Kiss: Ireland not reliant on individuals

By Grainne McGuinness and Shaun Cronin

Ireland assistant coach Les Kiss has said the focus for Ireland has been on teamwork rather than individual performances and he expects to see that pay off this afternoon against Georgia.

"Our theme is to be a better team than the opposition," he said, speaking after yesterday's Captain's Run. "We don't rely on individuals.

Player combinations have been a constant theme from management throughout this November series. Head coach Joe Schmidt said the reason he chose the untried centre partnership of Robbie Henshaw and Jared Payne against South Africa last week was their success working together in training.

Kiss emphasised that policy yesterday: "The whole theme in training and of the pitch has been about building combinations and building relationships.

"Hopefully that can come to the fore at crucial moments in the game."

The coaches have made 13 changes from the side that started in the victory last week and Kiss said they were confident the players coming in were ready for the task ahead.

"I think the way we prepare we try to make sure we fill the gaps as much as possible," he said. "The guys have really worked hard at understanding each other out on the pitch."

"By no means are we a complex gameplan team, we try to keep things simple. It's all about the responsibility the player has in knowing their role."

Kiss dismissed any fears that the team might become complacent after last week's victory.

"To tell you the truth there hasn't been much opportunity for that," he said. "I think we've been pretty thorough on keeping our focus. The week hasn't been different to other weeks."

Kiss also spoke of the motivating factor of this chance for players to impress to impress the coaches ahead of next week's crucial game against Australia.

"If a guy were to take their eye off the ball they wouldn't do themselves any favours," he warned.