Romanian scrum will load-test Ireland's discipline

Ireland scrum coach John Fogarty is planning for a physical and potentially feisty Romanian forward pack

GOOD TEST: National scrum coach John Fogarty during an Ireland rugby media conference at Complexe de la Chambrerie in Tours, France. Pic: Brendan Moran/Sportsfile

Ireland’s Rugby World Cup squad has been urged to be primed and ready, not overhyped, for this Saturday’s opening match against Pool B underdogs Romania.

The Grand Slam champions and world number one-ranked team have stern challenges ahead of them in this four-match pool campaign, with defending champions South Africa and Six Nations rivals Scotland their final two opponents in determining which pair of teams reaches next month’s quarter-finals in Paris. Yet assistant coach John Fogarty on Monday stressed the importance of setting the right tone and finding the right emotional pitch from day one, even if Ireland are expected to defeat a team ranked 18 places below them in the World Rugby standings.

The scrum coach is planning for a physical and potentially feisty Romanian forward pack when the two countries go toe to toe at the set-piece at Stade de Bordeaux this Saturday afternoon, when the thermometer is forecast to touch 36C, tempers could fray in the heat and Georgian referee Nika Amashukeli may well have his hands full.

"They're organised, they've got real size in what they're doing,” Fogarty said of Ireland’s opening opponents. "We need to be accurate in what we're doing.

“It’s first game out, we don't need to be hyped and excited. We need to be in control, calm and accurate in what we're doing.

"You see a lot of size in what they're doing, the referee will have a job in terms of bind to make sure there's not ‘load’ happening, that there's real control in how he sees the game so we don't get overleans, or loads - that's where you find collapses.

"First game out, everyone wants to put their best foot forward. For us, as a group of forwards we're focused on making sure that we can be accurate and, on the back of that, we can be unbelievably physical.

“That’s where we’re at at this moment in time but good size, they’ll have a lot of energy. A rich history, they’re going to be up for it so we need to make sure that we’re ready in both ways, control and physicality.” 

The Irish management has overseen one of the best disciplinary records in Test rugby in terms of cards and penalty counts and Fogarty’s words were not so much a warning to their players to be on the best behaviour but a reminder of the potential pitfalls of on-field ill-discipline.

Asked if there was any danger of Ireland overstepping the mark, emotionally, this Saturday, Fogarty replied: “No, but it’s exciting. It’s incredibly exciting. The group is incredibly excited to represent, you know, we talk about inspiring a nation. We’re very, very aware that 60,000 supporters have got tickets from Ireland and they’ll come out of everywhere.

“We’re so aware that we’re representing our families, the people of Ireland and we’re so excited to deliver. It’s just important that we’re primed and we’re ready as opposed to being over the edge.

“We’ve talked about the importance of discipline and the momentum teams get out of ill-discipline so we want to be ready, we want to be primed, that’s the word I’d use.” 

The scrum coach is likely to still be without first-choice hooker Dan Sheehan due to his ongoing rehab from the foot injury he sustained in the August 19 win over England, although Sheehan’s Leinster colleague Ronan Kelleher is fit and available having missed all three summer Tests last month with a hamstring issue. Neither hooker faced Samoa last time out in Bayonne on August 26 with rookie Tom Stewart, omitted from the final World Cup squad, starting backed up by Rob Herring.

The Samoans gave Ireland a real workout at scrum-time in particular and Fogarty said he was grateful his forwards had experienced that kind of pressure ahead of the tournament.

"Samoa put us under real pressure and it was an issue for us. It was disappointing that we didn't react in the moment, to change the picture in the moment, in the game.

"That's been addressed, we spoke at half-time and changed some pieces and things got better for the group as a whole.

"We need to make sure that we're learning from the whole experience, we can't afford for us to have to figure things out at half-time or post-game.

"There was huge learnings from that game, it's a blessing for us to have something like that happen so we can focus fully on how we can change things in the moment, how we can make sure we can react and how clear we are in our heads.

"How can we get back to neutral? The tendency at times is to start to go back at them, overload and lose your way a small bit.

"Making sure that we can connect with each other as a front-row, we need a clear plan in place and we can go back to our process and deliver what that plan is."