One game at a time for resurgent Stringer

AFTER 94 appearances for Ireland, it is a wonder there is anything left for Peter Stringer to get excited about but if there’s one thing the Munster scrum-half has learned, it is to make the most of even the 95th opportunity.

Stringer will start for Ireland tomorrow at the Aviva Stadium as Declan Kidney’s side bid to end the Guinness Series of autumn internationals on a winning note against old foes Argentina and he will do so with a new partner at fly-half after being paired with Leinster’s Jonathan Sexton for the first time as starters.

“It’s pretty special,” Stringer said of his selection. “When you haven’t had an opportunity over the last couple of years, to get two starts in four games means I’m buzzing at the moment.”

Stringer has made the most of the absence through injury since October of Tomás O’Leary from both the Munster and Ireland camps, starting both the province’s opening Heineken Cup fixtures and the Test against Samoa.

Those three starts saw Stringer in familiar company with Ronan O’Gara outside him, as has been the case for virtually his entire career. Tomorrow against the Pumas comes the chance to forge a new alliance, with up and coming Ireland fly-half Sexton, whom he partnered late on off the bench against New Zealand last weekend.

“Obviously I haven’t had much of an opportunity, training is the main area where I’ve worked with him,” the Corkman conceded. “It’s a new partnership but I found the ease of that transition quite good. Communication-wise, it was great; there were no dramas there. I had a couple of minutes of working with him and things moved quite fluidly. It’s good.”

Stringer has already been impressed with what he has seen of Sexton in terms of playing style.

“I’ve only had a few sessions with Jonathan but he’s vocal, he takes the ball flat and his communication for when I’m picking a ball out of the ruck is pretty good. It’s worked really well. We’ll see now how that goes come Sunday, but it’s a partnership that’s going in the right direction.”

There is as much for a scrum-half to worry about in front of him as there is outside him, and Stringer has been charged with getting quick, clean ball to Sexton, giving Ireland’s backs the platform on which to play the type of expansive game that Kidney has been developing. Against Argentina, that is a considerable assignment.

“That’s what we look for in every game,” Stringer said. “Our front five tries to out-work and out-muscle their front five. Any scrum-half will tell you if they have to go digging for ball and if the ball is slow, it’s a nightmare.

“If the front five can get on the front foot at the set-piece and also at the breakdown, then it makes our job a lot easier. Our forwards realise it’s going to be a tough day at the office. We have to keep battering them with a simple game plan - try and get over the gain line, release ball to the back line and give them quality ball they can work off and show their quality.”

One of the beneficiaries of that will be full-back Geordan Murphy, the Leicester captain having been selected for the first time this autumn in place of the injured Rob Kearney. He is equally prepared for an afternoon of grind against the less expansive Pumas.

“It’s going to be such a tough game,” Murphy said. “Everyone I’ve spoken to so far says it’s like a derby match. They’re such an incredibly proud country and they’ll come here and put up an incredibly good fight.

“It’s not many sides who score tries against Argentina because they tackle so hard and even if you break their first line, their desperation defence is huge as well.

“I don’t think France scored against them at the weekend and I think they kept the Italians out, as well as the French Barbarians. They’re such a difficult side to break down and chances are it’s going to be very, very close affair.

“Even taking into account that Ireland are aspiring to play running rugby, sometimes you just have to play winning rugby against a side as passionate as these guys are.”