Ireland need to adapt their rigid tactical thinking to a changing game and resolve some key selection dilemmas
Rigid tactical thinking
They're certainly wedded to the "choke tackle" that became their party piece in the grand slam season in 2009. When it works, it ties up man and ball for a turnover. The fact that it was so successful in the World Cup against the Wallabies, who wandered into it as a tourist goes down a dark alley, has extended the love affair with a tactic that takes no one by surprise anymore, and consequently is less useful. Confining it to specific circumstances ? ie close to the breakdown rather than in wide channels ? is easy enough. What is harder, evidently, is adapting to a changing game. Having been exposed by Wales in Wellington four months ago there was a reprise last weekend, despite their pre?match resolve to take control of their affairs. Perhaps the absence of Brian O'Driscoll, who has an extraordinary ability to make big plays in pressured moments, is leaving them shorter than they thought but there is enough experience in the group to think quicker on their feet than this.
Passive defending
The second row Paul O'Connell has admitted the defence against Wales was not up to Ireland's usual high standards. "It wasn't a system policy, it's just that we were just a bit soft when we didn't need to be at times [against Wales]," he said. "It kind of frustrated the guys a lot and Les [Kiss, defence coach] a lot because defence is a big part of our game, and that's probably two games in a row now where it hasn't been up to the standard that's required to achieve results in these big games against big teams. Defence is a massive part of our game and we need to have it at the standard that's required." Their remarkable decision to stand off such a physically imposing Welsh attack led to them conceding eight points, and the game, in the final five minutes.
Selection dilemmas
Is selection at the core of their problems? No. It is not the case that a battalion of likely lads are being ignored, but Declan Kidney is certainly conservative and there are four areas of debate: Donnacha Ryan ahead of Donncha O'Callaghan in the second row; Sean O'Brien's suitability as an openside; Jonny Sexton versus Ronan O'Gara at 10; and the 12-13 combination, where Gordon D'Arcy is blessed to survive the axe after a poor performance against Wales. Kidney had the option of moving Fergus McFadden to 12 against France but instead opted to relegate him to the bench. At fly-half, even O'Gara fans would not suggest he would have been the difference between winning and losing last weekend. As for O'Brien, the European player of the year in 2011, he is more a carrier than a poacher. Shane Jennings is the senior candidate in that department and, having been included initially in the squad despite poor form, was then gazumped by Peter O'Mahony who is uncapped, and somewhere between six and seven.
Declan Kidney's personnel problems
Decision-making is not his thing, and choosing to replace backs coach Alan Gaffney after the World Cup with a work-share operation between Les Kiss and kicking coach Mark Tainton looked like a non-decision. After the World Cup the players identified their attack as the area they most wanted to improve. The opening instalment since then didn't deliver royally ? fair enough ? but Wales shut them down so often it highlighted how far they have to travel. And the defence, literally, has gone backwards. Kidney refused to be rushed into filling his backroom staff when he was appointed in 2008 ? he was credited for his patience when getting top class operators in Gert Smal, Kiss and Gaffney ? and he is gambling on a reshuffle delivering results.
Failure to transfer club form to Test arena
The coach suggests the lesser competition is more forgiving. "The small things will be punished way more at international level than they will be at Heineken Cup level," Kidney said. "But that's the same then between Heineken Cup matches and league matches in any country. There's a step up all along the route. There's a substantial difference and any of the lads who have played the game have gone on record to say that." They've also gone on record to say something slightly different. Last week Jamie Heaslip said that in Leinster they refer to the knockout stages of Europe as their "Test matches," because they see them as being on a par with international rugby. Going into their grand slam campaign in 2009, Ireland had two teams ? Munster and Leinster ? as pool winners in Europe, and it was credited with helping them survive a brilliant running game by France in the first round of the championship. Now that they have the unique achievement of three provinces in the knockouts they slump to Wales on day one. Without a radical shift in performance those provinces will go back to the Heineken Cup quarter-finals with players who are hungover from a Six Nations slump.
Source: http://www.guardian.co.uk/sport/blog/2012/feb/10/ireland-five-things-to-fix
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