The advantages enjoyed by Irish coach Declan Kidney over his England counterpart Martin Johnson were vividly emphasised this week.

As Kidney was announcing an unchanged team to face Wales in Dublin on Saturday, Johnson was making two changes in his side to play Scotland in Edinburgh and admitting that it was, in effect, the last chance saloon for an England back division which has misfired like some old jalopy this season.

Despite widespread calls for the London Irish full-back Delon Armitage to be dropped in favour of Northampton’s Ben Foden who made a real impact as a substitute against Ireland at Twickenham, 12 days ago, England have kept faith with Armitage. Given his lack of form this season, few understand why.

The decision to omit an essentially attacking minded player like Foden from the starting line-up represents, in many people’s minds, confirmation that a strong streak of conservatism runs right through the selection process in this England side. Given their loss to Ireland, England could surely have tried a couple of new faces after such a disappointing 2009-2010 season. But no, England retain as many as possible of their side even though they have consistently failed. But how much longer should they go on with these inconsistent players?

By contrast, Kidney was able to announce an unchanged team from the one that triumphed 20-16 at Twickenham. In truth, that might have been somewhat less than totally convincing a performance, especially as Ireland only squeezed home through Tommy Bowe’s late try.

But the difference is that Kidney has long since found the players of his squad tried and tested. He knows their capabilities, understands their value and potential. Ireland doesn’t have question marks over half its team as this current England set-up has, most of the coaching staff included.

I don’t see it happening, but if Scotland, doubtless fired up for their performance of the season by a combination of the memory from defeat to Italy in Rome and, more pertinently, the sight of English jerseys at Murrayfield, managed to get home for a famous win, English rugby would be plunged into a miasma of gloom and doom.

With France in Paris the final match of England’s season, a disastrous outcome to a poor season could ensue and who knows who would be the casualties? For sure, there are many other than players to blame for England’s present demise.

Ireland, however, can look forward to their last two games at home in Dublin, and the target of another Triple Crown. So coruscating was their defeat to France in Paris that if they ended this season with four wins from their five games and, in all likelihood, the runners-up spot in the Championship plus a Triple Crown, that would represent a very acceptable season for Ireland after 2009, their miracle year.

Meanwhile, struggling England can only look on enviously at such a scenario.

ENDS..................

This weekend will surely prove to be the defining weekend of the 2010 Six Nations Championship.

The hopes of France, England, Ireland and Wales may be settled one way or the other between Friday night at Cardiff where Wales meets France, and Saturday evening, by which time England will have played Ireland at Twickenham and Italy have hosted Scotland in Rome.

After this weekend, it could be that two countries still retain a fighting chance of landing a Grand Slam – France and England. Or, perhaps, both could have seen their hopes crash.

Likewise, Wales and Ireland, their opponents, must be more than aware that if they slip up this weekend, their chances are definitely over for another year. With both the Celtic nations having already suffered one defeat, Wales to England and Ireland to France, a second would rule them out of the Championship race, in all likelihood. There would be little left to play for in their final two games.

But if Wales can upset the French under the Cardiff floodlights, then they will throw the Championship wide open. If that happened, Ireland’s match against England at Twickenham would assume even more importance.

Ireland end the season with two home games, against Wales and Scotland. Victory at Twickenham would keep them firmly in the hunt for trophies, not least another Triple Crown.

So the weekend looks likely to be crucial in shaping the likely outcome of the RBS sponsored 6 Nations. Ireland have had an outstanding run of results at Twickenham and must know what it takes to win there. But I wonder whether their defeat by France in Paris took more out of Declan Kidney’s side than even they realise.

It wasn’t just a defeat, a narrow loss something like 17-13 and a game which could have gone either way. Instead, it was a full blown hammering, 33-10, and the fact was, the French squandered some glorious chances of further tries.

So can Ireland pick themselves up straightaway after that big reverse? Did the French defeat knock their confidence and might England take advantage? England are making progress, albeit much slower than their many followers would like. And perhaps we shouldn’t read too much into what was a grim war of attrition against Italy in Rome last time out.

I wouldn’t be surprised to see England lift their level of performance significantly from that day. The question is, if they do, can Ireland match it and still beat them?

