Dominic Crotty: Crunch time for the Irish squad

Dominic Crotty writes about the main tasks facing the Irish XV that take on Scotland at Murrayfield on Saturday.

For each player in the penultimate squad of thirty seven this is it, one step away from the precious goal of representing your country at a world cup. The culmination of many years of hard work, cold and wet mornings, seemingly endless sets of 300m intervals, a million horrible rucks and mauls, a million passes from left to right and effort, always more effort.

After the annual intensive camp at the excellent training facility in Spala, the sporting equivalent of a short stay at an industrial school, and a further stint in Limerick, a resort by comparison, the Irish squad must be itching to get back onto the field in earnest.

On Saturday, there may not be any points on offer but the player’s dreams are certainly on the line. My hope is that the team plays and improves as a unit since, like it or not, players will be taking the field with different agendas in Murrayfield.

For some, the main goal is to get back into the swing of things, get a game under the belt, stay injury free and get on that flight to the world cup, for others this is their last chance to prove to the coach they’re a valuable and worthy world cup squad member and for a third group of fringe players, all they can do is look on and hope they don’t get pulled aside on Sunday morning for the dreaded chat.

It’s understandable if the normally harmless ‘break a leg’ is uttered with a little more venom in certain quarters Saturday morning.

After allegedly trying to choke poor Ronan in the Six Nations game, Scottish rugby recently initiated a dose of self-strangulation with Edinburgh and the SRU opting out of partnership and several national players leaving for richer pastures.

With Frank Hadden reduced to pleading for the support of the Scottish supporters, all of this will make Saturdays game a cakewalk for Ireland, right?

Well, not exactly. This is Scotland we’re playing after all and, of all the nationalities I played against at all levels of rugby Scottish teams were always equally skillful and fiercely indefatigable. Lying down is something they simply do not do, maybe even at the dentist. No matter how much you have them under the cosh, they’ll mess with your scrum and lineout, steal your ball at rucktime, keep the ball alive and next thing you’ll be under your own posts looking at each other bewildered.

That in itself guarantees a tough match and, in turn, demands control from Ireland in all aspects of the game on Saturday. Weeks from a world cup pool game and, for some, months since their last game, control means simply doing the basics well: commanding first phase possession by competing for restarts and using our world class lineout, giving a steady platform at scrum time, securing ball at the breakdown (hopefully quick ball, but initially any type of ball will do) and controlling the pace of the game. Steady as she goes for the first fifteen or so minutes and then let loose, all going well.

If not, repeat the above until it does since performance matters more than the result.

With all the uncertainties, mind games and the necessity to try different combinations, it’ll be amazing if the game as a spectacle turns out to be anything but forgettable.

The key performance target will be the control and cohesion of the team and its individual subunits. If the team manages to lay down that marker Saturday, it’ll send a powerful early signal to all our rivals that this year at last, Ireland will not just flatter to deceive but will be a major force in France.