Eddie's stock on the rise
Contrast his feelings with that of Andy Robinson and, to a lesser extent, Bernard Laporte and Jake White.
The respective coaches of England, France and South Africa are under pressure with performances that have left their rugby-mad citizens seething. Such is the lot of the modern day coach. It is getting more like soccer every day. Even Robinson has this week received the dreaded vote of confidence from the board. Cold comfort that.
Only twelve months ago, on the back of a disappointing autumn series, sections of the Irish media sought the dismissal of Ireland’s head coach. Such suggestions were clearly wide of the mark at the time and O’Sullivan has successfully added to Ireland’s structure and game plan in the interim. The problem at the moment is that every team suffers by comparison with the All Blacks. For any coach under pressure, having New Zealand as your next opponent is a recipe for disaster.
Having studied the All Blacks up close as part of the Lions management team in 2005, O’Sullivan recognised that Graham Henry’s squad had brought the game to another level and has evolved even further since then.
At the time, Ireland possessed a strong kicking game but their inability to keep the ball alive in the contact area severely curtailed the potency of a quality back line. Since then, with more emphasis on building upper body strength, Ireland’s continuity game has improved immeasurably as has their effectiveness at the breakdown. As a result the individual talent behind the scrum is being maximised.
It is no coincidence either that both Robinson and Laporte have been criticised for the shortcomings their sides displayed in recent games against New Zealand. At present, the All Blacks are playing rugby of a far superior quality to any other nation. If anything, Ireland’s two displays in Hamilton and Auckland last summer are seen in a more positive context now given the demolition job New Zealand did on England and France over the last two weekends.
When Ireland met Australia in the last game of that summer series in Perth last June, the side was drained after their experiences in New Zealand and from their exertions over a long season. The 37-15 defeat was the inevitable consequence.
Next Sunday the roles are somewhat reversed with the Irish squad currently in rude health and the Wallabies at the tail end of their season. That said you can take it with certainty that Australia will provide a far sterner test than that offered by the Springboks last Saturday. On paper, Australia’s 29-29 draw against Wales and seven point victory over Italy will seem a poor return for them, but that does a disservice to the efforts of their hosts. Wales could yet prove the biggest obstacle to Ireland’s ambition of securing championship and grand Slam honours later in the season.
On their day the current Australian back line is even more dangerous than that of New Zealand. In Stirling Mortlock, Chris Latham, Loti Tiquiri and Steven Larkham they possess an abundance of world class performers and proven try scorers. In the opening twenty minutes against Wales, they were awesome. That is why next Sunday’s clash between Ireland’s magnificent back-line and that of Australia offers a mouth-watering prospect. One hopes that the weather conditions, which have spoiled so many autumn internationals recently, will be sufficiently kind to see the two units at their collective best.
The key issue here revolves around the selection policy of Australian coach John Connolly. To date he has experimented with Matt Giteau, a quality out half/inside centre, in an unfamiliar scrum-half role and shifted Larkham from his favoured out-half position to inside centre. The results have been mixed and the experiment of playing former rugby league star Matt Rogers in the pivotal No. 10 role has not been a success. He does not possess the kicking game to boss a match. It will be interesting to see whether Connolly reverts to a more traditional back line format for this game.
In the forwards, the loss of Daniel Vickerman from the Australian second row is a massive blow. Having missed most of the previous season, his return from injury to partner Nathan Sharpe in the second row contributed in a major way to Australia’s rise in fortunes over the last six months. Against Ireland last June they provided a major challenge to Paul O’Connell and Donncha O’Callaghan in the line-out. The likely replacement Mark Chisholm has played much of his rugby in the back row of late and doesn’t possess Vickerman’s aerial prowess.
Australia’s scrum has also been suspect on this tour and the switch of Al Baxter from tight head to loose head prop has failed to compensate for the absence of Greg Holmes.
Ireland’s effectiveness at the breakdown will hardly have gone unnoticed by John Connolly and you can be sure that both George Smith and Phil Waugh will receive game time on Sunday. Their instructions will be clear — stifle Ireland on the ground. Both are not far behind Richie McCaw in that respect.
Ireland announce their side today but don’t expect too many surprises. O’Sullivan will not rotate for the sake of it. As a result, the fringe players who may be asked to play a central role in next year’s World Cup due to injury are being denied exposure against the top sides. One hopes that this won’t come back to haunt us.
Changes are more likely to come against the Pacific Islands next week. The performance of the ‘A’ team against their Australian counterparts in Thomond Park tonight will dictate the make up of that side.
Traditionally Ireland has been slow out of the blocks in the autumn internationals but certainly hit the ground running last weekend. To record back-to-back victories over Tri-Nations outfits on successive weekends would be a massive achievement. That is just the latest challenge facing Ireland’s elite players.
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