JOHN FOGARTY, THE Ireland scrum coach, has made it clear that Ireland’s primary objective over the next four games and five weeks is to win the inaugural Nations Cup.
The arrival of a new competition into the rugby calendar has had precious little fanfare or fuss and should Ireland walk away with the trophy on 5 December, it is hard to imagine an impromptu national party breaking out in celebration.
Still, professionals are duty bound to think a certain way and the prospect of seeing an Irish name engraved onto a shiny new trophy is driving this team, according to Fogarty.
“Any time there is a competition, the mindset going into it, as a group of players, as individuals, as a group of coaches, is that we want to win it,” Fogarty said. “But how we develop performance, how we grow as a group, how we give players’ opportunities, these are things that are also built into our minds with regards to this competition. Certainly the mindset at the out will be to perform as well as we can to win it. But we also want to find out about ourselves and see what we are about.”
If they are to win, then their set-piece will have to move up a level. And given that this is Fogarty’s area of expertise, he is particularly keen to ensure it will. “We want to keep building on what we have at scrum time, leading to some dominance,” the former Leinster scrum coach said. “We feel we’ve had a few good weeks performance-wise, against Italy and against France. We’ve learned a lot from the French game and we’re quite excited to get out there (tomorrow) to see what we can do.”
Andrew Porter’s progression, in particular, is causing excitement, not just because the 24-year-old is a freakish athlete but also because no serious team in world rugby is going to go anywhere without depth at tight-head.
In this regard, Porter’s growing pains have been worth monitoring as he is beginning to show tangible signs of making the leap from being understudy to Tadhg Furlong’s rival.
“At times, in the past, very much in the past, Andrew did not have enough patience,” Fogarty said. “The journey he’s been on over the last number of years is to learn his craft so he can deliver at scrum time has been great to watch. He’s a very, very smart player – a smart guy. Not all props are thick. He’s one of the smart ones I can assure you. And he has used his smarts to scout, to look forward to where the opportunities and threats are.
“He is growing in confidence and is at the stage now where he can step up and certainly we are looking for that out of him.”
It is not the only area of improvement they are seeking post Paris. “There were a lot of good things about the game. Small parts around our communication at times; when we put ourselves in good areas, how we take those moments. So as coaches you learn as much as players along the way, how we can prepare for games, how we can build a little bit of pressure into the week so that we are ready to take opportunities when the time comes.
“The other part then is how the players communicate to each other during the week so that again by match day we are nice and clear with what we are doing and what we are able to execute. In attack and defence, we want to put ourselves in better positions to get the job done.”
They get their opportunity tomorrow.
