More freedom will help Irish cause

SIX NATIONS CHAMPIONSHIP: FOOD FOR thought certainly. It's a remarkable tribute to the players' strength and conditioning, not to mention the medical staff, that there are no injuries heading into round four of the Six Nations.

Nor were wet and windy nights in Wales and Ravenhill over the weekend’s matches ideally suited to players putting forward compelling cases for promotion, yet none would have damaged their cause either.

By comparison, the starting XV have returned refreshed by a three-day break after the two-day mini-camp last week and it is the more sensitive way that Ireland coach Declan Kidney has given the players more time away from each other that is making it possible to go through the campaign unchanged. But Kidney and co still had their ribs nudged.

“I thought there were pretty solid performances all round,” said the assistant/backs’ coach Alan Gaffney yesterday. “I think generally speaking the boys who were given the opportunity at the weekend virtually to a man put their hand up.”

Foremost among these was Gordon D’Arcy, whose case for inclusion after his wondrous footwork earned him Leinster’s match-winning try away to the Ospreys.

“D’Arce has been brought along slowly, initially by Leinster and subsequently by Ireland, and you can see a marked improvement in what he’s doing from week to week,” admitted Gaffney, albeit careful to give nothing away. “He’s getting more confidence in himself, which is obviously a very important thing after being out of the game for so long. I thought he had a very solid game against the Ospreys.”

Specifically, D’Arcy is trusting his arm in the tackle more, said Gaffney. “D’Arce is a good reader in defence, and he’s proven in the past, he’s worked very well over a number of years with a number of people, particularly Brian I suppose in the midfield for Ireland and Leinster. It’s an area of his game where I think he’s strong, and he’s definitely getting more confidence in that area.”

Not that Paddy Wallace’s performances merit demotion, Gaffney conceded that at no point in the Six Nations has D’Arcy’s case for inclusion been stronger. “It’s a great challenge. Paddy has played well in the three games he’s had, and I think D’Arce has put his hand up. It’s a great contest there, and that’s been one of the benefits that Declan has expressed: we’ve got a lot of guys on the bench who have an impact, one starting and one coming off the bench we’re equally well done by.

“It does become tighter, there’s no doubt, every moment D’Arce plays and the more time he has, the more of a challenge there is there.”

Drawing comparisons with 2005, when Ireland had to dig deep to see off England in a bruiser at Lansdowne Road, there were perhaps signs that day that the team had started to panic under the weight of public and media expectation, which is perhaps why Kidney has been at pains to keep a lid on such heightened hopes.

There was only one change in the starting line-up for the subsequent two defeats at home to France and away to Wales, with Kevin Maggs returning for the injured Shane Horgan. There were also, perhaps, warnings that the team had retreated into a tactical shell slightly of its own making. But Gaffney yesterday offered strong evidence that the relatively more restrictive gameplan against England last Saturday week in Croke Park was more in response to the needs of the day, and specifically how England have had that effect on most teams they’ve played this season.

“It’s the way the game evolved. Playing against England, New Zealand got the ball into the middle four times, three from four-man lineouts when Ma’a Nonu punched the ball into the midfield. Australia got the ball into the midfield three times in the entire game, so no one got the ball wide against them.”

“They’ve got a solid defence,” added Gaffney, “and you can’t take that away from England. It was never the intent that we wouldn’t try to be expansive; the game just worked out the way it did. I’m not saying we were happy to run down that path, but the boys controlled it and held it together well.”

He believes there may be variety against the Scots. “Scotland will defend differently to England and Italy, and to what the Welsh will do. There are parts of the game where you’ll say ‘will you go wide? where will you go?’ against Scotland, and that game-plan will be put together, it’s pretty much put together at the moment.

“The game is going to be a lot freer, one would think. When I say we’ll be more expansive, we probably will be, but that doesn’t mean you get the ball to the wing every time, but we will be expansive in the sense that there will be a fair bit of ball in hand.”

Acknowledging that “it was a difficult game” for Ronan O’Gara against England, Gaffney disagreed with the view that his outhalf didn’t play well. “If you look at that game, it never really developed for him in that area. A game like Scotland, where it will be a little bit freer, is a game that should suit Ronan. I’m looking forward to a big performance from him.”