Wallace: Time to build momentum

MISSED out, called out, dead cert; David Wallace has run the gamut of World Cup selection scenarios yet even a three-time Lion still gets nervous when crunch time comes and squads are being named.

And so it was earlier this week when Declan Kidney named the Munster back row forward among his 30-player pool that will head to New Zealand next Tuesday for the World Cup.

Wallace will start Ireland’s final warm-up game at the Aviva Stadium against England tomorrow having overcome a hamstring-related injury but eight years ago, the now 35-year-old was on the outside, a Lion omitted from Eddie O’Sullivan’s travelling party to the finals in Australia, only for injuries to see the former head coach send for him.

Four years after that and, despite an ankle injury, O’Sullivan named him and the flanker was in a similar situation this time, named by Kidney as he attempted to overcome a niggling problem that forced him out of last Saturday’s game against France.

“You just want to know, plus the fact you haven’t played and can’t show your strengths either, it’s always nerve wracking,” Wallace said.

“I always remember back to 2003 when I got the bad news and how bitterly disappointing that was. That feeling is not fresh but you still remember those horrible feelings and I’m just really happy that I got selected.”

Wallace’s ‘03 experience means that even at 35, the first weeks of pre-selection training camp are still occupied with doing the maths and assessing the competition for those coveted back-row places.

“I think it’s only natural that guys do that. You get a feel for these things, even personally, I think after the Scotland game in 2003, the last game was the night before the squad was announced and we had a feeling, a vibe, you just pick up on little things, but for some guys it’s going to be a big surprise too.”

Wallace has been bouncing back and though he did become a non-playing member of that squad which exited against France in the quarter-finals, he did make it onto a second Lions tour, to New Zealand in 2005.

His second World Cup experience, (in 2007) was a collective disaster and yet Wallace rebounded along with the bulk of that squad to land the Grand Slam two years later under Kidney and earn a spot on a third Lions tour.

Wallace, though, will get some much-needed game time as the opening game of Ireland’s Pool C campaign looms on September 11 against O’Sullivan’s USA in New Plymouth.

“Of course it’s going to concern me,” he said.

“You want to have some rugby under your belt. Now, the other side of it, you’ve been doing all the training so you have that side of things but there’s nothing that will equate to Test match rugby bar playing Test match rugby.

“Thinking back to the last World Cup, I went into it without any matches under my belt and also I hadn’t done any training because I had 10 weeks of an ankle injury. So I suppose I’m used to it because my first game was in the World Cup last time so I wouldn’t have had the benefit of doing the training sessions or doing the full contact for three or four weeks before it.”

Of a wider concern is Ireland’s poor form this summer, having clocked up three August Test defeats in-a-row. That adds a deal of pressure onto both the performance and result Ireland achieve against England tomorrow.

Wallace certainly believes there will be a small shift in emphasis against the English at the Aviva, now that squad selection has been settled.

“We’d want to be winning games going into a World Cup, building momentum but I suppose there’s been a lot of chopping and changing of teams and also you want to be winning your games but you want to be getting your rugby right and trying things to take into the World Cup.

“There is another side to it as well. It’s not like it’s a cup competition yet and maybe that’s what we have to start to change and start trying to play a bit more tight rugby. You know, doing what it takes to win rather than trying to get through patterns and plays and what we’re doing on the training pitch and trying to do on the rugby pitch.

“So hopefully that’s all that needs, that minor shift from these trial games, I know these are Test matches but, to full-on Test matches and cup rugby. It’s a slightly different style of rugby where you hold onto the ball and go through the phases.”