Heaslip hails forward-thinking tweaks by Smal

JAMIE HEASLIP yesterday hailed forwards coach Gert Smal for his ability to spot slight weaknesses in Ireland’s opponents, an ability that helped Paul O’Connell and Donncha O’Callaghan wreak first-half havoc on Wales’ lineout play at Croke Park on Saturday.

While everyone pointed to one crucially destructive Irish scrum as the defining moment, the number eight highlighted the fact that Ireland managed to pilfer five of the Welsh throws, four of them crucially in the one-sided first half.

“The lineout has become one of our real strengths, particularly defensive lineouts. We’ve always been comfortable on our own ball but have managed to make opponents uncomfortableon theirs. It hasn’t come about byaccident, we’ve been doing a lot of work and Gert is particularly good in working out ways to compete (and be a nuisance). Paul (O’Connell) and Donncha (O’Callaghan), Leo (Cullen) too, have put a lot of work in on that with Gert and it paid off,” he said.