Dominic Crotty: Lack of change is a worry

Former Ireland and Munster full-back casts his eye over ireland's opening match in the 2008 RBS 6 Nations.

Nick Mallett, the new Italian coach, is the latest in a long line of foreign coaches to be airlifted in to try and help Italian rugby finally gain some form of consistency.

His task on Saturday is not an enviable one with retirements from Allesandro Troncon and an injury to his second row powerhouse, Marco Bortolami that may seriously undermine the experience within the squad. This, in some ways, is the joy of playing Italy - you just never know what they'll come up with.

They mix the wonderful with the truly awful and may give Ireland a lot of headaches early on, especially upfront in the tight-five where the formidable Martin Catrogiovanni, one of the English Premiership’s best players, will likely be a handful again.

I love the way Mallett has dismissed Ramiro Pez and has put his trust in Andrea Masi, a converted center, to do a job at out-half on Saturday. It smacks of the gutsy way that Mallett coached South Africa, laying the foundation for their triumph in the World Cup this year.

His way is to trust new talent coming through, trust new combinations and be unorthodox if you think it’ll pay off in the long term. Of course, he could afford to take that approach and sleep soundly in a talent-rich rugby nation like South Africa – it remains to be seen whether this approach will ultimately be successful with the Italians.

Nonetheless, it’s a refreshing start from a nation that needs to make the most of its slim resources and will make for a fascinating tactical battle next weekend.

In contrast to Italy, Ireland have a deflatingly similar look about them. Let’s take a moment here for a small pop quiz.

Without looking at a stat book, who did Ireland play in the first round of the first Six Nations after the World Cup in 2003?

Any takers? I’m willing to bet not one in a hundred Irish supporters would get that question correct, yet that game was the first step towards our display in last year’s World Cup.

So for this year, with a view towards 2011, how a new face like Jamie Heaslip is not in the team is beyond me. Sure, it’s important that Ireland win next Saturday but not at the expense of holding back development of some of our top young players, of whom we obviously don’t have that many.

I can only hope that Heaslip, the exciting Rob Kearney and Tony Buckley (though that’s where the similarity between those two ends), will be given some really meaningful game time. Eddie is desperately trying to salvage his job but I think the team selection is a step back to the mindset that led us down such a disappointing road in France last year.

Eddie doesn’t have the wealth of options that other national coaches do but the lack of courage in the team selection is unfortunate and there’s a credibility gap beginning to open up between what Eddie says is a team picked on form and what many supporters see as an opportunity lost for blooding new talent.

Underneath it all Eddie is an excellent coach, hard working, hard fighting, devoted, organized and meticulous but he needs to quickly regain the trust and respect of the Irish supporter and his conservative selection and the siege bunker mentality does not bode well.

For now, Ireland’s first team is still blessed with some of the best players in the Northern Hemisphere and, in some cases, the world.

In addition, most of our key players have many years of good rugby left in the tank. Ronan O'Gara’s play, his technical and tactical skills have been wonderful of late but his crucial ability to play at such a high individual level and also shoulder the responsibility of captaincy of Munster has been awe inducing.

Denis Leamy, Marcus Horan, John Hayes, Donncha and Wally have obviously regained the bit between the teeth and have shown their true class in the last few weeks, like the stand-outs we know they are.

Malcolm has rediscovered his form although I think Micko may justifiably think himself unlucky to have lost out despite his recent brilliant performances in red.

That too would have been a vote for the future. I reckon there’s a huge performance waiting for this Irish pack on Saturday, a performance to wipe away any lingering disappointment from France.

With a more established Eoin Reddan bossing them around, we should see good quality ball being released to the always dangerous Irish backline. Again, I think the backs realize that they did not do themselves justice in France and will be out to show their skills so I expect a lot of running from deep and a lot of punching through the 10-12 area, trying to exploit the new Italian combination there.

Overall, I think Ireland will go into contact only on their terms and otherwise will try to offload the ball in the tackle, trying to make the big and relatively untried Italian team lose defensive cohesion in the cauldron that is Croke Park.

Despite the same old Irish look about them, let’s hope Saturday marks a new beginning with a resurgent Irish team out to prove the doubters wrong and exorcise the ghosts of World Cup 2007.