ON SATURDAY, IRELAND and France were two poor teams, not 30 poor players, just two poor teams.
It is often said that a good team is a team that knows how to win playing badly. Conversely; teams who keep losing games they should win are bad teams not necessarily made up of bad players.
Teams that know how to win, even when playing badly, are able to do so because they still get enough of their key decisions right. These decisions include selection, tactics, who your place kicker is and many on-field decisions. All of these things are predicated by your preparation.
France, for their part, got it wrong with the selection of Frederick Michalak and compounded it by allowing him too many of the kicking duties.
Fortunately for Ireland , France insisted on using him when Morgan Parra would have served them better. The conditions dictated that place kicking and tactical kicking was going to be key.
The kick which we missed to go 10 – 0 up was important. In the second half, the kick we missed to go 16 -3 up was even more vital. Fergus McFadden should have been the nominated kicker, in my view, based on his experience and the conditions. I’m not being critical of Paddy Jackson, but he did have a suspect hamstring and it was an added pressure for the young man.
Talent
France are always a team of great talent, whatever they decide to do on a given day. On Saturday they were inviting us to convince them that they really didn’t want to be there. For much of the match, Ireland were on top in the possession stakes and playing with more urgency.
Those missed kicks were vital.
Why did we take Conor Murray off when he was playing well and the conditions dictated that the game suited him so well? It just made no sense.
Once again, with an abundance of possession, despite our set piece woes, we didn’t use it well.
This team has no clear idea what they should do when in possession. We are either running across the pitch, giving prop forwards standing starts from three meters to the right or left of a ruck or putting in aimless kicks of hope. It is almost like our only clear intent is to hold onto the ball and when all else fails, kick and hope.
As the game wore on and Ireland didn’t take their chances, France started to realise one score and would put them back in it.
For Ireland, the failings which have been evident throughout the campaign became more accentuated as the clock ticked upwards.
The conditions were atrocious but don’t account for the failure of this team to perform. Our kicking out of hand sometimes was misdirected or miscued. Rob Kearney’s average is very poor out of hand. For a man with a very good left foot the team should get far more value.
Our scrum once again was under pressure. Instead of getting the ball away quickly from the problem area we tried to fight a losing battle which at key moments resulted in either the put in being reversed or a penalty.
It would be easy to go on being critical about dithering at the back of the scrum. However the pattern of failing to get enough of the key decisions right on the park is well established and is a direct result of poor preparation.
The situation has got to the point where an action of leadership is required. The players must be miserable and I don’t exonerate them but I feel for them. They are putting in a lot effort some of which is misdirected but it can’t be a happy camp. I doubt if they look forward to going to work.
Turning point
Without being inside the camp it is impossible to know for sure what exactly is going on. However the results are a fact. I suspect the turning point as to when the coach totally lost any support from within goes back to when he flew Paddy Wallace from a beach in Portugal straight into the test side last summer against the All-Blacks.
Right now, Irish rugby needs a decision. Either the IRFU should announce that Declan Kidney will not be reappointed or Kidney should resign himself. We need certainty.
The cloud of discontent hanging over this side needs to be lifted before the Italian game. In this circumstance, I believe this would free the players up and they would give the commitment for one last game. Players tend to react that way.
Whatever the criticisms of Declan Kidney he took the responsibility on and for the sake of all concerned he deserves a dignified exit. That way, his legacy of the Grand Slam would be better protected and Irish rugby would be moving on without weeks or possibly months of destructive recrimination.
The most worrying aspect at the end is that we looked so dishevelled and clueless. If some act of leadership is not taken, I fear for what could happen in Italy next Saturday.
Emmet O’Rafferty is a former second row forward for Leinster and chairman of Top Security which operates a security business in Ireland and South Africa.