Kidney positive as Irish look up for the battle

THE stunning snow-capped peak of Mount Taranaki looms over New Plymouth almost as forebodingly as history will loom over Ireland here tomorrow night.

The locals have a saying that “if you can’t see the mountain, that means it’s raining, and if you can see the mountain, it means it’s about to rain”. In other words, in this little corner of Taranaki, rain is inevitable.

So apparently – if New Zealand television is to be believed – is another Ireland defeat.

A shade over a century of failure has led them to that belief but Declan Kidney has never been one for precedent. After bringing six decades of Grand Slam hurt to an end last year, breaking an even longer barren run against the sport’s titans is top of his agenda.

“I just know it’s going to be a hell of a party the night we beat them,” said Kidney this week. “And given that party at home will start at about 10am! But that’s why you get into it. For some reason these are the ones that you, I don’t know, I enjoy these ones. Ireland are going to beat New Zealand some time and this is our chance on Saturday.”

It could be argued that the Yarrow Stadium showdown also marks Ireland’s best chance of doing so for some time.

A cruel run of injuries has left 13 players back home. But Kidney will still send out an Ireland starting XV that look capable of holding their own against Graham Henry’s men. How quickly some of the less experienced crew settle in will be crucial. Against as canny a lineout operator as Brad Thorn, hooker Sean Cronin’s accuracy will need to be spot on. And Mick O’Driscoll will have to make the calls with as much efficiency as he does in a red jersey.

With David Wallace’s decade of Test experience alongside him and the phenomenal Jamie Heaslip backing him up, John Muldoon will not lack support in the tight exchanges. As Kidney acknowledged, Ireland’s breakdown has to be impeccably managed, with heavy reliance on the back row three to tame Richie McCaw in that department.

“The core values with the All Blacks have been there for years so you have to not alone win your set-piece but you have to try and win the breakdown,” added the head coach.

“If you don’t win the breakdown you’re not going to do anything. With the way they’ve been rucking lately they’ll send one guy to the breakdown but if they get a sniff of you going in any way loose they’ll counter-ruck you and that’s why we have to be good and strong in that area.”

If Ireland do stay true to those values, anything is possible. Against an All Black backline with an unfamiliar look – Israel Dagg and Benson Stanley are winning first caps – Ireland’s back-five look primed to pounce.

The physicality of Rob Kearney, Tommy Bowe and Andrew Trimble, allied with all the dynamic know-how of Ireland’s midfield pairing, shapes to be a potent weapon in the fight against history. If that inevitable rain does arrive, patience and then potency at the right time will be pivotal in attack.

In the development of Clive Woodward’s World Cup-winning England side, victories in the southern hemisphere the season before the tournament are always pointed to as being watershed moments.

Kidney continued: “So will it give you a boost (a win over New Zealand)? It will of course but when it comes to the World Cup whether you’ve won or lost, it’s not going to really matter because you’re still going to have to try and go out and beat them on the day.”

Twenty two Tests between these countries have yielded a solitary draw. Ireland’s side of the ledger remains blank white in contrast to the swathe of black. Kidney used a GAA analogy to lay out his mission statement.

“At the moment there’s not a whole lot of counties would go in to Kilkenny and beat Kilkenny,” he said. “It’s their number one game and that’s what it is. So that’s what it is with New Zealand. It’s part of their culture, it’s part of their heritage and that makes it all the more challenging.”