Ireland prospects blacker than black

Monday, June 11, 2012

IF THERE is one attribute that defines New Zealand rugby players, it’s that they never rest on their laurels for too long.

Just nine months on from that all-enveloping desire to capture only their second ever World Cup, it is clear that last October’s triumph has already been parked and consigned to the history books.

England struggled badly to cope with the mantle of world champions after their success in 2003 while South Africa — despite theirseries win over the Lions in 2009 — also stumbled and stuttered for long periods after their triumph in France four years later. Just one game into their reign, one senses New Zealand will only build on their coronation. It helps when the conveyor belt is full of promising young talent and New Zealand management teams have never been shy to promote youth.

On Saturday in Auckland, three new names were launched with a view to the future with Julian Savea’s talent flagged for some time now.

A hat-trick of tries in 42 minutes ensured he had no difficulty whatsoever in living up to the hype and he looks a special talent. On the opposite wing for Ireland and also on international debut, Simon Zebo looked sharp but was sadly starved of opportunity and barely touched the ball in the second half. One of the principal reasons for that is New Zealand refuse to kick possession away.

The scary thing about Saturday’s 42-10 defeat is that Ireland didn’t actually play that badly. Their set piece was competent throughout and Declan Fitzpatrick had a very good debut in a very demanding position. He coped admirably with the challenge of New Zealand’s most capped prop forward in Tony Woodcock, even though he had to be withdrawn early due to a strained hamstring. Ronan Loughney struggled by comparison and the scrum suffered.

Ireland also competed manfully at the breakdown, forcing a number of turnovers against the best back row in the business. Yet Ireland lost by 32 points. How?

The primary reason was that New Zealand’s attacking game was so much better. When they have possession they simply refuse to give it away cheaply. If you kick badly against them, they will punish you as they did on countless occasions at Eden Park.

They are the best broken field runners in the game and for them the set piece is something of an inconvenience. They have been forced to accept in recent times that it is a necessary evil of the game to be competent in the set phases but they rarely seek to really punish teams even when they have the upper hand. They are at their mercurial best when attacking with the ball in hand.

Nobody epitomises this better than Sonny Bill Williams and New Zealand are finally beginning to work out how to maximise his strengths. Forced to play a support role to Ma’a Nonu at the World Cup, Williams is fast becoming their go-to man. His sheer presence on the ball sucks in defenders like metal to a magnet. Once that happens, his spectacular one-handed offloads take a number of players out of the play, thus making it a simple numbers game.

Once New Zealand create an overlap they do the basics of straightening and passing better than anyone — this normally results in one of their wide players crossing the line unopposed.Defensively Ireland were well short of their best with their line speed once again an issue. All great teams make things look simple and New Zealand have the ability of making you look stupid at times. There is no great sophistication about how they play and that enables them to come together quickly as a unit. Their prep time for this opening test was extremely limited with a full round of Super 15 rugby last weekend, yet with only seven survivors from their starting team from the World Cup final they played with a clarity and understanding that normally takes a long time to develop.

Ireland on the other hand were extremely laboured in attack and offered very little with ball in hand. The only time they looked like scoring a try was fromchasing kicks down the field and their solitary five pointer from the ever-willing Fergus McFadden was created from a break-out deep in their twenty two with New Zealand fully committed to attack.

IRELAND'S attacking shape was non existent and that is a big worry. Defensively New Zealand were very sharp but Ireland facilitated them in that department by continually kicking away possession in promising positions.

Zebo and Rob Kearney are Ireland’s best broken field runners but they were never given the chance to make any inroads and that has to be addressed before the second test next Saturday.

If Ireland were in any doubt as to the merits of this new look All Black side they now know that they face a daunting task over the next two weekends. Scotland offered a glimmer of hope for the northern hemisphere with that win over a severely under strength Australia last Tuesday but despite being short five of their best players they recovered sufficiently to quash the threat of our Grand Slam standard-bearers, Wales, in Brisbane on Saturday.

South Africa, also rebuilding post the John Smit, Victor Matfield, Bakkies Botha, Fourie du Preez era, completed the whitewash in Durban on a difficult day for the Six Nations. While you would back both Wales and England to recover in their respective second tests next Saturday, unless Ireland can resurrect the attacking threat that Leinster have shown all season, their series will be done and dusted with a week to spare. Home