Italy game is going to be a ‘streetfight’, warns Mike Ross

From frustrated father, watching the France game on his phone, to facing England at Twickenham a fortnight later, even a player as experienced as Mike Ross can find the fasttrack return to Test rugby a little trying.

From the anxiety of injury to the joy of playing again, Ireland prop Ross has been through an emotional wringer during this Six Nations campaign, even enduring the agony of the displaced fan, watching from afar as his side were undone at the scrum in Paris in that narrow 10-9 defeat.

Fit-again following the hamstring tear he suffered during Leinster’s European home defeat to Toulon in December, Ross was on the verge of his Ireland comeback but still in need of game time when Joe Schmidt stuck with Nathan White at tighthead for the second week in a row last month.

So having missed the opening home fixture with Wales, the 36-year-old cornerstone of the Irish pack found himself in a different kind of crowd as his team-mates went to work at Stade de France.

“For one of them I did a player appearance for Sony and then I went back and watched (the draw with Wales) at home. The other one (France), my wife happened to schedule my son’s birthday party at the same time,” Ross said.

“I don’t know what she expected to happen but I ended up on my phone kind of watching the game and being of no help whatsoever but I’d a few dads around me so it wasn’t too bad.”

No pulling rank there for Ross, who put his 56 Ireland caps and inside knowledge to one side and shared the collective emotions of watching the game with fellow supporters.

“You can’t slag them (his team-mates) off too much,” he joked.

“I think we were all frustrated. We are all fans of rugby too first and foremost too. That’s why we got involved in it. We were pretty gutted by the result.

“You are probably watching it a bit more analytically than most people. You kind of know yourself what is supposed to be happening. You would be like ‘is he doing his role here?’, ‘Is he going where he is supposed to be?’, ‘What play is this?’, ‘What are they doing here?’.

“You can see... you would have a bit more of an idea what’s coming next than your average punter.”

Ireland’s next game was a rather different experience as Ross picked up cap number 57 and returned to the front row to face England at Twickenham.

“It was a pretty fasttrack, I felt like I was sucking in passing seagulls at one point. You try to focus on your job, the set-piece and your role in defence and your role in attack. Our scrum was pretty good, I thought.

“And then it is just getting match fitness back too.”

Ross has had another 43 minutes with Leinster under his belt following the 21-10 defeat to the English, playing his part in the Pro12 win over Zebre last weekend and is now readying himself for another intense encounter with the ever-physical Italians this Saturday at the Aviva Stadium.

“They have a good pack. You know that Italy is going to be a streetfight,” the tighthead said.

“It is probably one of the toughest games you will face as a forward because they will attack you there all day long. You have to be on top of your game to keep them out.

“They have a good maul. You saw that against France (in round one). They have a decent scrum. They will probably be hurting there because Scotland got a few penalties out of them there (in round three). They will be looking to redress that.”

Ross’s continuing presence in the number three jersey has often been cited as proof of a dearth of Irish-qualified quality at tighthead across the provinces.

Citing provincial team-mates Tadhg Furlong and Marty Moore, as well as versatile Connacht prop Finley Bealham among others, the Corkman believes times are changing for the position, although none can match his experience.

“It’s pretty high. For a few years, there wasn’t a huge amount of lads there.

“Now, you’ve got Tadhg, Marty, Whitey. Outside that, you’ve got Finlay Bealham, who’s been training well with us. You’ve got Rodney Ah You. Stephen Archer is coming back from a neck injury.

“I think our tight-head stocks are pretty good compared to what they were before when you had a lot of foreign players taking up those spots at provinces.

“We just need to be more accurate.

“A couple of times we’ve turned the ball over five metres from the line. In previous campaigns that wouldn’t have happened and we’d have gone on to score.

“In international rugby, you only get three or four chances. If you don’t take them, the likelihood is you are going to lose that game.

“I think training has been sharp this week. We’re more comfortable now.

“It is a shame we have taken the results we’ve had so far because we’ve been in a pretty good place for the last two games.”