Back-row balance the priority

JAMIE HEASLIP returns to the Ireland side to face France on Sunday as Declan Kidney bids to get his back-row balance right for the visit of the Six Nations champions.

Heaslip’s selection, the only change from the side that edged past Italy in Rome Saturday, comes after theLeinster star received the go-ahead from medical staff for his first big game since his province’s Heineken Cup home victory over Clermont Auvergne in December.

Heaslip needed an injection in his injured ankle to start that 24-8 win and subsequently managed just one appearance since, in the Magners League against Ospreys last month. But with the number eight combining with his provincial team-mate Sean O’Brien, who will start as blindside flanker, as they did to great effect against Clermont, Kidney will look to a back row that also features David Wallace at openside to contribute to a repeat performance against Frenchopposition.

Denis Leamy, sin-binned at the weekend, is the player to miss out as Kidney keeps faith with the team that created and squandered a bevy of try-scoring chances in Rome. O’Brien fills the gap at number six vacated by Leamy to accommodate Heaslip’s return, yet the national coach said the Munster man’s demotion to the replacements bench was not a punishment but a result of looking for a better balance against a powerful French back-row unit featuring captain Thierry Dusautoir, Clermont’s Julien Bonnaire and Imanol Harinordoquy.

Kidney said: “Denis Leamy is unlucky to lose out, I thought he had a very good game for us the last day. But there have been a number of factors in that selection and one of them, not the over-riding one, is that Sean O’Brien has played six with Jamie at 8 before and there would be a bit of combination work there.

“When you think of it, the last day we had three put-ins in the scrum, we scored a try off one and a drop goal off the other so the work at the base of the scrum can’t have been too bad if we get a two thirds return off our put-in.”

The feeling with the selection of Leamy, Wallace and O’Brien against the Italians was that there was an abundance of ball-carriers and no forager. Kidney said he required a different approach against the French.

“We were lucky there for a while, we went uninterrupted injury wise with Stephen (Ferris), Jamie and Wally and I thought they operated quite well as a unit,” Kidney said.

“Two of them were out last week so you pick the players who were playing well, there is always one of the picked players going well or doing well in their position and I felt with the physicality of the Italians last week, we needed to stop them on the front line and I thought the three lads were well able to do that.

“There wasn’t a whole lot of space and we don’t think there is going to be a whole lot of space on Sunday either. The French will close you down so you need to work around that, but that being said there is always the opportunity when you leave someone out for someone else — there are some great back-rows there. But you just can’t pick everybody.”

True to that theme, Kidney resisted taking a knife to the side that scraped a 13-11 win in Rome last weekend and has backed his players not to repeat the glut of handling errors that left his side requiring a late drop goal from replacement fly-half Ronan O’Gara to secure an 11th straight win over the Italians.

“I wasn’t satisfied with the way we way played and I think we can play better as a team and as a unit,” Kidney said.

“Obviously we have made one change, Jamie is a good player who brings his own skill set and that will give us a bit of variation in that line of our team. Others went away about their business and sometimes you just need to back them and that’s what I’m doing.”

Kidney will need that faith repaid in bucketloads Sunday. “I wouldn’t like to overstate them or understate them, France are a hugely powerful side,” the Irish coach said.

“They have a strong set-piece, their scrum is strong, their lineout is strong with lots of options.

“They are good at phase play because they are all ball-handlers, their 10 and their 12, 13 are both good footballers and they are also very big men and they have picked a back three to counter-attack. They are a well-rounded side, a very good side. And we have to have the courage to go out and play. With the way the laws of the game are now, if you stand off them and try and do damage limitation you are going to get opened up.

We need the courage to go and play and we must continue to do that. These fellas are hugely self-critical and sometimes they just need to relax and trust themselves and just go out and play. That’s what I’m trusting they will do on Sunday.”