IRELAND PLAYERS WILL make a tentative walk into a team meeting in Carton House today.
There’ll be fronting up, accountability and admissions of guilt in spades. But, according to Robbie Henshaw, Andy Farrell’s defence meetings don’t see heads roll or blood spattered onto the grand old walls of their 17th century Maynooth hotel.
“It’s all calmly delivered,” Henshaw said as he was sent to face the media yesterday, “it’s (making sure) the pictures we see in training are what we see in the games.”
The brunt of the cringe factor watching back the disastrous first half in Murrayfield may be taken away by a feeling that Ireland managed to put a fix in place at the interval to stem the flow of Scottish line-breaks.
“It was more our spacing around the ruck,” explains Henshaw, “we were too narrow and weren’t getting off the line. We were square on them instead of hunting them from the inside.
Our spacing was what we needed to fix – in the second half we did fix it and that allowed myself and Garry get off the line, putting in some shots and shutting down Finn Russell.”
It’s bitterly disappointing that the change of tack could not have come sooner for Ireland and their hopes of building momentum towards a Grand Slam. The presence of senior order-barkers Jonathan Sexton and Jared Payne was, it seems, sorely missed as 23-year-old Henshaw had to take command.
“On the weekend, our communication could have been better. Johnny and Jared have been around a while, they’re masters at it. A few younger guys – myself, Garry and Paddy – are still growing in confidence, finding a voice.
“I think we grew into the game. We fixed the defence and attacked flatter in the second half. It felt like a different game for us in the second half. If we go into this week with the mindset we had in the second half we’ll do a lot better.”
Italy showed against Wales that they are capable of unleashing an early onslaught. And in atrocious weather, also displayed flashes of handling skills to suggest they will be more dangerous when their home turf is dry. Though their engine and ability to last the full 80 remains a big question mark, Ireland can’t afford to be off their early mark a second week running – even if there are waterworks on the bus route again in Rome.
“Playing angry is one thing, but, we need to get our detail right first and we need to prepare ourselves the best we can, first and foremost. We need to have a look at what’s coming this weekend and how and where we can attack the Italians.
“Playing with emotion is obviously a great thing, but we need to know our roles and do our jobs the best we can.”
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