It was hardly a performance to have the Wallabies trembling in their boots but Ireland’s narrow loss to Scotland last weekend wasn’t exactly a disaster either. There were negatives, sure, but these early warm up games are in place so the Irish management can discover which players are in form and which combinations work well.
This is one of the key reasons Kidney has gone for so many warm up games as opposed to Scotland, who now have just the one more encounter before the World Cup. If Ireland played like this in their final warm up game against England however, there would be serious cause for concern.
Let us put the performance into context firstly. It wasn’t as poor as many people have intimated. The defence was solid throughout, aside from one error late on which afforded the Scots their winning score. There are also plenty of positives to draw in terms of individual displays. Rob Kearney returned with aplomb, looking much sharper than expected if truth be told considering the length of his absence. That solid eighty minutes ensures his place on the plane.
Elsewhere, wingers Luke Fitzgerald and Andrew Trimble both put in decent shifts with the latter one of the stand out Irish players on the day. Jonny Sexton looked assured and looked every inch Ireland’s first choice out half while his half back partner Tomás O’Leary did well in spurts, although his delivery remains too slow.
The novice pack also stood up quite well to their Scottish counterparts, who had a near first choice eight. Leo Cullen led well and Denis Leamy was predictably combative from the back row. Mike McCarthy put his sizeable frame around quite effectively also and the competition for back row places is as fierce as it ever has been.
Now for the not-so-goods. Ireland were poor in attack and played with little shape going forward. They did manage to retain the ball well but severely lacked a cutting edge. When going through the phases, Kidney’s side laboured their way from left to right, without ever truly looking dangerous. It was Andrew Trimble who injected most life into the Irish attack, running some good strong lines off Sexton.
This lack of imagination and dynamism in attack can be expected of course, given the amount of new combinations on show. On this topic, the new look centre partnership didn’t work, although neither McFadden nor Wallace played particularly poorly. Wallace was quite tidy in midfield at times and McFadden was generally strong in defence, without ever really getting any space to attack.
I would still like to see McFadden in the 12 role with O’Driscoll beside him before casting any judgement. My position remains the same on Paddy Wallace however as judgement has been well and truly cast in this instance. He is a tidy player but not an international class 12.
It is France in Bordeaux up next and a completely different challenge to that of Scotland. The French will test the Irish defence more stringently with their offloading game and their ability to strike out wide. Expect more tinkering from Kidney, although we probably won’t see Brian O’Driscoll just yet. Geordan Murphy may make an appearance however as the talented full back got 50 minutes under his belt for the Leicester Tigers on Monday.
Including the Connacht encounter, there are five warm up games for Ireland. The key for Kidney is extracting as much information as possible from these five games; what works, what doesn’t. It is not easy to make such massive calls based on such short timeframes but that is the nature of the beast.
With the World Cup looming, the public will be looking to see progress against France on Saturday evening, as indeed will Kidney and his management team. A new midfield paring will probably be in situ too and it will be interesting to see Kidney’s handling of this one. Does he explore as many combinations as possible or does give a new partnership time to flourish, considering the doubt now hanging over Gordon D’Arcy?
Either way, you would expect to see mass changes as Kidney looks to give the fringe players their opportunity and valuable match fitness to the established ones already on the plane. The Scottish game was no disaster but it would be comforting to see some fluency against France this weekend. The time for reckoning is nearing.