Wales v France is another tough one to call. France start as favourites but a Welsh side that gets in the mood, fired up by their redoubtable coaches Warren Gatland and Shaun Edwards, is capable of upsetting anyone at any time. Cardiff will be alive with atmosphere for the first ever 6 Nations Championship Friday night fixture and it could be a cracker.

Finally, Italy and Scotland, who have each lost twice, meet in Rome to decide, in all probability, the outcome of this season’s wooden spoon.

The Scots showed in Wales they can play some proper rugby. Italy’s problem  is that they seem to have no cutting edge whatsoever behind the scrum and therefore have to rely on kicking.

For me, the Scots will win that one and I suspect France will win in Paris. But as for the Twickenham clash, I’m just not sure about that one.

ENDS...................

Be afraid, be very afraid. French rugby is stirring and a giant awakes.

It was all very well for France’s re-invigorated rugby team to hammer and humiliate reigning Grand Slam champions Ireland, in Paris last Saturday. But to receive laudatory comments from that notoriously dissatisfied body of opinion known as the French media, was another thing altogether.

Thus, we can imagine that French coach Marc Lievremont probably needed to sit down in a dark room once he had digested the words of France’s great newspapers following his team’s 33-10 victory at Stade de France.

“Combat Kings” ‘L’Equipe’ hailed them.
The magisterial ‘Le Monde’ opined “France replied in masterly fashion to the question of what level they are at.”
And the rugby bible, ‘Midi Olympique’ added “It was their aggression and breakdown work which were the most impressive aspects of the French performance.”

But were these paeans of praise justified? Actually, yes.

As Irish captain Brian O’Driscoll rightly pointed out “It was an impressive display, not just from their forwards but an all round performance.”

Since 2004 when they last won a Grand Slam, France’s national team has atrophied, stymied by the kind of straightjacket tactics that are currently bedevilling the England team. This has suited the national psyche and characteristics of the French about as well as a glove on a three-fingered man. They have looked ill at ease, out of sync.

But on Saturday at Stade de France, we saw a different France. For a start, there was a cohesion and balance which had not been apparent before. Forward power is a mighty weapon if it is accompanied by pace, a requisite of the modern game, and a willingness by the pack to set up the backs. Crucially, France appears to have discovered for the first time in years a half-back combination of considerable potential.

Morgan Parra and Francois Trinh-Duc have brought a quality that has had an ageless appeal to French teams, namely, invention. They can vary their games which is another crucial facet in modern rugby. This is another of the root causes of England’s failings. More propitiously, Parra’s goal kicking was so effective against Ireland, even from long range.

Outside them, Mathieu Bastareaud, a centre who weighs an extraordinary 114kgs, could be one of the biggest stars of the next World Cup.

We might do well not to let our emotions disappear completely out of sight. After all, it is only three months since New Zealand slaughtered the French in Marseille, raining down five tries to nil on their hapless opponents.

But to counter balance that, France have beaten the All Blacks and world champion South Africans in the course of the last 8 months. Clearly, something is stirring in French rugby and the timing could hardly be better with a World Cup looming next year.

Nor has this transformation been achieved in a nonsensical, cavalier fashion. As the Australian Ewen McKenzie, former coach of Paris-based club Stade Francais and now in charge of the Queensland Reds, says “Lievremont has brought a lot of younger players to the fore but he had the skeleton there all the time.

He has still got some hard heads – Nallet, Harinordoquy, Pape, Servat, Mas, Jauzion and Poitrenaud – through the key positions of the team.

“France winning last year in New Zealand was a big statement of intent. That confidence will give them a massive boost, knowing how their psyche works.”

If France go to the World Cup with a combination of massive forward strength, real pace around the field from their big, marauding back row and a half-back pairing that can pull the strings effectively, they could be a handful for anyone.

KEY PLAYERS

Thierry Dusautoir: A quiet, yet deeply respected captain and an outstanding breakaway forward, perhaps the next Richie McCaw.

Mathieu Bastareaud: Young, impetuous, short on judgement off the field but a huge, physically intimidating prospect on it.

