Simon Zebo: ‘It was an exciting day to be part of’
It has taken injury to Rob Kearney for the Munster back to be afforded his shot at full-back in this Six Nations, but he has responded impressively to the unexpected opportunities against Wales and Italy on Saturday.
Full-backs, by dint of the fact they are stationed in such splendid isolation, routinely clock up a substantial number of metres made so the 149 Zebo has managed in his two starts is probably among the least interesting figures attached to his name. More pertinent is the fact he has gathered the ball 48 times and run with it exactly half of those times.
Has he injected a spark into Ireland’s back play? It’s hard to say. Ireland played some decent rugby against England as well and Zebo only managed 16 minutes that day.
Yet, he is clearly tailor-made for a side that has sought to mix up their attacking focus for most of this championship – we’ll gloss over the French debacle in Paris– and a full Aviva Stadium on a balmy and dry day was exactly his kind of stage.
“It felt like one of those days,” he said. “It felt like the first time in a while where we were properly enjoying ourselves. Maybe that was down to the weather, but it was an exciting day to be a part of. Everyone out there was playing with a high tempo and a smile on their face.
“We were really dangerous at times and it showed.”
Zebo came within a whisker of claiming a try on a number of occasions. That he didn’t shouldn’t dilute the part he played and the hope is Ireland can reproduce some of the same gusto and verve against a Scottish side that will be considerably better next weekend.
“It’s coming from everywhere,” said Zebo. “We were in the groove, in the zone a bit. Every attacking option we called seemed to be working out there. We went out with a positive mind-set and it showed in the end in terms of how we tried to play.”
Nothing matched the try they knitted together on the stroke of half-time, a score claimed by Jamie Heaslip on the back of a tapestry of passes. It was a move that owed its genesis to a burst through the -defensive line by Zebo and a sublime under-the-arm offload to Jared Payne.
It came just early enough in proceedings not to be tarnished by the stink of garbage time and it gave rise within a split second to thousands of people asking the very same question: was that the best try an Irish rugby team has scored?
“Emm, I don’t know, I couldn’t tell you,” said Zebo. “It was a good try, very good. It’s one of those things, you don’t mind not being on the end of it once it’s a five-pointer. That’s good enough for me, I was just happy to be involved in it.
“I’m having fun when those sort of things start to happen for me. And, you know, it was probably the first dry day I’ve played in since the World Cup so the ball was gripping to the fingers quite easily. It just felt good. It felt fun for the first time in a while.”
It won’t always be fun. Not this much.
Probably the most notable of Zebo’s statistics two days ago was the one headlined ‘tackles made’ that had a zero under it. Scotland would be less reticent at testing him there. The same goes for South Africa or New Zealand who account for the next five Tests after Scotland.
Joe Schmidt will have noted Zebo’s positioning for David Odiete’s try, as many others have. The fact is that Rob Kearney’s days in green are far from done, but the head coach’s choice this week of full-back will tell us all we need to know about his plans for Zebo and for Ireland in general.
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