Kidney to meet with IRB ref boss for scrum clarification
The Ireland coach saw his front row penalised several times at scrum-time during Saturday’s RBS 6 Nations opener against Italy.
The game was Ireland’s first since all Six Nations head coaches backed an IRB initiative to address its concern at the increase in collapsed scrums and resets and slower scrum completion times that have plagued the game since the introduction of new interpretations of the scrum laws.
Kidney intimated Poite had read a different memo to the one he and his fellow coaches endorsed at a meeting with O’Brien in London 13 days ago and suggested he would be contacting the former New Zealand Test referee for clarification.
“Most of the penalties did seem to come in the scrum but we’re told that there is an avenue for us to approach this and we have been asked to trust it and I’ll ask you to trust me that is what I’ll do,” Kidney said.
“I’ll make my case to the appropriate parties, it was (a) tough game to adjudicate on but I’ll approach that (avenue) first and see what type of reaction I get.”
Adding further complication was the revelation from Italy coach Nick Mallett that Poite had written to the Italian rugby federation to apologise for his handling of last year’s match against Ireland.
Mallett said the referee had admitted he was mistaken in penalising Italian tighthead prop Martin Castrogiovanni five times during the game at Croke Park and Kidney said he had spoken to Poite for an explanation.
“Yeah, I was made aware of that but the referee informed me that was the opposition coach just trying to put the pressure on.
“I’ll take a look at it and if I think we need to make the appropriate enquiries, I’ll do that.”
Asked if Poite had confirmed he had actually written the letter to the FIR, Kidney replied: “When I asked him, he just said that it was the coach trying to put pressure on him but you know … it’s an old game.”
On a brighter note, Kidney said he was optimistic at the progress made towards fitness by No.8 Jamie Heaslip, one of 10 players to have been ruled out of the Rome trip due to injury.
“He didn’t do too badly on Thursday and Friday running around, so we’ll have to see how he reacts,” the coach said of Heaslip. “Stephen Ferris, we’ll see how he goes on Monday, Andrew Trimble’s hand is healing quite well so we’ll see how he comes through as well.
“I saw Tommy (Bowe) commentating, let’s (see) what he said before I welcome him back into the squad.”
If Bowe had choice words about Ireland’s performance they will have only echoed Kidney’s half-time team talk after the Italians had taken a 6-3 interval lead and Ireland had been guilty of numerous errors and sloppy passing.
“It was about possession, we have to keep the ball,” Kidney said of his instructions at the break. “Once we kept the ball, we scored, when we didn’t keep the ball, we didn’t and that was the frustrating side about it. Like Darce (Gordon D’Arcy) was what, a yard or two from the line when he knocked on? That one’s in my memory at the moment.”
That Ireland survived an almighty scare from an Italian side that had not managed a Six Nations victory against them home or away, was down to his side’s experience, Kidney said. But having watched Italy go into an 11-10 lead in the 75th minute and then hold it for only three more minutes, the Ireland coach suggested the gap was closing rapidly ahead of a World Cup fixture in Dunedin, New Zealand, that will likely determine which of the sides qualifies from their group.
“Well, the last four minutes I’m sure that Italy will learn from it the same way that our players will learn from it. They (Italy) will benefit from that, and hopefully they don’t benefit too much by the time we play them on the fourth of October.”
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