Kidney stresses the positives
And delighted though he may have been with yesterday’s comfortable victory over Argentina at the Aviva Stadium, he didn’t hide the fact that Ireland must improve in many areas.
The line outs, he conceded, needed more work although he did excuse his charges for losing a couple of throws during the match, explaining that he didn’t want to stop them from trying to be proactive.
“We went for ball at the tail a couple of times. It’s a more attacking move but riskier to play in terms of retaining the ball. We could give out to ourselves for not winning them but commend ourselves for having the courage to go for it.
“What we need to do is to get a mixture of both — having the wisdom to go for it or for the safer ball, retain it and learn that we can play off ball that’s middle or front (of the line out) as well.”
Kidney also accepted that improvement was needed at re-gathering their own kick offs and challenging better at opposition drop outs.
“It’s a skill development that we’re very aware of but one that is not instantaneously fixed. Judging of the ball in the air is an individual skill that we have to go back on. I wouldn’t blame individuals, but sometimes we were in the wrong positions, although that is something we can work on.”
However, Kidney saw plenty of positives in the performance too,
“In the first half we were good on the ball and we challenged them by attacking on both flanks,” he noted. “When we got into their half. we managed to take scores most times. There was a point early on when they mauled us from the ‘22 to the goal line and that was a pivotal point because we managed to stop them from scoring
“The boys scrummaged as eight. One of the things we are trying to do is build a panel for when you have a few lads out injured. We have been working with this front row (Cian Healy, Sean Cronin, Tony Buckley) now since the Churchill Cup and I congratulate them because they stood up to it.”
Kidney said he was particularly pleased that the four game series had allowed him to provide opportunities for a number of players and therefore expand the range of experience in his side going into the Six Nations.
“Rotation has in part to do with injuries and who is available, some of it is because you’re backing a player and some if it is down to building strength in depth in certain positions. There is no one reason for picking a selection at any one time, so that’s why I stay away from the word (rotation) myself.
“One of our goals this month was to win every match but we didn’t. We came up short in two, so we have to take a serious look at that but another (goal) was to build a squad.
“This game was a good sign for that because you can build all you like in training but guys have to go out to prove to themselves that they can win tough games. For instance, we need (all) the Irish front rows to be getting a go and building up experience, we need John (Hayes) playing because that will leave him ticking over nicely, we have guys to come back from injury — Jerry (Flannery), Rory (Best), Marcus (Horan) - and the lads who played this weekend, along with Tom Court and Mike Ross, should be playing (big games) regularly because they need game time.”
Kidney also reflected on a decent show by the Irish scrum and suggested it was just reward for the time being put in.
“There has been a lot of good work done in the background and there was pressure on to scrummage as eight rather than three or the front five. When you look at those scrums near our line, they gave us a huge inner belief as we got as much out of them as we gave away. It takes a while to come together and it’s nice at the end of a series to know it’s a good stepping stone to where we feel we can get to.”
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