ON THE MORNING after their country’s World Cup semi-final exit, the New Zealand Herald blacked out its front page, allowing just enough space for the following couple of sentences. “The All Blacks are out of the World Cup. If you want to read more, go to the sports section.”
It’s an old newspaper trick – a visual ploy to draw readers in. But it only really works when something big happens. And on this weekend it did. It wasn’t just that New Zealand lost. It was how they lost.
Overpowered and overran, they were outplayed and out of the tournament. Their conquerors, England, were simply too good for the greatest nation to ever play the game and this, remember, was just four months ago. In other words, the same team who outgunned Ireland yesterday were the team who caused the editorial team of New Zealand’s national newspaper to go for a cover special last October.
Perhaps this context is needed when analysing where Ireland are right now. We’re not trying to downplay the poverty of their first-half performance yesterday because they were awful in that opening 40 minutes.
But it seems clear after yesterday’s 24-12 defeat that the world’s elite are on a higher level. England certainly were yesterday; the All Blacks proved they were too in Japan. The question for Andy Farrell now is what does he have to do to close the gap?
Is it time for Andy Farrell to wield the axe?
France did. Yet you can’t make a like-for-like comparison between the two countries. Under Bernard LaPorte’s administration, a plan has been put in place to build towards 2023, which is all well and good when you have the depth of talent to bin a couple of dozen top-class players.
But that luxury isn’t available to Farrell. Ireland have four professional teams, France 28 – even if some of those in ProD2 are semi-professional. Nevertheless, you need to keep that in mind when the request goes in for widespread change.
Farrell simply can’t afford to have a widespread cull of his squad. The IRFU’s unwritten rules have already resulted in Simon Zebo, Donncha Ryan and Ian Madigan being placed in exile. You can’t be ageist and discriminate against players because they may be too old in 2023. If there were ready-made replacements to come in, then maybe you could consider that option. But there aren’t.
Short-term, though, he can make some changes and it’s clear that his starting XV needs a shake-up. John Cooney simply has to be given his chance, Iain Henderson should come back in again for Devin Toner, while Caelan Doris and Ronan Kelleher have what it takes to be trusted not just from the start against Italy (if that match goes ahead) but also against France.
Shouldn’t Johnny Sexton also be on that list?
No, not yet. Two reasons, firstly because this isn’t like the Murray/Cooney debate. Cooney has been knocking on the door for over a year, Ross Byrne has barely got through the garden gate. Yes, Sexton had a shocker on Sunday but he was good against Wales and had a better game against the Scots than he was given credit for. Secondly, he’s captain. You don’t ditch your skipper after one bad day.
What about Jacob Stockdale?
Like Sexton, he didn’t play well on Sunday and has a habit of dithering around his own goal-line. Remember the All Black quarter-final defeat? Remember the Elliot Daly try at the Aviva last year?
While he hasn’t been on a scoring spree recently, you only have to cast your mind back to 2018 to remember how good he can be, when those seven tries in the grand slam campaign were followed up by the match-winner against the All Blacks. Should Farrell take him aside and say, ‘no matter what, you’re getting picked because I believe in you’, then there would be sound logic in that kind of man-management.
By the same token, a one-game rest may be the tonic he needs to sort his head out. Long-term, though, he has to be part of the plans. He’s too good.
What do Ireland’s next scheduled opponents, Italy, bring to the table?
Several wooden spoons.
If the Italy match is called off because of the Coronavirus, will that affect Ireland?
In the short term, not at all. The World Cup is a prime example of how postponements worked in teams’ favour – France, England and New Zealand looking way fresher than their quarter-final opponents after getting the weekend off on the back of Typhoon Hagibus’ impact on the tournament. But if Italy’s final two matches of the tournament – against Ireland and England – are postponed until the autumn then it may have a big impact on how the championship pans out.
Do you think Ireland will still win the championship?
It’s looking much less likely. The bonus-point England collected on the opening weekend in Paris could become decisive if France slip up in Murrayfield or in the round five game against Ireland, who, funnily enough, could have had a bonus-point of their own on Sunday had Sexton nailed his two kicks at Twickenham. Winning in Paris, against a rampant French side, will be hugely difficult for Ireland.
Name your team of the tournament so far?
15 Anthony Bouthier (France) 14 Jonny May (England) 13 Virimi Vakatawa (France) 12 Gael Fickou (France) 11 Vincent Rattez (France) 10 Romain Ntamack (France) 9 Antoine Dupont (France) 1 Ellis Genge (England) 2 Julien Marchand (France) 3 Tadhg Furlong (Ireland) 4 Maro Itoje (England) 5 James Ryan (Ireland) 6 CJ Stander (Ireland) 7 Justin Tipuric (Wales) 8 Gregory Alldritt (France)
