“It’s our team and we want to put it right.”
Those were the words of a stern-looking Conor Murray at this week’s team announcement at Carton House. The good vibes of the Six Nations opening week had well and truly been replaced by an Irish team yearning for the hands of time to speed up so they could tear into Italy.
Ireland got their championship off to a stinker in Edinburgh. The only silver lining of their 27-22 loss to Scotland coming in the booby prize bonus point that came for finishing within seven points of their conquerors.
The coaches had their say after the game, and in the shrill Monday afternoon video review, but the players took a grip of the situation and knocked some heads together… metaphorically speaking, of course.
Cian Healy, one of two changes to this Ireland team, told us:
“That’s where the likes of Rory Best and Jamie Heaslip and all the main, senior lads are pretty good. Simple stuff about structures, how we play around the corner or if we hit backlines – having that as clear as day for us. Sometimes it is not clear as day when you get into that frantic sort of rugby so we settle things down.
“The lads brought the whole mood of camp down a little bit, took it away from the loss and brought it to the positivity of what we had ahead.”
The Leinster prop says it is not simply a matter of focusing on the next game. Sometimes, in the long run, it is good to hurt for a while.
“You use it and you have to wear the loss but you certainly can’t sit and mope in the corner.
“You have to take what you can from it and the lads are pretty good at it. Saying, ‘We did this shit’ or ‘We didn’t have good enough discipline for X penalty’ or whatever, ‘Structurally we need to this’, and then move on.”
One area the Italians may look to replicate the Scots, from last week, is in slowing Ireland at the breakdown and pinning men in to win penalties. Healy explains what he and his teammates need to do to ensure there are no Murrayfield repeats of collisions lost and easy shots at the sticks awarded. He said:
“Contact entry is the main thing. If we’re hitting a ruck properly, we shouldn’t be getting pinned down by somebody. We should be blasting through – shoulder contact – and they’ll end up on the ground, or whatever, and we will still be standing. That’s the idea.
“They can pin a tackler but ideally we are getting tackled and we bounce back on our feet and go for a barge [to] bounce back out into the defensive line, whatever. Ideally, our work-rate is going to be higher than [being] sluggish on the ground and allowing them to pin us in.”
The air has been cleared.
This team, we are told, is player-led. It is time for the players lead us back in the right direction.
