Game was there for the taking

THE Irish were out of their bedsin the Arc de Triomphe Hilton bright and early yesterday, and back in Dublin by noon with their sights set on the next RBS Six Nations assignment against Scotland at Croke Park on Saturday week.

Fortunately, there were no significant injuries and there is a possibility Paul O’Connell and Jerry Flannery will be in contention for a return to the side.

“Paul played for 60 minutes on Friday with Munster A and went very well and has had no reaction to that”, said coach Eddie O’Sullivan. “He’ll line out this week in the Magners League (Edinburgh at Murrayfield) and we’ll see how that goes. I don’t want to pre-empt anything. Maybe we got a bit ahead of ourselves a few weeks ago when he had a setback, but if he comes through the Magners game, it will put him in the frame.

“Jerry’s problem is that he has a fracture in his hand that goes back to the game against Wasps. I need an update on him. Coming off a lay-off like that, he’d probably need a game to get him into Six Nations mode, but I don’t have anything definite on that.”

On the Paris disappointment, O’Sullivan said: “The players felt with a couple of minutes to go that the game was there for the taking. We knew it was in the team and it was good to get it out there. The lads put a lot of thought into having a big game. Even at 26-6 down, you have to see a way back. You can go one of two ways — you can lie down and get hit for 40 or 50 points but these fellas wouldn’t let that happen.

“What we can take out of it is we were that many points down probably against the run of play without doing anything too badly wrong. We turnover over a few balls in rucks and got harshly punished for that in the first half. Their last score was something you can’t legislate for, a lucky bounce for them, an unlucky one for us.”

Now, though, can they build on the much improved display in Paris? “That’s the trick. We can’t take anything for granted. The Scots are smarting after their two games and they’ll be coming to Dublin to upset us. You earn what you get in the Six Nations.”

Forward coach Niall O’Donovan spoke about the four line-outs Ireland lost while quick to note the French suffered roughly the same percentage. He accepted the need for more accuracy and was disappointed with the “overall execution at times, but the majority of ball was of good quality.

“The scrum has been coming along nicely and been building for a few years. It doesn’t get much recognition and last year got hit for one or two in every game but we’re doing better now — 100% yesterday and good quality as well.”

One potential difficulty for Ireland is that the English Premiership clubs are demanding the availability of their international players next weekend and if they get their way, then Eoin Reddan and Geordan Murphy won’t have the rest they probably need.