Defeat would be disaster for Ireland

AN Irish team travelling to Twickenham in a fortnight’s time coming off losses against France and Wales would be facing down the barrel of a howitzer, almost without hope of success, and left with a couple of relatively meaningless home games against Italy and Scotland, the Cinderella countries of the Six Nations Championship.

And, make no mistake about it, Ireland are really up against it tomorrow. Brian O’Driscoll may be back, but how effective he can be after a five week lay-off with a torn hamstring remains to be seen. Geordan Murphy, Denis Hickie, Alan Quinlan, David Wallace, Eric Miller and Marcus Horan are among those who couldn’t be considered due to injury. Do we have the resources to cope with such a situation? This game may well provide the answer.

Winning infuses its own kind of confidence, a point well made by Welsh coach Steve Hansen as he illustrated the sense of well being in the Welsh camp with a cricket analogy. “Ireland are a different side to Scotland but we will go there with confidence because we already have some runs on the scoreboard,” he said. He might have equally been pointing out that Ireland, after their 18-point defeat in Paris, are running just a little scared, fully aware that their Six Nations campaign will be in tatters if they lose again tomorrow, with the world champions looming on home territory a fortnight later.