Pause... Now engage
Well, that’s one way to look at it as Ireland kick off their long march to this autumn’s Rugby World Cup in New Zealand with an injury crisis and on the back of a disappointing and frustrating series of November internationals.
In that respect, there can be no better place to be starting a Six Nations campaign than in Rome, in the warm, spring sunshine on a mud-free pitch where Ireland have never lost and the Italians have managed just six wins in 11 seasons since joining the competition.
There can certainly be no better time to be testing the depth of one’s player pool after two years of squad-building that has been undertaken in the wake of the 2009 Grand Slam with the intention of picking a group to take on the world’s best in seven months Down Under.
Ten players were unavailable for selection when coach Declan Kidney picked this squad and aside from praying that casualty list is not embellished by the final whistle, with defending champions France visiting Dublin next Sunday the coach will want to see his fringe players make the most of the opportunity presented to them in Rome.
A brand-new back three sees Luke Fitzgerald needing to convince all that he has what it takes as an international-class full-back while Keith Earls will be partnered on the wings by debutant Fergus McFadden, the first player from Cill Dara RFC to be capped. It is a potentially exciting and attack-minded trio that will have to prove they have the temperament to pick and choose their moments with ball in hand and not waste the platform that has been delivered to them.
Another bursting with energy and desperate to make a big impact will be No.8 Sean O’Brien, the Leinster player of the season so far who is finally getting the recognition his growing fan club feel he deserved during the autumn when he was restricted to just one start, against Samoa.
If he manages to reproduce his barnstorming Leinster form that earned him back-to-back man of the match awards last month in the Heineken Cup, and outshine a potent Italian back row featuring captain Sergio Parisse, then Ireland can really motor.
In many other respects this will be an entirely different experience to previous encounters with the Italians.
The presence of Aironi and Treviso in the Magners League, giving home-based Italian players exposure to weekly rugby against the Celtic regions and provinces, means that the days of soaking up pressure from the Azzurri for 60 minutes and then streaking home to victory are on the way out.
“From my earliest memories...if you don’t play properly for 80 minutes they can turn you over,” Ireland captain Brian O’Driscoll said of the Italians yesterday. “In the past you felt as though you might have the upper hand in the last quarter of the game and that if you kept ahead of them you could put them away in that last section of the game.
“That definitely hasn’t been the case in the last couple of years. They’ve managed to stay with teams an awful lot longer and they’ve been hugely impressive. If you see some of the results from my own province, we went to Treviso at home and the more the Italian teams play in the Magners League, the more they play that harder, more physical brand, the better they’ll get.
“And the fact that a lot of their units, their half-backs are playing together, small units like that playing together more often in harder circumstances makes them more battle-hardened. That will help them when it comes to international rugby.”
From an Irish viewpoint, as Kidney pointed out yesterday, this is a much-changed Ireland side from the last visit to Rome in 2008. Just six of those whose started the 38-9 victory at the Flaminio that day will return to the stadium this afternoon and that is also the case from last season’s 29-11 home win at Croke Park.
Among those absent is John Hayes, the first time that has happened since the very first Six Nations game on February 5, 2000, when Ireland went into battle against England at Twickenham with a front row of Peter Clohessy, Keith Wood and Paul Wallace. Hayes took over at tighthead from Wallace following that 50-18 defeat and has hung around ever since, starting the succeeding 54 Six Nations matches in a remarkable spell of longevity for a front row.
Injury has denied Hayes the opportunity of a 55th consecutive start this afternoon and with fitness problems also ruling out Tony Buckley, the tighthead spot goes to the Leinster man from north Cork, Mike Ross.
And it is in the front five that the biggest challenge will lie for Ireland today. The autumn internationals saw Ireland really struggle with set-piece play, particularly at scrum time, and there will be another serious examination in Rome.
The Italian forwards were described last week by today’s replacement prop Tom Court as “an old school, sort of machoistic pack where they really back themselves in the scrum and in the maul and up front”.
Which means it is likely to be a rude introduction to Six Nations rugby for the widely-touted Ross, although Kidney saw some positives for the newcomer.
“JOHN had huge experience but Mike would be coming in to it with the advantage that he won’t be as well known as John is, by the opposition, by referees, so he’ll go in and just play his own game.”
Ross will engage against the wily veteran loosehead Salvatore Perugini while Cian Healy has to deal with Leicester’s grizzly tighthead Martin Castrogiovanni while there is a strong back row, missing veteran Mauro Bergamasco but led by captain and No.8 Sergio Parisse, recovered from a dislocated finger.
Behind the scrum, South African Nick Mallett has placed his faith in homegrown Treviso scrum-half Edoardo Gori, a 20-year-old, who will win his third cap today having starred in the 24-16 win over Fiji in November, while his clubmate Kris Burton starts at fly-half after fellow Australia-born No.10 Craig Gower was ruled out for the entire tournament with a knee injury.
“They’ve picked up a couple of good scalps in recent Six Nations over here, against Wales and Scotland and I suppose it’s inevitable at some stage they’re likely to beat Ireland in a Six Nations game,” O’Driscoll said yesterday of the Azzurri’s upward mobility. “Let’s just hope it’s not tomorrow.”
Not likely but we should expect more than a workmanlike performance from Ireland at this new dawn.
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