Basking in the calm of recovery mode at Ireland’s pre Six Nations training base in Portugal before next week’s storm against France, and assistant coach Simon Easterby believes the team have learned some harsh lessons from their defeat to New Zealand in last October’s Rugby World Cup quarter-final.
Facing France in the opening championship match in Marseille on Friday night for their first competitive outing since the disappointment of Paris, Easterby and the rest of the team, head coach Andy Farrell and Mike Catt, have poured over the video and pinpointed missed scoring opportunities against the All Blacks.
With a clean bill of health given to the squad, including Irish captain Peter O’Mahony who came off the pitch following a heavy collision in the 60th minute of Munster’s recent Champions Cup 26-23 defeat to Northampton Saints, Easterby feels the scores against Ireland were too easy, while the team might have more ruthlessly hurt the All Blacks when they had their chances.
“I wouldn’t say firing shots, maybe that wasn’t the right term, more that we looked at it this week with Faz [Andy Farrell] and Catts [Mike Catt] and we had opportunities to go and punish New Zealand more and we didn’t do that,” said Easterby. “Certainly we scored points, no doubt. I just think we were a little bit too easy to score against. All three tries came from less than three or four phases. In terms of the other side the ball in attack, there were just a couple of opportunities that we feel if we’d have been in a slightly better position, worked a little bit harder to get into position, we would have taken those opportunities to score.
“That was what I was trying to get at. We did that, and we went after New Zealand. We went 13-0 down and we came back, kept going after them, but just let them get ahead again and that was the difference.”
Easterby added that the outhalves in the squad have seamlessly grasped their briefs. Jack Crowley is expected to be the starting player against the French in a match where the winners will be considered firm favourites for the championship.
But Crowley won’t have it all his own way. In the first squad of the post-Johnny Sexton era he has the hungry trio of Harry Byrne, Ciarán Frawley and Sam Prendergast to keep the competitive edge alive. Prendergast, however, is largely in the squad as part of a learning curve along with prop Ollie Jager and Connacht flanker Cian Prendergast, who replaced the injured Tom Ahern.
“He [Crowley] will have learned a huge amount from his time with Johnny [Sexton], as would all of our 10s, Harry, Frawls and Sam coming in as well,” said Easterby. “So I think we’ve got a really good blend of players in that position at the moment. Players who are hungry to take the baton on, and Jack’s certainly one of those.
“The other guys will be pushing each other to try and force our hand in selection but I think it’s a really nice group at the moment because there’s a bit of a void to fill, I guess. But that’s what losing a player like Johnny leaves. All four of them, Sam included, are really working hard to fill that and try and emulate and better what we’ve done before.”
Many of the Irish players will not have played before in the Orange Velodrome, chosen as Stade de France prepares for the Olympic Games athletics and Rugby Sevens events, which begin in July. France have scheduled other matches against England in Lyon and Italy in Lille.
“A lot of players wouldn’t have experienced that ground,” says Easterby. “Maybe a little bit more open than Stade de France.”
There is no real concern, although French coach Fabien Galthie promised at this week’s launch of the championship that there would be a louder Irish welcome than in Paris because of the “Mediterranean” personality of the fans.
“The French will be smarting from what happened in the World Cup, as will we,” says Easterby. “You know, a new coach in Italy, slightly different style. And then the Welsh have gone a slightly different route, picking a lot of youngsters. But Gats [Warren Gatland] gets them in a great place. And England and Scotland will probably feel like they have transitioned from the World Cup.”
A new beginning for well travelled players.