Morgan Parra: The best teams always had ‘Un Petit General’ at scrum half. At 1.81m, he’s no Jacques Fouroux but he could be a future leader.

Francois Trinh-Duc: France have needed a consistent, yet inventive No. 10 for a long time. It’s too early for definitive judgements but he just might be the answer.

ENDS.........................

Sometimes in this sporting life, even the results of major matches, apparently crucial outcomes, hardly seem to matter.

This morning, the health of Scottish rugby player Thom Evans is a case in point. Evans was stretchered off the field at Cardiff on Saturday, attached to an oxygen cylinder and rendered motionless after damaging his neck in the game against Wales. The young man required surgery in a Cardiff hospital overnight, and the outcome of that operation remains very far from clear.

Evans was said on Sunday morning to be moving his arms and legs. But true fear strikes you at such moments. His parents and brother Max, who also played against Wales, are with him in the hospital. The whole sporting world will send him their very best wishes, praying and hoping that he makes a complete recovery.

In the same hospital on Saturday night was Scottish full-back Chris Paterson who suffered a damaged right kidney during the match against Wales. These and other injuries like them that are now occurring on an increasingly frequent basis in the world of professional rugby union are a grim confirmation of the increasing dangers of a sport which has taken physicality close to scary levels.

When you watch a lot of rugby around the world, as myself and some colleagues do year round, you wonder about where this sport will be in 20 years time. So many injuries are now occurring that the physical demands are out-pacing the worthy attempts of the game’s governing body, the IRB, to make it as safe as it possibly can be.

But when you have players who weigh anything up to 120 kgs each smashing into each other at full pace, then you have to conclude that the human body was not built for such massive impact shocks. French centre Mathieu Bastareaud, for example, weighs an intimidating 114kgs, just one kilo less than the two French second row players Pascal Pape and Lionel Nallet. Ireland prop John Hayes weighs in at an enormous 125kgs.

For a threequarter like Bastareaud to be so big and so quick was unknown 20 years ago. Thus, one wonders what will we see in another 20 years time?  If players continue to bulk up as they have done, swallow legal substances that claim to make them bigger, heavier and quicker, then you are forced to conclude that more serious damage to individuals is an almost inevitable outcome.

The problem for the game’s authorities is that, now the genie called professionalism is out of the bottle, it can never be put back. Nothing can stop players bulking themselves up still further, becoming even more muscle bound and powerful so that the potential damage they can inflict upon opponents, most especially when they collide with them at speed, will be greater than ever.

But one injury like that suffered by Thom Evans on Saturday is one too many. If the paraplegic wards of specialist hospitals contain just one young man whose life and future has been ruined by rugby, albeit by a complete accident, it is one too many.

I recall after the 1995 Rugby World Cup visiting the Cote d’Ivoire rugby player Max Brito who was horribly paralysed following a tackle in a match during that tournament. Brito lay motionless in a hospital bed at Bordeaux, unable to react even if a fly landed on his nose. As someone who had covered grotesque road crashes in which dead bodies were frequent during his earlier career in journalism, I’d thought I would be immune to a sight as sad as Brito. Yet I still left that hospital in tears.

The rugby world can but hope Thom Evans makes a full and speedy recovery. But you worry for the future of a sport that has now become so massively physical and confrontational that complete accidents, as the injuries to Evans and Paterson undoubtedly were at Cardiff, can become cataclysmic.

The message such incidents send to mothers of future young rugby players is alarming. This, by the way, is not a blame game; no-one is specifically responsible.

But how high a price is this sport prepared to pay for its ever expanding limits of physicality and brute force? Someday, somewhere, especially if there are more serious injuries of this nature, surely someone has to say enough.

ENDS.......................

Ireland’s hopes of taking a significant step towards back-to-back Grand Slams were considerably boosted when British & Irish Lions flanker Stephen Ferris was passed fit for the  key clash with France in Paris.

The tough Ferris has unexpectedly overcome a knee problem and will take his place in a powerful Irish side. His presence in terms of a strong, ball carrying loose forward and hard tackler will be vital for Declan Kidney. The Irish coach knows he will need his best possible team at the Stade de France for Ireland have only won twice in Paris since 1952.

