Praise of passion and pride not what we want to hear

Crumbs from the master's table, certainly, but doubtful whether they will offer any nourishment to Irish rugby: indeed one could almost say that they resembled stale remnants of previous press conferences under the Havelock Square End.

The New Zealand team management and debutant test captain, scrum-half Justin Marshall, were suitably gracious to their hosts, but unfortunately they used phrases like `passion, enthusiasm and commitment', qualities of bygone eras.

Surely they knew this was the new Ireland, a team that brought more to the international arena than their traditional dog-eared report card that read, `try hard but slow developers, need extra tuition, not readily adaptable to new methods.'

If nothing else coach Brian Ashton has made the Irish team less predictable, brought greater vision, looked outside the accepted parameters of Northern Hemisphere coaches. Not according to the Blacks who borrowed from the old phrase book when discussing their opponents on Saturday.

New Zealand coach John Hart ventured: "We played really well for 50 minutes. We played averagely for the first 30 and as a consequence made a lot of mistakes. This was partially due to the excellent defence of the Irish and their enthusiasm. They put us under pressure."

Marshall was even more traditional in his synopsis when asked was he surprised at the ferocity of the Irish. "Not at all. Throughout the week, we'd been told by the players who had been there, played the Irish before at Lansdowne Road how they come out and approach the game.

"I think they showed that never goes away. We were planning to meet their fire but it took us a long time to get on top of them. They played very well. We made some mistakes that we don't usually make and that was as a result of the pressure they put on us.

"We were expecting that from them and they didn't disappoint us. They can take a lot from this game."

Hart, in response to a question as to the wisdom of playing matches between teams with such a disparity in standards, defended such contests: "It was a good international match with good rugby. They (Ireland) played with a lot of passion in the first half and a lot of commitment in the second half."

So there you have it, enthusiasm, passion and commitment: no mention of vision, flair and new structures. These Kiwis are hard guys to impress.

But Hart did show satisfaction with his side's second half display. "I thought the second half was a really clinical performance. We tried too much initially. We did not have our targets set. We tidied that up just before half-time and certainly at the interval. We changed the way we had to play the game."

He went on to point out that the game can be very unforgiving if a team makes mistakes and that is something of which Ireland can certainly be accused. "People might say that to score 60 points suggests a one-sided game but in test rugby under the new rules, there will be a lot of points when one side gets on top.

"Possession can be held for long periods of time providing you have got the ball retention skills." That the New Zealanders have may be gleaned from the number of times, in double figures, they recycled the ball.

For Ireland there are only lessons, no solutions, no quick fixes: just a sneak preview of the long and demanding road that lies ahead if these games are to become meaningful for more than one combatant, to offer something more substantial than minor pyrrhic victories.