Kidney struggles to put jigsaw together

IRELAND won’t let frustration worry them as they continue their World Cup preparations at the Aviva Stadium on Saturday.

Declan Kidney’s troops are thirsting for victory after warm-up defeats to Scotland and France, but the Irish coach isn’t pressing the panic button after Saturday’s 19-12 loss to the French.

“On an individual basis, some lads played very well. That’s what I can’t lose sight of. The job then is to put the jigsaw together and there is nobody making it easy in terms of selection.

“There were a fair number of lads that went well again. We are trying to get the collective right. Is it easier? It’s easier to the extent that there are more fellas putting their hands up and yet it’s that bit more difficult.”

Although Kidney’s troops have played brilliantly in defence in the past fortnight one suspects he would wish for improvements in attack.

“You can’t defend the way we have defended in the last two matches by showing any lack of attitude. That is excellent and it is one thing you can’t coach. But I know our execution can get better,” said Kidney

“Last week we lost to Scotland when we conceded a score with three minutes to go. On Saturday night we probably had two opportunities in the last five minutes to get a score and we didn’t manage to take them to get a draw.

“At this level, you try and win matches. That’s what we try and do and then you measure yourself result-wise and performance-wise.”

With skipper Brian O’Driscoll back in the frame for selection, Kidney is set to again ring the changes for the clashes with France and England. But the coach insists that he must continue to look to the bigger picture.

“I’d have a few things in mind. I think I said it last week: sometimes you need the courage to stay with the plan, but also you need to be open-minded enough to adapt it according to what you are seeing each week.

“Each week is showing us what we need to work on, and that’s why we are far better off playing matches.”

One of the chief areas of concern after Saturday night was the sluggish Irish start. Andrew Trimble admitted the failure to contain France’s early onslaught at the Stade Chaban-Delmas led to Ireland’s downfall.

The French raised into a 13-0 lead which Ireland battled valiantly to overcome

Trimble said: “They came out of the blocks fairly quick. We knew they were going to do that down here, it was hard to get into the game although we did get a foothold and there was one stage when it seemed likely we might win but they bounced back.

“It was a struggle for possession; it was exactly the same as last week, the same type of feedback after the game that if you can’t hold onto the ball then it’s going to be a long night. When you consider how many turnovers we had, we did well to actually hold on to the game as long as we did.”