Rugby Six Nations Championship:CALL IT maturity. Call it Declan Kidney's natural disposition. Call it Brian O'Driscoll's experience of career ups and downs, heightened expectations and, occasionally, crushed dreams. A win over France opened possibilities for this Six Nations Championships but few below in the stands after the Croke Park match were reaching for heroic imagery or promising Grand Slam crusades.
“One-game-win momentum,” said captain O’Driscoll summing it up somewhat frankly. No more, no less.
“Granted France are top-class opposition. But at the same time let’s not get carried away,” he cautioned.
“You can’t win a Six Nations with a first win but essentially you can lose it. We are where we want to be. We’ve played one game. We’ve won one game. We’re happy with the performance. We’ll enjoy it for a few hours tonight and then get on with Italy tomorrow. Simple as that.”
Kidney’s mood, or the one presented for public consumption, was equally dampened. His great capacity is to play down important wins even more than excusing defeat.
The psychologist inside rarely stops intruding. Gracious to his team for their commitment and pluck when it was needed, he also found worth in the experience pool of the squad. Input even came from players who did not make the pitch.
“The lads have been great in the way they have been coming up with ideas,” said the coach. “Strings (Peter Stringer) inside in the dressingroom, was putting in his tuppence worth at half-time. When you have that kind of experience there, it is prudent to tap into it and get fellas to come out with it. So it’s their game plan.
“But it is still like 24 hours ago. We still have four teams (to play) and we still have to work really hard. If you’ve followed them (players) around for the last month you will have seen how hard they have worked. They should be extremely proud of themselves.”
Closing down the French and extinguishing their confidence-fuelled flair was also an important part of the winning narrative. Strangling their ambitious running game, imposing an Irish shape on the game was the winning of it.
“Our defence was top class,” added Kidney. “The forwards were immense. It’s only right to mention Paul’s (O’Connell) contribution during the week. He was brilliant. We are lucky that we have a great bunch of team leaders, the two lads here (O’Driscoll and O’Gara) and Paul. That aspect needed to be right today.
“If you give France free space they are brilliant. Some of the movements they were coming up with today were exceptionally good. A few times in the first half, when they were fresh, they made inroads on us. But we managed to close them off and no more so than in the last 30 seconds . . . the try wouldn’t have affected the result but the boys had great pride in it.”
An O’Driscoll try, replete with side step, highlighted some of the nonsense about him being a fading light, while his soldiering partner for so long, Gordon D’Arcy, sought to make a claim for starting recognition. It was trademark D’Arcy. A change of direction, a spin and natural strength took him over despite being festooned with French cover.
“Gordon is a top-class international,” said Kidney. “He asked me himself what I wanted him to do. I just asked him to play. I think the little bit of feet he was able to put on it . . . he’ll be clamouring for his place but Paddy (Wallace) did exceptionally well too.”
And then there’s Rob Kearney, Luke Fitzgerald, Jerry Flannery, Jamie Heaslip. A terrific win but Kidney and O’Driscoll remain shrewdly cautious. Baby steps indeed.
