BERNARD JACKMAN: Kidney fate now rests on passing French test
Ireland’s loss to Scotland was incredibly frustrating to watch and it’s a long time since I saw a team at international level dominate so much in terms of possession and territory but not go on to win the game.
The decision to blood Paddy Jackson and Luke Marshall in an away game in a must-win Six Nations match was incredibly courageous.
Unfortunately Paddy Jackson suffered from not kicking regularly at Ulster and after he missed his first shot at goal, his confidence visibly dipped and thereafter Ireland kicked to the corner when the opportunity to take the points were on offer.
The Scots, to their credit, contested brilliantly on Rory Best’s throw and the odd occasions that we won the ball, we were never able to generate the yardage with our maul that we did against England a fortnight ago. The decision to pick Tom Court with a view to guaranteeing scrum dominance didn’t work out, which was surprising as he has been in very good form for Ulster this season. The selection that worked out was Luke Marshall and had a brilliant debut, making two excellent line breaks that could — and should — have led to tries. Keith Earls also got behind the Scottish first line and then ran out of support when on one occasion it looked like a pass to Brian O’Driscoll on the inside would have led to a try under the posts.
When we went in at half-time just 3-0 up, it would have given the Scots a real boost. They had lost the battle for possession dominance in their two previous games against England and Italy but they look a lot more mentally tough this season than they did under Andy Robinson.
Under the interim coaching team led by Australian Scott Johnson, the players are singing his praises. Whether he is the man to lead to a long-term resurgence of Scottish rugby remains to be seen though as he has had a history of having a short shelf life in most of his other appointments.
It’s widely known that the Irish coaching staff are all out of contract this summer and the defeats to England and Scotland have put them under scrutiny. I felt last week that we had a better chance of winning with Ronan O’Gara starting and I still believe that. Ronan’s critics will point to his speculative cross-field kick that backfired and resulted in a penalty at a crucial time as vindicating their argument that he is finished at international level. However I think that if he had started, then he would have taken the points on offer in the first half and as we built a score, the Scots’ belief would have been tested. It is also more likely that we could have got tries on the board to complement the penalties.
The leadership in the team on the pitch against both England and Scotland needs to be examined and I wonder if the Irish management could wind back the clock, would they reverse the decision to change captain? I felt that Brian O’Driscoll was trying to lead as much as he could without over stepping the mark but it seems now that either the captaincy is affecting Jamie Heaslip’s form or its just bad luck that his form has deserted him at the same time.
When Scotland started to kick goals in the second half we certainly panicked and there was no evidence of a change in strategy to counteract their purple patch. As the pressure came on we seemed to have only one plan, which was use Sean O’Brien as a battering ram. He topped the individual stats with a very impressive 21 carries but even though he broke gain lines throughout, we weren’t able to get him in a position close enough to the line to add to Craig Gilroy’s try.
With an experienced pack — despite all the injuries — it was worrying to see the chaos that Jim Hamilton in particular was able to cause by moving up and down the lineout in defence waving his arms.
We put Rory Best under pressure with some of our calls and in a game that tight, we should have opted for easy calls, which would have guaranteed us the ball. The Scots were just trying to cling onto any positives for most of the game and the way they celebrated any minor success like a turnover scrum or contested lineout gave them energy and seemed to have the reverse effect on us. We definitely went into our shell a little bit and it looked like the defeat to England had more of an effect on our confidence than we predicted.
I still believe the current Irish management are an excellent coaching team and that Declan Kidney is the best Irish coach in the country.
However the next two games are going to be massive in deciding their futures. The players need to share the responsibility for the recent performances too and a two-week break gives us time to get our house in order. We can’t afford to lose to France in the Aviva but to get the win, we need to prepare for how we can turn possession into points and also how we can stay composed when everything doesn’t go as planned.