The last time they did it, in 2000, Brian O’Driscoll scored a hat-trick of tries to steer them to a thrilling win. O’Driscoll is still in peerless form but he knows the French, who beat Scotland in Edinburgh last Sunday, will pose the severest possible test.

France are always the ultimate yardstick of where you are at, O’Driscoll has said. He believes they have so many outstanding players it doesn’t really matter that much who plays. They will be a very hard nut to crack for Ireland, he warns, and there certainly won’t be any complacency on his team's part.

The French have not won a Grand Slam since 2004 and coach Marc Lievremont knows he is under increasing pressure to put an end to such a run. Whether the freezing weather which has hit Paris will help either side is doubtful, so Ireland may well rely on the boot of experienced outside half Ronan O’Gara to put them into propitious attacking positions.

France, led by the outstanding Thierry Dusautoir at flank forward, have changed both wings from Edinburgh, Vincent Clerc and Alexis Palisson replacing the injured Aurelien Rougerie and Benjamin Fall.

France start as slight favourites but Ireland have enough quality players in key positions to push them all the way. It could be a desperately tight contest and if Ireland win, they will open up the road to the Grand Slam.

England, who meet Italy in Rome on Sunday, are the only other side still able to win a Grand Slam after the opening weekend. They have brought in Dan Cole, Leicester’s 22 year-old tight head prop, for his starting debut, while British Lions centre Riki Flutey, injured since the tour of South Africa last June, returns at last at inside centre.

England scrum coach Graham Rowntree said of Cole’s selection “There is an element of a gamble there but we know that he can do it. His temperament is his biggest strength.”

Italy, who lost 29-11 in Ireland and showed no ambition whatsoever to try and attack, will again focus on damage limitation under South African coach Nick Mallett. In reality, keeping down the score to acceptable proportions is their only objective, even at Rome’s Stadio Flaminio.

The final game of the weekend sees Wales entertain Scotland in Cardiff on Saturday. Both sides lost first time out, Wales to England at Twickenham and Scotland to the French. Wales still harbour hopes of contesting the Championship title even if a Grand Slam has gone but they have become embroiled in a petty dispute with the Scots over the roof at the Millenium stadium.

Scotland, as is their right, have insisted it remains open. Welsh coach Warren Gatland greeted that news by saying “Well, it doesn’t require rocket science to see what sort of a game they want to play. There looks sure to be a lot of kicking, especially if the pitch is wet, and I can’t understand in an era where entertainment is essential, why you would leave a pitch open to the elements if you don’t have to.”

ENDS..................

He’s a hulking 1.83m, 110 kgs brute and the bad boy of world rugby. He once catapulted his own country into a major diplomatic row with New Zealand after he’d lied to police in Wellington to cover up getting drunk.

So is Mathieu Bastareaud, the French centre who will line up against Brian O’Driscoll in Saturday’s 6 Nations clash between France and Ireland in Paris, just a thinly disguised thug ?  Far from it, says the man who knew him as well as anyone.

Australian Ewen McKenzie coached Bastareaud at Stade Francais and says he’s one of the quietest, shyest boys he’s ever coached. The McKenzie dossier is a fascinating counter argument to the sensational headlines about the big, bruising French threequarter who represents a massive threat to Ireland’s challenge at Stade de France this Saturday.

Bastareaud was recalled for this tournament after being axed by coach Marc Lievremont following his lies on the tour in New Zealand last June. There was a huge diplomatic fuss after extensive police enquiries were found to have been an utter waste of time when Bastareaud confessed.

The boy may have been crazy to concoct such a story. But for sure, he can play rugby as his two tries against Scotland at Edinburgh last Sunday proved.

But a bad boy? McKenzie smiles. “He might look it and when he gets out onto the field he just explodes. He’s a big boy and knows how to use that strength and size.

“But Mathieu is a quiet, shy, attentive lad. I had no issues with him at all. He’s a good kid. It was a big surprise to me what happened in New Zealand on that tour because he is certainly not arrogant. He’s more the type of shy, quiet guy although of course he doesn’t play that way.

