Best rows in behind skipper

For a player expected by many to succeed Brian O’Driscoll as captain of Ireland, Rory Best could have been less forthcoming in his support of the man who got the nod ahead of him.

Yet in offering his backing to the under-fire skipper Jamie Heaslip, the Ulster hooker chose not to issue a few hollow phrases and move on to other issues, of which there are currently many in this Irish Six Nations campaign. Instead, Best gave a ringing endorsement of the man selected by head coach Declan Kidney to continue the job he was given on a temporary basis last November.

In the absence through injury of not just O’Driscoll but also senior figures Paul O’Connell and Best himself, No 8 Heaslip assumed the captaincy for the first autumn series Test against South Africa. A yellow card that served as a major turning point in the defeat by the Springboks did not do Heaslip any favours yet he redeemed himself a fortnight later by leading from the front in the rout of Argentina.

Kidney subsequently took the brave step of appointing the Leinster forward for the Six Nations, ahead of the fit-again former incumbent O’Driscoll and Best.

Three games in and Heaslip’s leadership is being called into question following defeats by England and Scotland but, having accepted Kidney’s personal explanation at the time of the appointment in January, Best insisted the captain has the full support of the squad.

“From his point of view when you lose a game, questions are always going to be asked and unfortunately there’s a little bit of it that seems to be falling on him,” the Ulster man said as the Ireland team gathered in Carton House for a two-day training camp that ended yesterday.

“But he has got enough good senior players around him that are going to help him bear that responsibility because ultimately we missed chances, we created plenty of chances, and there’s not a lot he can do about us missing a pass, not making a pass, missing a couple of crucial lineouts.

“Obviously everyone that has captained sides coming up through age groups, provinces or any teams, you’re ultimate goal is to captain your country.

“I’ve been very lucky to captain them on four occasions. I count myself very fortunate to have done that. It would be wrong to say that I wasn’t disappointed but at the same time I’m more than happy, Jamie has done a great job and certainly he has my full support, and you know from within the squad he has the support of the squad.”

Best has more pressing issues of his own to resolve ahead of the game against France at the Aviva Stadium on Saturday.

Four stolen throws in the opening half against Scotland’s excellent defensive lineout operators Jim Hamilton and Richie Gray would be a blot on any hooker’s reputation and Best makes no excuses.

“It kind of summed up our play, we compounded error with an error,” he said. “They all came in a 10 or 20-minute window when they got a yellow card as well, when we should have been looking to put pressure. Those little silly mistakes took the pressure off. We’re aiming for 90 [per cent lineout success] plus, we didn’t get that again....from my point of view we should have been better and it’s probably more the disappointing thing is the crucial passage of play whenever we let the pressure off.

“You could say we didn’t lose a lineout in the second half, but it wasn’t enough to win the game. You could argue the lineout didn’t cost the game but at the same time we had a fantastic opportunity to put pressure on and we didn’t do that by miscommunication, bad throwing, a bit of a mix-up and obviously good play by them.”

Of Ireland’s more general current downturn, Best agreed with Kidney’s belief that the team is not too far away from finding the required level of consistency that has deserted them.

“I think we’ve shown in the three games, passages where we’ve been very, very good. And yet again we’ve also shown passages where we were just a little bit inconsistent and in terms of improving our consistency our training has been as good as I’ve ever been involved in, in an Ireland team. That is going to help and we just have to keep believing in what we are doing and you have to keep trying to persevere and hope that it will come.”