DECLAN KIDNEY MAY have named a familiar starting XV for Saturday’s trip to the Stade de France, but the Ireland coach promised this afternoon that his players won’t fall into the same traps which cost them last Sunday.
Ireland’s faint dreams of a Grand Slam or Triple Crown were brought crashing down at the first hurdle last weekend when Wales came to Dublin and stole a 23-21 victory with a Leigh Halfpenny penalty at the death.
Now all that remains is an outside shot at the championship itself, a prospect which hinges on a win in Paris, something which Ireland have not managed since the so-called ”golden generation” burst onto the scene in 2000.
Kidney has made just one change to his starting line-up, with Keith Earls replacing Fergus McFadden at outside centre. The faces are largely the same, but the tactics will be fresh and focused on a few key problem areas.
“We gave Wales a lot of field position,” Kidney admitted at this afternoon’s squad announcement at Carton House.
We probably could’ve been a little bit smarter in how we got out of our own half, and we’ve taken a look at that. Obviously, we gave them a bit of room as well when they did run the ball. We could look at closing down that space a little bit more.
“I think Wales did play well. They retained the ball well. When they did bring it into contact, they closed it off well then too so it was quite difficult to get the ball back.”
One of the major criticisms aimed at Sunday’s tactics was the amount time that half-backs Conor Murray and Jonny Sexton kicked away possession — 30 times to be precise — often at the expense of keeping the ball in hand and trying to build a counter-attack.
It was frustrating, particularly in light of the pre-tournament talk of an open, expansive running game which never materialised. Murray and Sexton both start again on Saturday, but this time around, it all needs to be a lot tighter.
“No matter who you’re playing, if you’re loose with your kicking game, then it’s going to give the opposition a chance to counter-attack a lot and retain the ball a lot,” said Kidney. “We know we need to get smarter in that area.”
At the same time, the coach is rightly wary about spending too much time looking back over his shoulder, and not enough time preparing for the challenges that lie in store.
“It’s a different team that we’re playing on Saturday. You have to watch how much emphasis you put on what happened before, because France present a whole different set of challenges.
It is important to look back, but certainly with a six-day turnaround, not to look back for too long and just to work forward then towards what’s going to be a huge challenge against a team that was in the World Cup final not too long ago.
Paul O’Connell, who continues to skipper the squad in the absence of Brian O’Driscoll, echoed his coach’s sentiments, particularly when it came to players shooting themselves in the foot with silly mistakes against Wales.
“There’s a lot we have to improve on,” O’Connell admitted.
Certainly some of the basic errors we made early on — missed touch, the ball we gave to Bradley Davies at the front of the line-out, myself going ahead of the kicker — a few little silly mistakes that you just can’t make at that level, really those things need to be cut out. I think if we can do that early on, it can make a big difference to us.
“We got off to a bad start and conceded a lot of momentum and a lot of pressure to the Welsh. I think against France, particularly away from home, you have to start well. That’s going to be important for us.”
