Toner: Ireland ready to avenge 2013 meltdown

Like the captain he plays beside in Ireland’s second row, Devin Toner may be happy with the way the Irish lineout has improved since the systems meltdown in Rome last March but the locks will be taking nothing for granted as they seek revenge against the Italians on Saturday.

Thu, 06 Mar, 2014 - 00:00

It is 51 weeks since the Declan Kidney era came to an inglorious, injury-hit and unfortunate end at Stadio Olimpico, with a battered Ireland side going down 22-15 in the Roman sunshine to suffer their first Six Nations defeat to the Azzurri in 14 meetings.

The statistics from that game alone paint a graphic picture of the car crash that game became for Ireland and a head coach whose IRFU bosses took less than a month to announce his contract would not be renewed.

Three yellow cards, 13 penalties conceded and just one offload and line break apiece made for sorry reading that afternoon but a terrible day for the Irish lineout was just as damning as four of their nine throws were lost for a 56% success rate. Toner played the last 16 minutes as a replacement for Mike McCarthy while Donnacha Ryan, the second-row partner he joined, was in the sin bin five minutes later as Ireland played out the last throes of the 2013 campaign with 14 men, Conor Murray virtually replacing the Munster lock in the bin following a 79th minute yellow card.

“It wasn’t great last year,” Toner said, recalling the Ireland dressing room after the final whistle. “No-one was saying anything but I think we can use it as a bit of a spur on, no-one wants to feel like that again.

“I think we’re in a different place now.”

A better place, too. Ireland’s 100% success rate against England during the narrow Twickenham defeat was a powerful positive to take from a bitterly disappointing loss. The Paul O’Connell-Toner partnership with the help of back-rower Peter O’Mahony in particular has the most prolific lineout of this year’s championship so far, winning 45 on their own throw and losing just three in three matches, two in the opening fixture with Scotland.

Yet the Italian debacle of a year ago still grates and Toner refuses to blame Ireland’s injury problems that day as the main factor in the misfiring set-piece.

“It wasn’t that. They do have quite a good defensive lineout, especially with (Sergio) Parisse, he’s quite good at reading the ball and getting up and disrupting. That was one of the main factors and then obviously we did get a bit disjointed, with some of the injuries during the game.

“But again, we’ll just have a look at their team. They have quite a tall pack this year as well, with Josh Furno and (Quintin) Geldenhuys and Parisse, so myself and Paulie will just have to look at where the best options to win it are. They will be a threat. Going into the last game, they had one of the best percentages for their lineout as well. So it will be up to us to negate that as well.”

Italy’s second row of Furno and Geldenhuys, in harness with go-to back rowers Parisse and Alessandro Zanni, will have their work cut out as well, though, with an Irish lineout that was a focus of forwards coach John Plumtree’s attention when he joined the management set-up under incoming head coach Joe Schmidt at the start of the season.

The game against England saw Ireland retain 100% ball from the throws of Rory Best and replacement hooker Sean Cronin and Toner was satisfied that the young English duo of Courtney Lawes and Joe Launchbury were matched in that facet of play.

“It was quite good with the quality they had with Lawes and Launchbury. They’re a quite tall lineout as well, so Paulie has done great with the calling systems and stuff. We’re pretty pleased with how the lineout has been going.

“There is always stuff for people to work on. We are quite happy with how we are going. Looking at last year, it was an area we needed to work on so coming into this year, it was a big area that Plum wanted us to work on.

“The more you work on it (in training) the better you get in games, it kind of feeds into it. As a whole, we are happy.”

The Leinster lock was grateful for the off week in the Six Nations schedule after the bruising encounter at Twickenham and, after a good mini-camp in Belfast last week, is looking forward to returning to the Aviva Stadium on Saturday as Ireland bid to maintain their title bid ahead of their finale against France in Paris in eight days.

“There hasn’t been a lag,” Toner said. “It was good getting a weekend off and rejuvenating because the England game was up there as one of the toughest games I have played. I was fairly wrecked after it. But just going into this week we have good mindset of just needing to get a result and then seeing what happens after that. We’re not looking past it, to be honest.

“It will be great for us to be back at the Aviva, we love playing at home and we want to make it difficult for teams to come to the Aviva. So I don’t think it will be a problem to get up for this game.”

Ireland’s lineout... what a difference a year makes

Against Italy, SixNations, Rome, March 16, 2013

Won own throw: Italy 10 Ireland 5

Lost own throw: Italy 1 Ireland 4

Success rate: Italy 91%Ireland 56%

Steals: Italy 2 Ireland 0

Against England, SixNations, Twickenham, February 22, 2014

Won own throw: England 8 Ireland 16

Lost own throw: England 0 Ireland 0

Success rate: England 100% Ireland 100%

Overall lineout success

2013 Six Nations: Italy 90% (1st), Ireland 80% (6th)