Foley: Things can only get better after Roman grueller

FEW will be surprised that the new tackle law was a major topic of conversation over the weekend.

As one of the most experienced members of the Irish team, Anthony Foley had a big role to play in organising the side to cope with its demands but he looked just as perplexed as anybody by the end of yesterday's victory over Italy.

Indeed, he went so far as to suggest that nothing has really changed, while most would accept that Paddy O'Brien didn't penalise anybody unduly yesterday. It's just that the game's administrators come out with these edicts from time to time and after an early flurry of controversy and argument, things gradually settle down and things carry on as ever.

"Obviously, the breakdown is one of the areas where we have to improve for the Scottish game," said Foley. "In the next couple of days, we'll try to nail down where that rule is. Once we've established that, we can start getting quick ball and play off that. We didn't do that today, so we couldn't really expose them out wide as much as we wanted.

"I think we're all a little bit lost about the interpretation. Over the three weekend games, was that rule implemented? I don't think so. It was the same as always but that doesn't leave the players any clearer about what's going on. It's fine bringing in rules and telling us we have to do it this way and that way. The players react to that and train for that and then it's not refereed and it's a bit hard for us."

Foley is now 31 with 58 caps under his belt and like good wine, he gets better with age. He was as powerful as ever in the rucks and mauls. Ever the realist, he admitted that little went right for the Italians on this occasion. There was one shock moment for the Irish when they were pushed off their own scrum at a stage of the second half when the game was far from over and as many of his teammates agreed, they were glad that a man of Foley's calibre was there to salvage what was a very dangerous situation.

"They are big lads and have a very useful maul once you let it get going," said Foley. "Beforehand, we knew this was going to be our most physical game of the campaign and that it was very important that we fronted up. I think early on they caught us in a maul and we tried to rectify the game and I thought we did okay there.

"You always want to play your best possible game when you're in a Test arena but at times you have to scrap it out to get the result and I thought we did that. We were most disappointed at conceding a try late in the game. It shouldn't have happened. On the other hand, this was probably the kind go game that Ireland would have lost a few years ago. You're talking to a guy here who was beaten twice by Italy. That side is far better some of those Italian teams that beat us in '95 and '97."