Nerves got better of us, says Kidney

DECLAN KIDNEY and his assistant coaches are in for a busy week on the training field as they try to correct the many defects in Ireland’s play ahead of the pivotal Pool C clash with Australia next Saturday.

A misfiring backline, high error count and slow tempo caused by problems at the breakdown against a physical and enthusiastic American team in New Plymouth yesterday have produced more questions than answers. Kidney admitted his team would have to be a lot more clever against the Wallabies at Eden Park, Auckland.

“Australia is a whole different kettle of fish, what we had to do to beat America was one thing, we just have to be smart when we play Australia next week. That’s what we have to do,” Kidney said.

“You always want to have things free-flowing going into it but it is what it is, we just need to work on it. Sometimes just by calming down a bit and we need every day in training between now and then to get it right, we need to take a look at it, but you know you have good players and you work with them.”

Asked to provide specific areas for improvement, the Ireland coach focused on the succession of handling errors committed by his players.

“Individual responsibility on the ball is one of those areas — that’s about as far as I’d go with that. Because it is each individual’s responsibility to mind the ball and there were one or two balls kicked down to us, where we conceded field position. Yeah, individual responsibility.”

Kidney to put a lot of the errors down to opening night nerves and spoke of his relief at getting the first game out of the way after a lengthy build-up to the American game.

“First game of the tournament is like the first game of the Heineken Cup multiplied by 20,” he said.

“It’s unbelievable how nervous everybody gets in the build-up to it. It’s not from a lack of effort, if we had a poor attitude out there I would say so, but I think our attitude was probably we were just too uptight and we have to learn to relax and let our ability take over.

“The fellas out there are good players and you know that’s not the norm for them. All the areas are things that are within our control and once they are within your control then you have something to work with.”

Ireland, Kidney agreed, had been the latest in a line of top-tier rugby nations to be tested by the so-called minnows on an exciting opening weekend of pressure-filled World Cup rugby.

“That’s the nature of it, having it put up to you isn’t a surprise, it’s a huge shop window for fellas coming through,” the Ireland coach said.

“We talked about the American lads — not alone would they have had the day of emotion but it was like a job interview for them too, first game up, they are fresh and I would say on our side, yeah, there were a bit of nerves going into it. They were tangible in the lead up to the match in training but that’s not listing excuses you have to able to cope with that.