Ross confident of Irish improvement

Mike Ross believes Ireland will put in a stronger 80 minutes against the French in the Aviva next weekend having learnt lessons from Saturday night’s defeat in Bordeaux.

“The French are a great bloody test for your first few games – you learn quickly whether you get it right or not,” he said.

“It’s a pre-season game and this is where you iron out the defects in your set-ups and I’m confident we’ll improve next week.

“I haven’t played with Jerry for a while and Tony Buckley was on the loose side, so there were different combinations.”

Making just his eighth cap on Saturday night, Ross is still adapting to the environment of international rugby especially when it involves an evening kick off in the south of France.

“You’re walking around Bordeaux today in 30 degrees, the sun splitting the stones and you’re thinking: ‘Oh my God, what’s going to happen here?’ especially in the pressure-cooker of the scrum,” he remarked.

“Thankfully the sun went down and the temperature dropped rather rapidly.

“We were scratching our heads thinking: ‘Why are they having it so late?’ Now we know why.”

The Leinster tighthead endured a frustrating evening in the scrum, which was the source of four French penalties, one of which came after Ross was forced up by Jean-Baptiste Poux, illegally in his eyes.

“Referees have different interpretations.

“It just popped straight up and a lot of referees would have re-set that. Neither team was going forwards or backwards.

“But I suppose that’s something you have to learn to deal with and it’s a good thing to have in the memory bank.”