“He’s a coach’s dream in a way.”

McKenzie helped Bastareaud’s development through the junior ranks at Stade Francais until he was a first team regular and then a member of the French national squad.

“I’ve got a lot of time for him. When I first met him, he was a really big kid even then but one just on the fringes. Yet in 12 months he went from the fringes of our squad to our first team and then the French national team and that was quite a transition.

Maybe it all came too fast for him, I’m not too sure.  But everyone makes mistakes in life and everyone matures at a different pace. No two people are alike and after all, he’s still only a young guy.

“Young men of 21 are not worldly and very experienced. Plenty of them make mistakes under pressure at that age but unfortunately for him, his became public.

“Therefore, it was great to see him score a couple of tries at Murrayfield after there had been so much doubt about him. He has worked his way through his problems and you’ve got to give him credit for that.”

McKenzie urges that the young Frenchman be judged now on what he does on the field, not off it. “You can’t judge him on the past, either, just on where he is now and where he is going to go.”

There is no doubt in anyone’s mind that Bastareaud can play, least of all Ewen McKenzie’s. “He is a real handful, a very promising player and extremely powerful. He’s a difficult customer who gives the opposition something to think about.”

And the clash with Brian O’Driscoll this weekend in Paris? Even from faraway Brisbane where he now coaches Super 14 outfit Queensland Reds, McKenzie is salivating at the prospect. “Those contests are the ones you look for as an international player.

“It’s the wily old campaigner who knows every trick in the book and has seen off all the great players against the up-and-coming, physically strong young kid who is just coming through. It’s going to be a great contest.”

For sure, Mathieu Bastareaud’s old Stade Francais coach will be hurrying home from Saturday’s Super 14 clash against the NSW Waratahs to watch the France-Ireland clash on television. McKenzie knows it could be a classic.

ENDS...............................................

McBride on Paris test

He calls it the toughest place in the world to go and play. Coming from Willie John McBride, who helped the 1971 and 1974 British & Irish Lions win Test series in New Zealand and South Africa,that is some statement.

But McBride insists that Paris is the most hostile rugby environment on the planet. “It is the most difficult place of all to win, no question about it. The atmosphere there is like nowhere else in the world.”

As Ireland prepare for this Saturday’s 6 Nations rugby international against France at Stade de France, Paris, McBride spoke of his own experiences of confronting the French in their own backyard.

“There is a real hatred coming out of the stands at Paris with all that booing. It was always like that, even in our day. I can remember playing at Stade Colombes in 1972, and you came up from underneath, out of the ground from the dressing rooms.

From that moment, they were jeering and throwing cigarette lighters at you. You were really up against it.

“I think in many ways it intimidated referees as well because of that. It was a real feeling of being inside a cauldron.”

1972 was the only time McBride beat a French side in Paris and he played there seven times. Some of the games were close, 9-6 in 1974, 8-0 in 1970 and 11-6 in 1966. But that 14-9 Irish win apart in 1972, McBride never tasted victory.

Why was 1972 different? “That day was certainly special for me. We had come from 1971 and New Zealand where the Lions had won, so we were all on a high. We were players who believed in ourselves and we believed we could beat France that day, even though it’s not easy to win there.

“That’s the one thing I would say to Brian O’Driscoll and his team. You must believe you can win, that is essential. In my experience, Paris was certainly more hostile than New Zealand as a place to play. You have to walk out there and experience it to know what I mean. And I think it’s still the same.

“It’s the drumming, the noise and the booing and whistling. You don’t get all that anywhere else in the world. Even when you see Heineken Cup matches now over there, you see that same fever and you know as a visiting player it’s not in support of you.”

Former Irish captain Noel Murphy once came up with an innovative idea on how to handle such occasions. “Now spread out lads and stick together” was his curious mixture of advice. What would McBride say to Ireland’s defending Grand Slam champions as they prepare for France at the Stade de France this Saturday?

“Self belief is the key to anything. For many years, there was this myth that New Zealand were unbeatable in their own country and I suppose South Africa as well. We demolished that myth in 1971 and 1974, as Ireland did to France in 1972.

