Ferris: More to come from young guns Ryan and O’Mahony
Donnacha Ryan had been charged not only with replacing Ireland’s iconic skipper Paul O’Connell in the engine room for Saturday’s RBS Six Nations clash with Scotland, but also to orchestrate an attack on the visitors’ previously unblemished lineout return, a record of 33 wins from 33 throws.
Scotland coach Andy Robinson admitted difficulties in that area played a significant part in their downfall, putting Ryan’s contribution into perspective. And forward colleague Stephen Ferris made it abundantly clear.
“He’s been taking control over the last number of weeks in training. He is just very calm and cool.
“He’s level headed and nothing seems to faze him. He just kept getting up and winning ball for us there, stealing ball at the back of the lineout and our lineout defence was brilliant. Over the last couple of games he’s made a great impact off the bench. He is on top of game at the moment, playing some great stuff.”
Ferris also highlighted a fine performance by latest recruit, Peter O’Mahony, who roomed with the Ulsterman last week.
“He had one crucial turnover but overall played very well. There’s a lot more to come from him, I reckon.”
Should Ireland beat England in Twickenham on Saturday, Ferris might feel opportunity was lost when pipped at the post by Wales and the failure to hold on to a significant half-time lead against France.
However, rather than look back in anger Ferris is looking forward to England at Twickenham, believing it to be an enticing prospect. He figures Ireland will be well up to the challenge and is convinced the lessons of the Welsh result have been well learned.
“Since then,” he said, “we have defended really well; [today] one or two missed tackles, they got a soft try, but apart from that they didn’t look like breaking us down. Against France there was a bounce that popped up into their hands, so defensively we have been really good since the criticism we got after the Welsh game.
“We have been working hard on it and we will be definitely working hard on it when we head for Twickenham this week.”
Frustration won’t, he insisted, get the better of them. There will be no Triple Crown or championship title, but beating England would be a nice way to finish the campaign.
“We have come on a lot. It is a great camp to be in. All the guys are brilliant. Hopefully we can improve again on this performance for the next match.
Donncha O’Callaghan figures Ireland have learned a lot already, that defensively they have grown as a team and set piece accuracy is now something to be treasured.
“The pack has kind of gone through a bit, with Gert [Smal] being out and Paul [O’Connell] and then Seanie [O’Brien] this week going out. Everyone just wanted to put in a big pack performance and I think we did that, especially in the scrum. To be fair I think it’s turned into a bit of a weapon for us.
“That’s down to the work of the front row, to be fair, they’re driving that on but Greg Feek [scrum coach] has got to get an awful lot of praise just for the work he has done in terms of analysis.
“I think we’re reaping the reward of getting good coaching. An awful lot of credit will go to Mike Ross and Cian Healy, too, and Rory Best, who do all of the hard work but I think that’s because they’re getting such clear detail, which is heaven to get from coaches.
“Sometimes guys don’t get credit but he definitely deserves it with how our scrum is shaping up.
“I think you have to give credit to Les Kiss’s defence system there. His system, we want to push it on so that it’s nearly an offensive weapon – that when they have the ball we want to take it and get down the pitch and get something out of it. And I think what really started poor in terms of our line speed has improved an awful lot.
“He’s been banging the drum all week that the France performance in terms of our defence can’t be a one-off and I think he’ll be fairly happy with how it went.”
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