Feek’s revenge mission

THERE will be a reunion of sorts when Ireland and Italy’s front rows lock horns on Sunday and Irish scrum coach Greg Feek expects his band of brothers to present a much improved challenge to the one the Azzurri faced in Rome eight months ago.

There was something of a baptism of fire for an all-new combination of Cian Healy, Rory Best and Six Nations debutant Mike Ross when the Irish front row engaged for the first time with Italy’s renowned trio of Salvatore Perugini, Leonardo Ghiraldini and Martin Castrogiovanni.

Ireland conceded five penalties at scrum time that sunny afternoon at the Stadio Flaminio, setting the tone for a nail-biting match which saw Ronan O’Gara rescue Irish blushes with a late drop goal for a 13-11 victory.

Feek though, is promising a very different animal to show its teeth under the Otago Stadium roof on Sunday when the rivalry is renewed in a must-win World Cup Pool C game.

“Similar players and the opposition will be pretty similar but different referee,” Feek said yesterday, referring to Romain Poite’s handling of the scrum last February and Jonathan Kaplan’s appointment this weekend.

“For us, it is a very formidablechallenge, they will be different too. We have looked at them a little bit, I’ve watched a lot of games of rugby in the last while, it will be tough.”

Former All Black front-rower Feek believes the Italian pack possess the best scrum in a pool that, of course, also includes Tri Nations champions Australia.

“You can see their game revolves a lot around that, we’ve known that in the Six Nations. Their forward pack in general, whether it’s mauling, scrummaging, breakdown, the boys know that they will have to be on song in terms of the physical side of things.”

When it is put to Feek that preparing to face Italy is the biggest and most exciting challenge of his coaching career thus far, he is engagingly honest in his response.

“Now that you have said it, now you’ve made me nervous. It is, and it is something we are used to in the Heineken Cup, a lot of the players have done it. I was lucky enough to experience it [with Leinster in May] and the biggest thing in this, if you are talking coaching, is being relaxed but being focused and showing the trust and confidence in what we are doing.

“We know it is not going to be easy. It is going to be a ding-dong affair. It could come down to the last 10 minutes, who knows, but as long as we stick to what we know, we should be all right.”

Healy, Best and Ross, Feek asserted, are so much better now as a unit than they were eight months ago.

“Combinations are important, particularly when you are so close to each other, getting to know each other. So, hopefully that will benefit us going forward and we have grown a lot since then, so that’s a positive.

“They are almost like brothers now, they know the little things, in some games you can get carried away and go on your own and try and do the little things by yourself. It’s about all three, all eight, that is what happens when you do start to play games together.”

Feek also recognises that sending out the same front row combination week in, week out, is a rare luxury and declared himself pleased with the Irish scrum following the introduction of hooker Sean Cronin and tighthead Tony Buckley to the starting line-up alongside Healy last Sunday in the 62-12 win over Russia.

“I was reasonably happy, there were a few scrum penalties which was frustrating but I think we are aware of why, the boys know that, if it is us, and sometimes it might be a 50-50 call and you have got to accept that. You celebrate when it comes your way because sometimes it is a relief but when it doesn’t go your way, you have got to work harder to make sure it does.”

Cronin, for one, is certainly expecting a week of hard labour as Ireland practice at Dunedin’s appropriately nicknamed “House of Pain”, the old Otago stadium at Carisbrook.

“It is going to be a massive week in training, but everybody is pumped up and looking forward to it,” Cronin said. “Italy have performed very well, they dominated the Russians and in the Six Nations they have always been up there among the top scrummagers so it is going to be tough, we just have to get our plan right, get our tactics right and we’ll work at it during the week and see how we go.”