Triple Crown warriors prepare for next battle

YOU might imagine that Ireland’s Triple Crown heroes would prefer to put up their feet and call it a day for this season.

Far from it. David Wallace, a truly inspirational figure in the Munster and Ireland teams throughout the year, was clearly taken aback at the suggestion yesterday.

“It’s not tiring. I love it. The bigger the game, the better. That’s why we do it. The nerves mightn’t be great beforehand but when you’re out there it’s really enjoyable, and when you’re winning it’s even better. I live for it at the moment. It’s been a brilliant eight weeks and now it’s great to be able to go back to Munster and focus on other things.”

And from all available evidence, that also goes for all the Munster and Leinster players, who are now happy to put the Triple Crown to one side and turn their attentions to rejoining their provincial comrades for this weekend’s Celtic League programme and more importantly, Saturday week’s Heineken Cup quarter-finals against Perpignan and Toulouse.

When that’s done and dusted they will turn their attentions back to the summer tour of New Zealand (two Tests) and Australia (one Test). Madness? Probably, but that’s the way of professional rugby. The bills have to be paid and if we don’t go down under they won’t come here next November. It’s as simple as that and people like David Wallace know it, acknowledge the reality and simply get on with it.

The same applies to Eddie O’Sullivan. The coach readily acknowledges that he is “knackered after eight weeks of 14-hour days” but there are many tasks to be completed before another marathon season draws to a close towards the end of June. Some are welcome, like a visit to check out Croke Park in advance of next season’s Six Nations Championship. He looks forward to Munster and Leinster advancing in Europe but one detected a certain concern about those early summer Tests in New Zealand and Australia.

Nevertheless, he intends to use the games as an opportunity to fine-tune a few areas. For example, O’Sullivan will look at the balance of the centre partnership of Brian O’Driscoll and Gordon D’Arcy and the back-row trio of Simon Easterby, David Wallace and Denis Leamy. Essentially, you would want all five players in your side, but on the other hand O’Driscoll and D’Arcy as a pair are some way short of the standards they set for themselves two years ago, though one or other was involved in most of Ireland’s best moves throughout the campaign.

Hopefully some day it will all click into place, if they can offload a split-second earlier in the tackle. In the back row Wallace and Leamy are a must, it’s just a case of deciding where they can be best deployed.

The front row is another area where the coach is facing problems. While he can count himself blessed with the way the magnificent Jerry Flannery has plugged what would otherwise have been a gaping hole left by the injury to Frankie Sheahan, he must look on with envy at how every other country can bring on fresh legs in the front row, whereas John Hayes and Marcus Horan must see every match out to the bitter end.

In Ireland’s five matches, England have replaced Andrew Sheridan with Perry Freshwater (66 minutes), Scotland Craig Smith for Bruce Douglas (55), Wales Gethin Jenkins for Adam Jones (43), France Sylvain Marconnet for Olivier Milloud (49) and Italy Martin Castrogiovanni for Carlos Nieto (50).

In contrast, Hayes played every minute of Ireland’s five games. Once again, we wonder what we would do without him. Horan cried off against France through illness and was replaced by Reggie Corrigan, who gave way to Simon Best early in the second half. There was an enforced change in the Welsh game when Horan was injured and replaced after 68 minutes by Best. Had Horan been able to play the full 80 minutes in both games, you can bet your bottom dollar he would have had to do so. Which is a little harsh on Best, who performed decently against the French, but given his subsequent inactivity that’s a view clearly not shared by Eddie O’Sullivan and Niall O’Donovan.

Accordingly, finding back-up of the desired standard in the front row is absolutely essential, not least because Hayes is now 32 and will be close to his 34th birthday come next year’s World Cup in France.

Half-back is another area where Ireland is short of reserve material. With David Humphreys contemplating retirement at the end of the season, the pivotal number ten spot is a serious problem, though it’s encouraging to see Jeremy Staunton performing impressively for both Wasps and Ireland A. Eoin Reddan is the current stand-in at number nine and he’s another to have benefited from a change of scenery.

Staunton and Reddan surely have their eyes on places in the World Cup squad. Andrew Trimble hasn’t made the left wing spot his own but he’s heading in the right direction.

Watch out, though, for Ian Dowling whose rise to very close to the top has been meteoric, a point well made by his latest try for the A’s at Kingsholm.

Malcolm O’Kelly is under increasing pressure these days and not just because Donncha O’Callaghan and Mick O’Driscoll are pushing him hard as Paul O’Connell’s second-row partner. All too often this gifted player hasn’t done himself justice, an opinion clearly held by O’Sullivan, who called him ashore early in the second half of three of the five Six Nations games.

It’s an amazing statistic that O’Callaghan has started in only eight of his 24 international appearances so far.

In the meantime, O’Driscoll produces another blinder in the A team’s impressive defeat of England on Friday night and demonstrates yet again how well off Ireland are in this area.

While everything in the Irish garden isn’t exactly rosy, things are a whole lot better than after the November internationals and a reasonable level of optimism for the future is justified.