Scrum geek Ross ready for Italians

IT has been a long journey but a worthwhile one for Mike Ross as Declan Kidney named him in the Ireland team to face Italy in the RBS 6 Nations opener in Rome on Saturday.

As much as former Harlequins coach Dean Richards took a chance on a man with a flimsy rugby CV six years ago, the Cork-born prop forward’s move to Dublin last season was fraught with risk given the presence of the highly-rated Stan Wright. The Cook Islander continued as first choice tight head prop until injury struck in a pre-season friendly in September, an achilles tendon problem that has sidelined him since.

In the meantime, Ross has flourished and become a key figure in a Leinster team that flew impressively through their Heineken Cup pool to secure a home quarter-final draw against Leicester Tigers in April.

For now, however, he has more pressing matters to attend to and has no intention of basking in the glory of his first Six Nations selection, having already won two caps on tour against Canada and the USA in May 2009.

This week it’s business as usual and Ross is expecting a tough day at the Rome office of the Azzurri, Stadio Flaminio. But he is used to such examinations, particularly at scrum time.

“My scrummaging (ability) was something I’ve always relied on, but there are other things you’ve got to be up to speed with. Over the last couple of years I’ve worked on those weaknesses in my game and hopefully I can now push on,” he said.

“You need to be quicker (getting) around to the defensive line and working harder off the ball, making more carries and such. Certainly this season I feel I’ve progressed a good bit. The game has become a lot quicker, a couple of seasons ago you could slow the game down and get settled defensively, but these five-second rucks have become three-second rucks; it means you have to be back on your feet and get set quickly.

“The tackle count is important too, although you can’t set exact targets because sometimes guys don’t come down your channel; anyway, guys like me don’t want to be around the middle of the park.”

Although the primary role of a prop forward is constantly under scrutiny, Ross insists it is much more about a trio of men; Leinster and Ireland under technical scrum advisor Greg Feek have brought a greater focus to the scrum and all its parts.

“It’s like everything, if you’ve got a specialist scrum coach you’re going to do more scrums. Sure, we’ve worked on scrums before but now there is more of a focus on it, it’s not just about front row work, you’ve got the second rows practicing their pushing, he has got the back rows down lower and working, so that you have that cohesive unit working together as opposed to just the front three; inevitably that should only improve the actual scrums and also bring you on as a pack (group).”

As one who relishes the big challenge, Ross figures it won’t come much harder than on Saturday.

“When you play against Italian props, it is certainly a measure of where you are. Italy will have a very good scrum, they’re very strong and they’ll be very aggressive, whoever they pick.

“They don’t have any shrinking violets and if you don’t front up in that area, it could be a long, long afternoon; watching the Australian Test in the November series, in one scrum the Italians kept it (the ball) in for five, six and more seconds and the Australians wilted before Italy drove over and got the penalty.

“In that sense (scrum), we need to step up to the mark; if they feel there is the slightest weakness they will go for it, and go for it all day.”