 “I’d say to this Ireland team, it’s no good turning up if you don’t believe you can succeed. For example, in 1966, we went to New Zealand with the Lions to try and win but we didn’t really believe we were going to beat them.

“On one occasion when we met New Zealand in Dublin, someone said ‘We are not going to beat New Zealand but we can give them a miserable afternoon’. That was about the height of it in those days and it was true. But the trouble is, once you start saying that, you believe it and believe you won’t win.

“I think this Irish team can and should believe they can win. Nowadays in the 6 Nations, there really is nothing between the teams, or very, very little, anyway. It’s about the team that keeps its discipline, doesn’t have guys sent off because you can’t play this game with 14 men anymore” (as Wales showed at Twickenham last Saturday when they lost lock forward Alun-Wyn Jones to the sin bin and England scored 17 points while he was off the field).

McBride called for a repeat of the spirit and self belief that Ireland took to Cardiff for their Grand Slam win last year. He said “Ireland believed they could win that day, you could see it. For example, Ronan O’Gara was a targeted man for the whole game and he took a hell of a lot of physical abuse.

“But when it came to that late drop goal, he still had the poise and confidence to knock it over and that was down to self belief. That same sort of confidence will be needed this weekend in Paris.”

ENDS.................

 

They turned up, as ever more in hope than expectation. After all, when Ireland went to Paris to play France in 1972, they travelled in the knowledge that no Ireland team had won in the French capital since the 1951/2 season.

No matter. The Irish team led by Tom Kiernan beat France at the old Stade Colombes by 14pts to 9 that year. Willie John McBride this week recalled that trip 38 years ago and analysed the team-mates who helped him make Irish rugby history...........

“When you went to Paris in those days it was unreal. You were whizzed around from one place to the other, we couldn’t speak the language and it was all very amateurish. In fact, it was so amateur it was unbelievable. For example, we would go into dinner and wouldn’t know what we were eating.

“There was the usual pre-match ritual, a visit to the Folies Bergeres on the Friday night. There used to be a lot of hullabaloo from the press about that, saying they were out enjoying themselves, they weren’t concentrating on the match. There may have been a certain amount of that but we weren’t out drinking. But the press used to get photos of us there and if we got beaten, which we normally did, people would say ‘Oh, they were out enjoying themselves’ which was utter rubbish.

“But the whole weekend was a bit unreal. Paris was a strange place, not really a rugby city. Nobody knew what the people were doing there but almost all the people that went to the game would come up from the south of France for the match.”

And what did they get up to in Paris on the Saturday night? “Oh I can’t remember that” laughed McBride. “But you just came home on the Sunday and went back to work on the Monday morning as though nothing had happened. Little did we realise it would be another 27 years before Ireland won in Paris again.”

McBride’s musings on the Irish team that day are fascinating:

Tom Kiernan (Cork Con.) “As captain, he was very good, very solid and also very respected by the players. He was a calming influence and always took the sensible attitude to things. He wouldn’t expect impossible things from players and he was very much in favour of the 15 man game. He used to say, ‘We’re all going to make mistakes so it’s up to us to help each other’, that sort of thing.

Tom Grace (UC Dublin) He was another player who was a great influence. He was always buzzing. He captained Ireland later on in his career.

Mike Gibson (NIFC) He had been outstanding the previous year on the Lions tour of New Zealand and he certainly believed in himself. He was a class player, one of the best I ever saw. He had some wonderful skills.

Kevin Flynn (Wanderers) He was a superb player and by then had been around a long time so he knew what to expect. Remarkably, he’d made his debut as far back as 1959 but he hadn’t  played international rugby for six years from 1966 to 1972.

Wallace McMaster (Ballymena) He never had a bad game for Ireland.

Barry McGann (Cork Con.) He was a very solid player, someone who took no nonsense and was widely respected.

Johnny Moloney (St. Mary’s) A talented player, for sure, and a very lively influence behind  his forwards.

Sean Lynch (St. Mary’s) He had made his name in New Zealand the year before on the Lions tour, where he’d played in all four Tests. So he knew what to expect and was a solid, very dependable figure.

