Ireland vow to opt for expansive approach

Declan Kidney will name a team today ready to cast off Ireland’s bitter memories of a World Cup quarter-final exit by playing expansive rugby in their Six Nations opener against Wales on Sunday.

At least that is the plan, according to assistant coach Mark Tainton, who yesterday promised that Ireland would not be withdrawing into their shells at the Aviva Stadium in striving to make amends for their loss to Warren Gatland’s side in New Zealand last October.

“I don’t think we’ll be restrictive,” said Tainton. “We’ve got a good idea about how we need to go out and play this game against Wales, what their strengths and weaknesses are, and if they have many weaknesses, we’ll have to try and find them.

“But we’re not going to go into our shell and think we need to hammer this game out and just play point to point rugby. We’re trying to be more expansive than that and open up opportunities for players in every position. Hopefully that will be good enough to beat Wales.”

In Wellington all the good work in beating Australia and topping a World Cup pool for the first time was undone in the quarter-finals as Gatland scored a coaching triumph over his former team, something the Wales coach was happy to remind Kidney of last week at the tournament launch.

“There were areas of our game that didn’t perform to the top level and it wasn’t just one area,” Tainton conceded. “We believe we have fixed it and that will hopefully nullify what Wales are going to do.”

While Ireland have reported a clean bill of health, Tainton said the injury problems that have forced Wales to delay naming their team until Friday would not disrupt Irish preparations for Sunday’s game. Wales assistant coach Rob Howley yesterday said the Welsh remained hopeful of having Rhys Priestland (knee), Jamie Roberts (knee) and Dan Lydiate (ankle) fit but they would be given the maximum available time to prove their fitness.

“We’re not going to know until Friday what XV Wales are going to put out,” Tainton said. “We can only prepare for what we need to do to win this game. We know they have injuries but we’re pretty confident the team they’re going to be putting out is very strong as well.”

Ireland manager Michael Kearney meanwhile, said there was hope Luke Fitzgerald may be available for the France game in Paris on February 11 following a month out with a neck injury. “He’s been out longer than anticipated but he is improving,’’ he said. “We would be hopeful that he will be available for selection within the next week or two. Its about monitoring and hoping he progresses well. Initially it was diagnosed as just a crick in the neck and the hope was that it would have recovered much quicker. It then became more serious than expected and it is an issue with a disc. But it’s settling down and he’s started back training.”