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©INPHO/Dan Sheridan
Review

Mike Ross: Ireland's video session won't be pleasant viewing

The Ireland prop admits that his team’s scrum and line-out both failed against the Wallabies.

IT WAS AN INTRIGUING and surprising reversal of what had been expected beforehand, as Australia’s scrum proved to be dominant against Ireland on Saturday.

Ben Alexander and Sekope Kepu have been made to look weak by other teams in the past, but this time is was the Wallabies who inflicted much of the pain on the opposition. Mike Ross looked to be struggling from early in the game, and afterwards admitted that it was just one of the areas where Australia were better.

“[It's] very disappointing for us. With some of them [penalties and free-kicks], we will be disappointed with the referee’s interpretation, others were fair enough. We worked hard on it this week.

It’s not something we took lightly, despite a lot of the feeling out there. They’ve got a great forward pack, it’s not something that we weren’t aware of.”

The line-out stuttered for Ireland too, despite some encouraging signs at the attacking maul again. Ross points out that their approach was altered by the manner in which they went so far behind the Wallabies.

“We had one good [maul] drive in the first half and tried a bit more, but it didn’t come off for us. The problem was that we were chasing the lead at that stage and things have to be perfect. There were times when normally you’d take a shot at goal and build up a lead, but we didn’t have that lead.”

imageRoss highlighted the leaping ability of Israel Folau. ©INPHO/Billy Stickland.

There was “clever” work from the likes of Michael Hooper at the ruck area as well, but Ross regrets Ireland not capitalizing on the flanker’s sin-binning by scoring tries. Similarly, kicking into the hands of Australia’s most dangerous runners was a recipe for disaster.

We knew that given their broken field runners like Folau and Cooper, we couldn’t give them much latitude there. Folau’s got a ridiculous vertical leap. Some of those balls, he was taking about two feet above anyone else.”

Despite the overriding negatives, Ross is remaining calm. He feels that Ireland’s progression under Joe Schmidt is going to take time and effort. He points to the Kiwi’s poor start at Leinster as an example of getting carried away by early setbacks.

“If you think back to when Joe took over at Leinster, we lost a few games and there were some calls for his head at that stage. We all know how that worked out. It’s early days yet and the lads are still working their way through it. We’ll just have to knuckle down ahead of next week.”

The 33-year-old insists Ireland won’t be overwhelmed when they face the All Blacks, while also admitting that they are a “lethal” team. The focus for Ireland is on improving in every aspect after Saturday’s disappointment, starting with one of Schmidt’s famous video sessions this morning.

Ross’s prediction?

“It won’t be a pleasant viewing.”

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