A lot achieved, a lot still left to be done
As a preamble to whet the appetite for what lies ahead in six months time, the Six Nations tournament organisers could not have asked for a better finale than what emerged over the course of a remarkable Super Saturday.
The mesmerising quality of rugby on show, with teams forced to go for broke in the search of tries, will surely convince the likes of Ireland, England, Wales and France that they have the qualities to match the handling skills, pace and ingenuity of New Zealand, South Africa and Australia.
Yes, as Ireland found out to their cost in Cardiff, defence wins matches but so too does playing with pace and finding space.
With so much emphasis on defence these days, space is now very difficult to find on a rugby field but not impossible.
What last Saturday showed was once both teams bring an attacking mindset to the contest, the possibilities are endless.
The problem there is — a bit like modern day Gaelic football — in the sense that if one side adopts the blanket defence approach propagated by Donegal, the quality of football on offer suffers appreciably. So too with rugby.
It takes two to tango and that’s what happened across the board on Saturday. It also helped appreciably that the weather conditions were perfect for running rugby.
The structure of the tournament forced teams to come out and play and the results were spectacular.
I am strongly of the belief that if Ireland play in the conservative manner that marked the opening four games in the Six Nations, they might still make the World Cup semis for the first time but their chances of actually winning it will be very slim.
What they proved on Saturday, by varying their approach spectacularly over the course of the eight minutes, is that they possess the multi faceted game necessary to have a genuine shot at going all the way.
In addition there are aspects which are superior to the Southern Hemisphere’s big three, such as our kicking game and line out maul, and Ireland would be foolish not to exploit that.
It is all about getting the mix right and being able to adapt and change depending on the strengths and weaknesses of the opposition.
Our kick and chase game, for example, was less likely to be as successful against Wales given the size and skillset of their back line.
The fact that Ireland proved to themselves that they could play a multi phase attacking game and possess the handling and passing skills to execute under pressure last weekend was invaluable. With so many turning points on the day, retaining the championship proved the icing on the cake.
Winning the tournament doesn’t mean that this Irish side has reached its peak. Far from it.
The shortcomings exposed in Cardiff need to be addressed as the defensive qualities of all the top sides will be nowhere near as accommodating as the Scots. While tries were the order of the day right across Europe, in the end it was a remarkable defensive effort that secured the championship for Ireland, conceding a measly 56 points and 3 tries in five games.
Closest to that was Wales with 93 points and 8 tries conceded.
Given the incredible defensive effort the Welsh displayed against Ireland in Cardiff it is even more comforting to know that, going into a World Cup, our defensive structure and organisation is up there with the very best.
Defence coach Les Kiss deserves huge credit, especially as he had to integrate an entirely new midfield combination of Robbie Henshaw and Jared Payne from scratch to replace Ireland’s best ever defensive combination in Gordon D’Arcy and Brian O’Driscoll.
While England will be shattered to have missed out on championship success for the fourth consecutive season, they need to look at the wider picture and identify why they leaked eight more tries than Ireland, five of those against France.
Unlike Ireland, they lost sight of their defensive responsibilities when chasing tries last weekend.
Against Scotland we delivered a better balanced gameplan with another magnificent defensive effort and strong kicking strategy complimented by the missing ingredient in our championship armoury up to that point, an ability to create line breaks and score tries. That approach has to continue into the World Cup.
The most exciting aspect in that respect is that Joe Schmidt will now have uninterrupted access to the squad in advance of that tournament. The scope for finetuning is massive.
I have always been under the impression that, with the fractured nature of his access to the players since assuming the role two years ago, he was always cramming.
He never quite had sufficient time to develop the type of game that defined his time with a Leinster squad he worked with every day of the week.
The fact that he will finally get the chance to finetune all the nuances of his game plan even further really excites me.
Ireland play the Barbarians at the end of this season before those World Cup warm up games against Wales (twice), England and Scotland.
However it is the work that will be done behind closed doors at Carton House that hold the key and hopefully lead to even further improvements.
The performance of the French may have been lost on the day of all days last Saturday.
I’m not quite sure what should draw our focus more, the 5 tries and 35 points they scored in fortress Twickenham or the 7 conceded in facilitating England’s march towards registering an incredible 55 points.
It is impossible to know what they will bring to the table in any game. Our World Cup aspirations rest in their hands and that worries me.
They have a serious pedigree in that tournament with six semi and three final appearances. We simply have to beat them in our Pool D clash to make a first ever semi-final.
That is a bit scary as you can prepare with a great degree of certainty for what you are likely to face against any other opponent. But no one knows just what to expect with the French.
The last word on a roller coaster championship has to go to Paul O’Connell. To achieve the level of consistency he has displayed at 35 says everything about the way be prepares and manages his oft broken body at this advanced stage of his career.
To shine when all around are floundering is a sign of greatness and that is what happened in defeat at the Millennium Stadium. The fact that Ireland were only seven points in arrears at the end was almost completely down to O’Connell’s stubbornness and refusal to throw in the towel.
Four of Ireland’s front five were replaced by the final quarter in Murrayfield, yet the Munster stalwart was still going strong when his younger colleagues watched from the stand. He played every minute of all five games, an incredible achievement.
On a day when all kinds of scoring records were smashed, he even managed to set one himself as Ireland’s oldest ever try scorer. He was my player of the tournament and remains an irreplaceable presence for our World Cup campaign.
