It’s not always the size of the dog in the fight — not even in rugby
In fact, they’d have been sorer Monday than Sunday, psychologically as much as physically.
The broadening consensus international rugby has grown into a test of physical survival is not something I am comfortable with. If I took the Lions tour to New Zealand a decade ago as a reference point, I couldn’t say the international game is more physical now than it was back then.
It’s odd because if I am doing studio analysis on television for the Six Nations, I might watch collisions and whisper ‘Oh my God, look at that’. Yet when I go down pitchside, straight away I see it’s the game I know and played. That’s refreshing to see. Television, with all its angles and high definition, accentuates everything. I look at Sean Cronin, who is still prospering in the game. Sean’s a pocket rocket, but he wouldn’t be described as a big guy. But the physicality of the test arena hasn’t ended him.
The real change in the physicality and approach to the modern game is taking place a tier below the international level. There, the opportunity exists for a player of average ability to bulk himself up to over 100kgs and perform an effective role for a club or province.
That’s the difference. In the past, when there was still a greater emphasis on skill, evasiveness and positioning, the need to be a behemoth was not as obvious. Now it’s athletes trying to become rugby players rather than rugby players bulking themselves up a bit. At international level, it’s not such an issue, because a lot of the big rugby players have skill. But when you filter that down through the levels, you have absolute meatheads playing in the centre of the pitch. Of course, there are physical specimens at international level, and Ireland were blown over by one such last Saturday.
Highlights from @englandrugby's 21-10 victory over @irishrugby, with tries from @mikebrown_15 and @anthonywatson_https://t.co/MEOlhzenxR
— World Rugby (@WorldRugby) March 3, 2016
Billy Vunipola would have been well scouted and planned for by the Irish coaching ticket, but this was as impressive and effective as I have seen him. Kudos must go to Eddie Jones for some of that, but from an Irish standpoint, it’s also for the want of a Denis Leamy or a Stephen Ferris to clip him. We didn’t have that. Sean O’Brien is a tank and was a huge miss in that regard at Twickenham, as was Peter O’Mahony.
What will frustrate Ireland though is Vunipola can hardly ever have broken so many first-time tackles at test level, going over Conor Murray and Andrew Trimble to name but two and breaking down the blind side off the maul with virtual impunity. It was one of those games that rolled for him.
The brutal reality for Ireland at the moment is we have a lot of inexperienced forwards, and games are won up front. Jack McGrath was excellent, but there is no Iain Henderson, no O’Mahony or O’Brien. Cian Healy isn’t where he wants to be and Mike Ross did okay in the circumstances.
Our pack is not full of the dogs it once had in abundance.
It’s the third successive game where Ireland has given up a winning position in the final quarter of the game. Ordinarily one would suggest that comes down to fitness or a lack of belief. In this instance, it might be a dearth of quality, real quality.
But the harshest thing I could say at present about this Irish team is that, even on a bad day, they are competitive.
Joe Schmidt never ceases to amaze me in the massive amount he is getting out of this group. He’s the best I’ve seen at drawing the most out of his players. How many of the Leinster squad are playing for Ireland at the minute? Of the same squad which returned one win from six games in the Champions Cup pool stage?
Stuart McCloskey quickly gets in tune with Ireland team-mates https://t.co/JuEJZgEcWj (SN) #SixNations pic.twitter.com/RusWRQAAuE
— Irish Examiner (@irishexaminer) March 2, 2016
When Ireland were raising white flags in the past, things could crumble spectacularly allowing the opposition put a hockey score on us. It’s got better over the years, but Irish rugby has reached a hugely competitive level under Schmidt. Don’t forget, it’s was only in 2013 that Ireland lost to Italy in the Six Nations.
If progress is maintained, one looks at next year’s Six Nations fixture schedule with relish. Home to England, home to France. But the truth is that with the depleted squad we have at present, winning in Paris or Twickenham is probably beyond Ireland. That’s exactly where we are at. It’s good that we are playing Italy next. I wouldn’t like to be playing Scotland on Saturday week because confidence levels have to be dented. On top of the absentees, the calendar couldn’t have been crueller. A six-day turnaround after Wales at home to Paris.
Then Twickenham. With a handful of glorious exceptions, Ireland has rarely made the required impact in those two games. Home advantage in the Six Nations is huge. Would Ireland have closed out the game against England in the Aviva Stadium last weekend? It’s an interesting question. When England got into their rhythm at Twickenham, the options for George Ford, who had another average game, were always there to pick a pass. Johnny Sexton never really had that,and was always hurried on the ball. Johnny played well, but if you’d put him in a white jersey, he’d have looked even better.
Not that the English were that good. They were blunt and inefficient in the first half. Nowhere is the difference between north and southern hemispheres more stark than in the ability to turn attacking pace and dexterity into scores.
I was chatting with Martin Johnson last week about their new second row, Maro Itoje, and the media hype whipped up around him before the game. We’ve had something similar in the wake of Ultan Dillane’s debut in the second half. Johnson was making the point Itoje has done absolutely nothing to merit such hype, just as he had done nothing when he was a freshman international. The notion of Itoje as “the new Martin Johnson” was about as irrelevant as comparisons get. I like the cut of Dillane, who slipped through Munster’s grasp back in the day. But no-one should be getting carried away. He had a dream debut on the ground where dream debuts are dreamt about.
Players are confident of changing fortunes, says Richie Murphy, via @SiLew https://t.co/2ehlFCaNj8 #SixNations pic.twitter.com/Tn7sGL2D8N
— Irish Examiner (@irishexaminer) March 2, 2016
If you are not motivated or you can’t put on your best burst on such a day, you’re not worth talking about. By that stage, England had scored their tries and had two fellas in the sin-bin. It’s important we talk accurately about these things. I accept I’m being picky but he cannot be happy with passing up a try scoring opportunity by giving the ball two seconds earlier than he needed to Josh van der Flier. These are the little details, the two v ones in international rugby that have to be converted. They are the difference between winning and losing and the high standards we need to be talking about at international level.
Stuart McCloskey was interesting, and will be very interesting down the road — like Dillane. With that size, speed and skill, he can do an awful lot with a rugby ball. The pair of them, along with Josh van der Flier are now live selection issues for Italy. But that doesn’t amount to “experimentation”, as some are suggesting. Joe Schmidt won’t be “throwing” anybody in anywhere. He has a baseline of expectation based on what he sees in training.
The rest is really the player himself dealing with an environment he may or may not survive in, seeing how he deals with the heat of battle, how the warrior inside him reacts. The shape he has on the ball, the lines he runs, the way he operates in contact, all of these things are well sign-posted in advance.
Schmidt is getting warmed up. There is a greater enticement as a coach to hang around and fix stuff when things aren’t going according to plan. I would be a big believer in that. A new group is forming in Irish rugby.
In the past, we have always had an X-Factor, an O’Driscoll or an O’Connell. There is no one ready, at this juncture, to don that mantle. But as Martin Johnson says, everyone starts somewhere.
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