Andrew Trimble’s healthy helping of fear

Eight minutes gone last week and Ireland’s line looks ripe for a crossing.

The danger is apparent as soon as the ball is whipped away from the base of a ruck on the right side of Ireland’s 22. By the time Luke Charteris ships it off to Alun Wyn-Jones the question isn’t so much whether Wales will claim five points but seven.

Jones has Tom James to his outside, the wing in an acre of space, and only Andrew Trimble stands between them. The Ulsterman doesn’t hesitate. He shoots forward and connects high with Jones just as the second row is in the simultaneous act of catching and passing it on.

The ball is spilled, the situation saved.

It’s a hit that has already earned its own place on YouTube and any other number of websites and Trimble wore a proud smile as he discussed it earlier this week while also dissecting the threat which France will pose him and Dave Kearney out wide today.

“That’s the way I like to play,” he says. “That’s the way I potentially get a little bit of a licence with Ulster, as long as that back field is covered behind me and I get off the line. Whenever someone inside me gets a little bit short then we have no option: I have to do that.

“Because then I’m not the bad guy if we get it wrong! I think it’s important we’re in their face and putting them and their skillset under pressure and if you give any of these guys a run up at you and space they are going to thrive so it’s important we don’t do that.”

He’s paid a price for his valour. Don’t they all?

Maybe it was because he hadn’t played Test rugby for a while but he felt his shoulder was “hanging off me” in the days after. A physical game, it felt like car-crash stuff and he’s been subjected to ice baths, recovery skins and all the rest in order to turn it around in six days.

It’s not tackling that aggravates it now but passing, although that’s just par for the course in this game. Adrenalin will keep Trimble going in Paris this afternoon as Ireland look to back up that encouraging defensive effort last weekend.

There were, admittedly, times when Wales could have navigated smarter routes beyond them but the bald statistics made for pleasant viewing: 170 tackles landed and not a single line break conceded. That’s a long way from Cardiff and the Argentinian job last October.

It’s all the more impressive given Joe Schmidt has taken temporary responsibility for the defensive duties, what with the departure of Les Kiss to Ulster and the delay in Andy Farrell taking over, and Trimble’s take on what has changed is interesting.

“Now it’s probably a slightly different system,” he says. “There are a few differences between now and the World Cup. Maybe in light of the World Cup. But, yeah, I mean it’s important that we keep our width and get up the line with a little bit more line speed whenever it’s appropriate.”

Whether it’s blitz or a drift, Trimble doesn’t believe that matters.

“You could pick any number of defensive systems to work with and they would all work if everyone was on the same page,” he believes and Virimi Vakatawa and Teddy Thomas will road test that theory in the Stade de France.

The same applies with ball in hand.

The French have often hypnotised teams into their way of thinking in the past, meaning sides that have travelled to Paris stressing the need for discipline and safety first have instead found themselves indulging in an unstructured end-to-end game.

Trimble has seen it happen himself.

In 2006 and 2008 he was part of Irish teams that fell under that spell and found themselves miles in arrears before launching ultimately doomed comebacks, though he feels there is at least one good reason why there should be no repeat this time.

“You just imagine what Joe’s going to say to you in the meeting the following day. It’s very important that we maintain our discipline. Our discipline was very good against Wales. We gave away eight or nine penalties which is less than we’ve given up in the past.

“In terms of not getting sucked into that (type of game), there’s times when you want to up the tempo and, especially with a big, heavy French pack, if you do get them moving then potentially that might be a way to get them fatigued a little bit, then take them through phases.”

He has had it every way in Saint-Denis before: three losses, a draw and that standout win two years ago when Ireland clinched the Six Nations on Brian O’Driscoll’s last outing. It’s why he has travelled this week with both confidence and fear.

“Which is a healthy way to approach it,” he believes.