No soft centres as Ireland bid to lead Scots merry dance

WE’LL just have to dance with the ladies at the ball!

That was Eddie O’Sullivan’s typically colourful and philosophical reaction to the confirmation yesterday that neither Brian O’Driscoll nor Gordon D’Arcy will be in the Ireland side to take on Scotland in the Six Nations Championship at Murrayfield this afternoon.

“The ladies at the ball” now include Kevin Maggs and Girvan Dempsey in a reshuffled three-quarter line, but the great fear for the Ireland coach is that they won’t enjoy the same harmony as his two absent midfield aces.

The cynics have derided O’Sullivan for leaving it so late before confirming what the dogs on the street seemed to know since last Sunday night - that neither O’Driscoll nor D’Arcy could recover in time from their hamstring strains for the Scottish game and faced a race against time to be fit to face England two weeks later.

Matt Williams, one-time Leinster coach, and Willie Anderson, formerly of Ulster and Ireland, now form the Scottish backroom team, and they believe O’Sullivan was indulging in mind games. They claim they prepared all week to play an Ireland team without its regular regular centres.

Although neither is a native of Scotland, nobody would like to put one over on the Irish more than Williams and Anderson, both of whom believe they were treated shabbily during their term as IRFU employees.

O’Sullivan defended his stance on his injured centres. “If you were in my shoes, you’d give them every opportunity, and that’s what I did. The medics felt there was a chance. I’d have been a foolish man to write them off last Monday and see them run around the pitch today. They weren’t too far away and without tempting fate, they should be fine for the England game.

“Losing world-class centres of the calibre of D’Arcy and O’Driscoll is a fairly serious setback. However, we knew this was a possibility and have been working around it.”

O’Driscoll was essentially the difference between the sides in Rome on Sunday, and given Scotland’s surprisingly much-improved performance in Paris 24 hours earlier, one thing is now clearer than ever - the Irish pack will have to front up if the surge towards the coveted Grand Slam is to stay on track.

They were very, very poor against the Italians, especially in the first half, allowing themselves to be bullied around the Stadio Flaminio.

True, Scotland lack the physicality of the Italians, especially in the front-row where Tom Smith will scrummage well and make the odd dart around the pitch but otherwise stick to his traditional duties. Likewise Gordon Bulloch, so the dodgy Irish scrum shouldn’t be too inconvenienced. Paul O’Connell, now captain for a second time, and Malcolm O’Kelly collecting his 70th cap, comprise arguably the best second-row unit in the game, but this time they’re up against true line-out experts in Stuart Grimes and Scott Murray.

The Irish back-row were desperately quiet against the Azzurri and a repeat performance would leave them at the mercy of the John Petrie and Ally Hogg, the two unluckiest Scots last week, and the abrasive John White.

The Scots believe they have unearthed a scrum-half gem in Chris Cusiter and Dan Parks did well at out-half in Paris. Full-back Chris Paterson is a fine full-back and all-round footballer and has been taking a tough line on the subject of Scotland’s so-called revival in Paris.

“Losing last week was not bad luck, that’s clutching at straws,” he declared. “We have to have more of an attacking threat. If we had attacked better, we might have scored two or three tries. We did defend well and that’s now the benchmark that we must sustain.”

Cusiter, who can expect a mighty scrum-half tussle with Peter Stringer, joined in: “I don’t think we will get the Irish on as good a day as we got the French. They have a settled side, which France did not have. They have played so many years together that they have come here expecting to play well. We need to take from what we did last week and put a few more points on the board.”

As you would expect, Matt Williams has also been talking up the Irish:

“I personally think Horgan is one of the best centres in the world, I picked him for every game there when I was with Leinster and Kevin Maggs has never let Ireland down. There is a strength in Irish rugby at the moment. This is probably the most talented Irish back line ever. They have a lot of classy backs so we can’t concerns ourselves with who’s there and not there. We’ve got to worry about us.”

If the Scotland team that nearly shocked France in Paris turns up then Ireland are in trouble, especially without a midfield set-up that can turn a match in a twinkling, as happened in Rome. However, as Williams pointed out, the Scots are renowned for their inconsistency and if the ragbag that represented them last season reappears, then it will be Ireland’s day.