Missing men
IRELAND HAVE BEEN able to welcome back some pretty irreplaceable talents like Brian O’Driscoll, Rob Kearney and Sean O’Brien.
However, absentees don’t come much bigger than Paul O’Connell, Stephen Ferris and Tommy Bowe.
Starting with the latter, Bowe has been Ireland’s most potent attacking threat for the last four years, and no matter how exciting Simon Zebo and Craig Gilroy are at club level, it will take them some bedding in time before they can contribute what Bowe can.
As for the other two brutes. Well, almost any team in the world would miss O’Connell, if not for his raw power then for his leadership within the pack, urging everyone give a little extra.
Ferris has a good case to be considered the best blind-side in the world, Ireland escaped with a draw from France last year because of his last-minute intervention.
These lads will be badly missed.
Over-reliance on front rows
In Cian Healy, Rory Best and Mike Ross we have a very strong front row. However, this year sees the introduction of the extra man to the bench in the Six Nations.
That means no more choosing between a loose-head and a tight-head. Countries like France and England with an embarrassment of riches will take advantage of our over-worked props by telling their opposite numbers to go into overdrive for 45, 50 minutes because there will fresh recruits called off the bench for the final half hour.
The pressure is on the ball-handling skills to avoid scrums wherever possible.
Disharmony
From a distance, the squad looked in buoyant mood in November, but that was largely down to the star quality of Simon Zebo and the breakthrough of Craig Gilroy.
There are enough rumblings from those with connections in the camp to signal that all’s not rosy in the garden behind Carton House.
It began with Brian O’Driscoll speaking out at the start of the season, asking that the coaching ticket be sorted out. Then Michael Bent was parachuted into the side without a single provincial cap to his name.
And, most recently, O’Driscoll’s disappointment at losing the captaincy does not seem to have abated.
Lack of invention
Again, we must look back to Bowe’s absence. So many of Ireland’s moves culminated with the Monaghan man. When that ceased to work Ireland under Declan Kidney have a tendancy to run out of ideas and move from side to side.
When the tails are up, Jonathan Sexton and O’Driscoll can draw defenders with a Randwick Loop or two, but a side who falls for that a third time isn’t usually much of an opponent.
Kearney’s return will make us a more potent kick-chase team. And that might be the most worrying factor of all.
We’re just not as good as France, Wales or even England
Are we absolutely sure that the Heineken Cup is a good enough barometer of what our national team should achieve.
No other nation with pretentions of winning silverware has as many international team-mates playing together week-in, week-out. Does that benefit the province, or the national team?
We have some incredibly talented individual players, but when we come together as a unit, we never seem to become greater than the sum as Wales and England do.
France have recovered from their World Cup hangover and Philippe Saint Andre looks ready to lift France’s first title since 2010. They will have to win in Dublin to win secure a Grand Slam, but they’re usually quite good at that sort of thing.
Too negative? Keep an eye out for ’5 reasons Deccie will do the business”.