Ken Kennedy (London Irish) He was a superb hooker and he knew French rugby quite well. He had friends there and used to ‘to and fro’ from France and play a bit of rugby there, I think. He had been around a long time by 1972, because he’d made his Irish debut in 1965. In those days, these guys were genuine hookers – you don’t need a hooker in today’s game! Ken was the best hooker of a ball I have ever seen. He could do unbelievable things with his head and body. He was good in the loose, too; he ran around a lot although he was offside a lot, too. But he got away with that !

Ray McLoughlin (Blackrock College) He was very solid, a great thinker about the game. He was an excellent motivator because he made people think. When you got to a line-out, every man knew what his role was in that particular line-out. For Ireland, that was very unusual in those days until McLoughlin came on the scene. When you got in a scrum, we knew where the ball was going, we knew whether we were going to 8-man push or wheel it and whether we’d do a back row move. Everybody knew what was happening but we’d never had that sort of thing before. Ray was the man who organised all that and he was the man who should have captained the 1966 Lions in New Zealand. He had a lot of experience by then and anyway, Ray never lacked any self belief.

Con Feighery (Lansdowne) He only won three caps for Ireland and they were all that season. I played with seven or eight different guys in the second row during my time. I don’t know whose fault that was.  I played a hell of a lot with Bill Mulcahy and also a lot with Mick Molloy and I will always say about Molloy, he was one of the most under rated players I ever played with. He and I combined superbly. He was a physically strong player but sadly was never a Lion. He would have been tremendous on a Lions tour.

Fergus Slattery (Blackrock College) He covered so much ground in Paris. Normally, Paris was a firmer pitch than we would have played on at home and Slattery was superb at the breakdowns and also in pressurising the French. They were superb with the ball but Slattery put immense pressure on them which was great.

Sean McKinney (Dungannon) He was a very hard, solid, strong man who would go on the 1974 Lions tour to South Africa.

Denis Hickie (St. Mary’s) Uncle of Denis, the wing who played for Ireland more recently. He won 6 caps, four in 1971, just the two the next year. He was no fool as a player; strong and determined.

“They were all tough players. This was a good Irish team and that’s what won us that game because for the first time we really took on a French team out there. So when you looked through that side, there was a core there of seven or eight players, about half the team, that were really world class players. That was the difference to other years.”

ENDS.................................

It appears increasingly likely that it will fall to the South African referees to sort out another mess that is infecting world rugby.

Not just in the Super 14, which begins this week, but in the 6 Nations tournament which began in the northern hemisphere last weekend.

South Africa currently has the best referees in the world in Mark Lawrence and Jonathan Kaplan. Craig Joubert and Marius Jonker are not that far behind and all four will officiate at 6 Nations internationals this season.

What these referees will find when they get to the northern hemisphere is widespread abuse of the 5 metre offside  gap in all aspects of play, but especially at second phase. Players are encroaching well ahead of the rear most feet, the line stipulated in the law book as the offside limit.

This has meant the game has atrophied all over the northern hemisphere.

Players are receiving both man and ball in the same instant and not even a genius can play under those circumstances.

The law book stipulates a 5 metre gap must be adhered to. In most cases, as last Saturday in Dublin showed, it is more normally around a metre and a half. The whole game between Ireland and Italy was a series of crunching collisions at close quarters and one of the reasons was, French referee Romain Poite ignored the consistent offside of both teams defending the gain line.

Such a failure is destroying the attacking part of the game. That doesn’t matter if all spectators wish to see nowadays is a series of great behemoths hurling themselves at a wall of similarly built beasts. Personally, I’d watch American Football if that was my pleasure.

Referees have been told to crackdown on two issues, preventing the tackler holding onto the tackled player and thereby sealing off the ball to the attacking side, and the number of re-set scrums.

But referees like Poite forget about other crucial facets of the game. In this respect, he alone is not deficient in that regard.

To be asked to believe, as Poite’s non-refereeing of that phase suggested, that not a single player stepped over the offside line in the first hour of Saturday’s match, is stretching credibility to  breaking point, especially when less than five minutes studying the game through binoculars revealed enough offenders to fill a prison ship moored off London’s Thames Estuary.

