McNaughton defends Ireland’s bruising schedule
Next up? Argentina.
It is a punishing schedule for an Irish squad that has already lost the services of Rory Best, Rob Kearney and Luke Fitzgerald after injuries suffered against the All Blacks and six more players were restricted to light duties yesterday.
Despite such attrition, team manager Paul McNaughton isn’t reading anything into a casualty rate that is almost unmatched in Team Ireland’s recent experiences.
“I think it is just coincidental. Rory got a fractured cheekbone which could happen any time, Luke’s injury was after a high jump. He came back down and landed on his knee.
“It was a fairly physical game — there were as many tackles by the Irish team in the first half as there would be in a normal game. That certainly doesn’t help the injury toll, as it were. Otherwise, I think it’s just coincidental and unfortunate.”
McNaughton accepted the schedule had been tough and the collateral physical damage, allied to the largely disappointing crowds, will surely dissuade the IRFU from committing to a quartet of November fixtures again.
“It’s the first time we have had four games. When the third game is the All Blacks that is tough as there are a lot of tackles being made and maybe a bit of fatigue. The four games this year were put together primarily to have the South African game as an extra match to open the stadium against the world champions.
“I don’t think the long-term plan is to have four games in November. If there is going to be four games in November, then one of them may be an ‘A’ match against a tier-two country or something like that. We haven’t really had time to sit down yet and analyse whether we will do it again or not.”
It hasn’t just been the quantity of games but the identity of the names that Ireland have had to face. South Africa, Samoa and New Zealand are heavy-duty opponents. Argentina will only continue that trend on Sunday.
However, McNaughton depicted the workload as a useful trial run for next year’s World Cup exertions and even suggested the extended absence of front-line players had allowed the provinces to blood more youngsters with some success. As for Ireland, it remains to be seen how much more they have to give for the visit of Santiago Phelan’s ever-combative Pumas — Andrew Trimble has already admitted there is an air of cabin fever enveloping the team after so long in camp.
“I don’t think that’s an issue,” said defence coach Les Kiss when asked if there was much left in the tank. “I can understand why the question is asked because the New Zealand game was so physical and there was a big emotional effort, too. On the other side of that, because of the type of game it was, and because of a first half where we went ahead and just couldn’t close the deal out, there was a lot of emotion there. There is also an energising factor to it.
“We got the ball in our hands and put it to places where we wanted to play the game. We wanted to create opportunities against the All Blacks and that came to the fore. The guys are genuinely energised by that.”
Kiss admitted that it would be important to handle the squad properly this week and it was encouraging to hear that key men like Brian O’Driscoll, Stephen Ferris and Tommy Bowe should shake off their respective knocks in time to take the anthems.
One man who won’t be standing to attention is John Hayes who has been released back to Munster and the prop’s absence leaves Declan Kidney with a distinctly green-looking succession of candidates for the front row.
How they and the rest of their compatriots fare against a Puma side heavily sprinkled with experience and nous remains to be seen and, though their meetings have not always been pretty, they have rarely been dull.
“They’ve always been very dogged games,” said McNaughton. “We had a dogged game two years ago in Croke Park which wasn’t pretty but it was necessary for Ireland to win to get our standings for the World Cup into the first eight.
“I don’t think there’s any personal animosity. The guys are just focused on the game now and on the opposition, but in a football sense rather than a personal sense.”
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