but a stroll for Ireland. That the Scots played so miserably against Wales is probably the worst thing that could have happened from an Irish perspective. The comments of both Andy Robinson and especially Seán Lamont, who suggested they have a no-holds-barred, behind-closed-doors players meeting without their coaches, were of a team whose pride has been hurt. Thirty angry men come kick-off then . . .