Poite took 66 minutes to penalise an offside on the gain line, a ludicrously misplaced faith in players’ honesty and judgement. Thus, we had no game.

For the sake of the attacking game, we have to hope the South Africans are much tougher.

ENDS.....................

 

 

 
France made the most emphatic statement on the opening weekend of the 6 Nations Championship with a comprehensive defeat of Scotland in Edinburgh.
 
The French, overwhelmingly more physical and superior especially in the set pieces and at the breakdown, wore down the Scots to secure an 18-9 victory at Murrayfield. Recalled centre Matthieu Bastareaud scored two first half tries, the second after a 40 metre dash, to put the French in total control.
 
That meant France led 15-6 at half time and they quickly added a second penalty by scrum half Morgan Parra for an 18-6 lead. Chris Paterson’s third penalty goal reduced the deficit but with France enjoying 75% of the second half territory, Marc Lievremont’s team were always in control.
 
Scotland had awful problems in the set scrums where unavailable tight head prop Euan Murray, who did not play because his religious beliefs precluded sporting activity on a Sunday, was badly missed.

I thought this was a very clear message from the French at the start of this year’s tournament. Their forwards were much too much for Scotland and for sure they will focus Ireland’s attention on how to handle the firepower of this big French pack.

Yet perhaps the scariest thing of all was that France were without three of their most powerful forwards, Biarritz loose head prop Fabien Barcella, Toulouse lock forward Romain Millo-Schluski, now regarded by Lievremont as arguably his most important player, and Toulouse No. 8 Louis Picamoles. Add on the power those three would offer and you begin to understand the potential of the French.
 
Reigning Grand Slam champions Ireland, who go to Paris this Saturday to meet France at the Stade de France, will have taken due notice of France’s immense power. It promises to give Ireland a very tough challenge. It was a most convincing performance by France who have already taken the scalps of New Zealand and South Africa in the course of the last eight months.
 
In both the other matches of the weekend, at Dublin and Twickenham on Saturday, neither of the winning sides, Ireland and England, were entirely convincing.
 
Ireland beat Italy 29-11 but given they led 23-8 at half time after first half tries by Jamie Heaslip and Tomas O’Leary, the Irish were frustrated by their inability to score many more points after the break.
 
Ronan O’Gara kicked 16 points with two conversions and four penalty goals. But the truth was, Ireland looked rusty and will need to be much sharper against France in Paris this Saturday. I also think Ireland will need Lions flanker Stephen Ferris back in their back row if they are to give the French pack something to think about.

Ferris was badly missed on Saturday for his ball carrying, aggressive runs and enormous workrate. But listening to the medical update from coach Declan Kidney after Saturday’s game, you had to conclude Ferris’s chances of being fit for Paris sounded slim.
 
Irish captain Brian O’Driscoll said “There is no point getting frustrated overall. It was the first game of the tournament, the job was done, you take the positives out of it and move on.”
 
Italy were poor and they lost seven line-outs, from one of which came directly O’Leary’s first try in international rugby. South African coach Nick Mallett admitted “At 23-8 down at half time, we were looking very much in danger. It’s impossible to play any sort of pressure rugby if you don’t win your first phase ball .But credit to our players who kept going and made sure we did not concede any more tries after half time.”
 
Next up for Italy on Sunday is England, in Rome, an equally tough task.

Martin Johnson’s men beat Wales 30-17 but chiefly because of a crazy trip by Wales and Lions lock Alun Wyn Jones just before half time. In the 10 minutes he spent in the sin bin for the offence, England scored 17 points. It was the decisive phase and showed the impossibility of trying to play this modern game with 14 men. It was a harsh lesson for the player to learn.
 
Even so, England saw their 20-3 lead shrink to 20-17 when James Hook scored a brilliant individual try with 13 minutes left. But a late interception which gave flanker James Haskell his second try, to go with one by scrum half Danny Care, settled it for England.
 
It was, however, a scrappy match with a load of errors. Injury hit Wales made constant mistakes and paid a high price.

England were relieved to return to winning ways after a poor November. But much better will be needed from England if they are to challenge for the Championship title this season.
 
 
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