Italian Job: Kicking into gear from the off is Ireland's call 

SLICK 80 MINUTES: Ireland's coaching staff will be looking for the team to hit the ground running once the whistle goes against Italy. Pic: Harry Murphy/Sportsfile

Scrappy. Too many handling errors. A lot to work on. The words of Scotland coach Gregor Townsend and his out-half Ben Healy after their unimpressive start to the season against Italy in Murrayfield last Saturday.

Players and coaches around the world and back through time have uttered similar laments in the foothills of a season but Ireland have targeted a peak performance from the off tonight as they get their own World Cup warm-up schedule underway in Dublin.

Paul O’Connell set that tone last Tuesday and Andy Farrell struck the same chord. The opening Pool B tie against Romania is five weeks away but the coaching staff clearly feels there isn’t a minute to lose as the team goes about its stated ambition of winning the tournament outright.

Iain Henderson, captain for the day here, will admit that a slick first 80 makes for “a big ask” in early August but feels it is one put to them because Farrell and his assistants believe the players and the collective are capable of achieving it. Past experience has informed them here too.

There was an awareness in the camp for a time that they had been taking too long to kick into gear. They felt it in New Zealand when losing the first of three Tests and at times in Six Nations campaigns in the past. It became an itch that they feel determined to scratch.

“It was after that we really talked about it, in the Autumn series and then again at the Six Nations," said Henderson. "It was something that we really wanted an emphasis on: not just five minutes from the start. It is about trying to get this team to play to its ability as quickly as possible because the international window is so small.” 

Forgive the stab at amateur psychology here but it’s hard not to discern a reaction to the 2019 fiasco in this relentless drive so early in the piece: a fear, subconscious or not, arising from the torpid approach to Japan in 2019 and the largely flatlining performances and meek quarter-final exit that followed.

Ireland were the world’s top-ranked side then, as now, but this side is coming off the back of a Grand Slam Six Nations campaign and yet players and coaches have been consistent in picking apart performances against Italy and Scotland and England, like a fussy parent brushing dust off a pristine school uniform.

Farrell has put on record again his refusal to accept anything like the sloppiness of past performances against the Italians, Fiji and Georgia, days when he gave a clutch of players their chances in the starting XV and was left deeply unimpressed by the collective offering, regardless of victory.

None of those games came on the back of a six-week lead-in like this one and the ‘no excuses, no delay’ approach on show this week does feed in to the intrigue around a XV and a matchday 23 that throws up all sorts of interesting subplots ahead of the squad deadline later this month.

There could be three new Ireland Test players - Tom Stewart, Ciaran Frawley and Calvin Nash - by the day’s end; there are veterans looking to copper fasten places on the plane; and all of it is being pivoted by the young Munster half-back combination of Craig Casey and Jack Crowley.

There really are talking points in every nook and cranny of the teamsheet but it made sense to ask Henderson for his take on Joe McCarthy given both are second rows and the Leinster youngster is one of those candidates who is on the borderline as things stand.

“Joe's been incredible when he's been with us for the last few campaigns. He's been a physical specimen, he's powerful, strong and he has that desire and ability to want to learn, not only about scrum or lineout but the game as a whole as well. It's exciting for him.

“I have no doubt in my mind he’s going to have a huge Irish career. He’ll do amazing things for years to come in an Irish jersey, I have no doubt in my mind. He’s light years ahead of where I was when I was his age.” 

None of this burgeoning excitement and determination is unique to Ireland. Italy, who are stuck in a World Cup pool with New Zealand and France, have made nine changes to the experimental side that lost 25-13 last week in Scotland.

The English-born pair of Paolo Odogwu and Dino Lamb make debuts, on the wing and at lock respectively, Paolo Garbisi and Stephen Varney come in at half-back, Tommaso Allan moves to 15 and Sebastian Negri comes in to the back row.

Henderson flagged a wariness of the Azzurri by gravitating not towards the starting XV but a bench that bears the likes of Michele Lamaro. Pre-match niceties aside, it is clearly a stronger collective than the Murrayfield version, if not one to fear.

“We’ve got to make sure we’re not only on top of our game to start with, we need to make sure we’re holding out for the full 80 minutes, because (Italy) was one of the last games we played," said the Ireland skipper. "It was 20 points to 24 coming into 60-odd minutes. They hang in there with you.” 

Italy managed just that seven days ago when it took an 80th-minute Josh Bayliss try to make the thing safe for Townsend’s side. Ireland won't contemplate anything like that. It won't be perfect but they've set a high bar for themselves. Now is the time to clear it.