IRELAND-9 ENGLAND-20

STILL COLD

Downgrading seems to be all the rage these days. Standard & Poor are doing it to economies, the American government are doing it to extreme weather events, so how about I have a go at doing it to a rugby series?

I would like to now officially re-classify Ireland's tests throughout August as “defrost-up matches”. And even that's being kind.

The IRFU sold over 45,000 tickets for this match, Sky Sports no doubt sold a truckload of adverts, but Irish fans were left feeling their team's World Cup hopes have been sold down the river before the squad even got on the plane.

And believe me – I'm the last person to be negative about our chances, but if we are to assess our chances in New Zealand purely based on these four matches, we can hardly be anything but, can we? Well, I may have found a straw or two to clutch at, but it sure wasn’t easy.

Even though in the grand scheme of things the result didn't really “matter”, the stage was perfectly set for both sides to have a right go at this one – Ireland of course were trying to avoid a whitewash while the visitors were trying to erase both defeat to Wales two weeks before and of course a certain Grand Slam failure at this same venue in March.

Well literally from the kickoff it was clear England were up for it. But the question has to be asked...did they actually play that well on the day? I'm not so sure.

You could argue their defence was solid and this is why we were kept tryless for the third time in four matches. You could also argue that they made a mockery of the offside line and Nigel Owens was too busy policing the breakdown.

Either way – Ireland never got going with possession and it was two blatant lapses in our own defence combined with the expected impeccable placekicking of Jonny Wilkinson that put them out of reach on the day.

I suppose the extra week's rest didn't hurt the English either – although RTE commentator Hugh Cahill got his gaffe-counter rolling before kickoff saying they had lost to Wales only the week before!

On the plus side, two areas of concern for Ireland were well and truly taken care of by the looks of things – our lineouts seem to be back on the table and our penalty count at the breakdown was kept to a minimum.

It was just our choice of options when we actually had the ball that let us down. If indeed you could call them options. You don't mind shipping 20 points so much once you look like you can put at least 21 on the board yourself, and we simply didn't from start to finish.

I believe our problems begin with our 9/10 combinations, and I have some stats to back me up.

Ireland have played 9 test matches this calendar year. Of those, only ONCE did the starting scrum-half & out-half come from the same province. Guess when that was? Yes, that humbling of England back in March.

In all the other games, it was either Reddan & O'Gara or O'Leary & Sexton when the match kicked off. And the one other time we got more than 20 minutes of two players used to playing domestic rugby together on the pitch at the same time, it included Peter Stringer who isn't in Kidney's plans now anyway and besides, his prolonged spell on the Millennium Stadium pitch was forced by an early Reddan injury.

So you could say it appears the coaching staff have been going out of their way to keep familiar 9s and 10s apart?

And the ironic thing is, I thought both Eoin Reddan and Ronan O'Gara played well on Saturday. Many berate the Limerick-born Leinster scrum-half for the interception he threw but I can't understand why more blame isn't directed at Heaslip and Bowe for both sticking to the touchline rather than giving him a basic passing spread so they could exploit the (albeit brief) overlap they had.

As for O'Gara, he may have missed a crucial placekick much like he did in Bordeaux, but seeing how once again he was opting to run the ball more often than not which is not his game, it's hard to find fault. And as the clock neared the 60 minute mark, I could tell that the substitution was always going to be Murray & Sexton on at the same time, playing together in a match for the first time ever I might add.

And as if to add insult for my perceived injury to our chances, what does Sexton do with his first few possessions but kick! They were in the most part effective ones, but again, it seemed we were deliberately shying away from our offensive comfort zones.

So my overall point with this provincial pairing theory is that an argument can be made that Kidney knows full well his Reddan or Boss/Sexton and Murray/O'Gara combinations can work together, as he can see that in training, as well of course by seeing them winning so much silverware for their home provinces last season.

Maybe, JUST maybe, he was deliberately keeping them apart so that the alternative pairings could be tried as much as possible in case his hand is forced in New Zealand? I guess the only way we'll know for sure is when we see the starting lineups are chosen in September.

Other good individual efforts on the day came from Paul O'Connell, who was even more like a man possessed than usual, and of course Geordan Murphy, who no doubt had run down Manu Tuilagi once or twice in training with Leicester but still slotted in seamlessly to the Irish setup and will surely step up admirably when called upon in the coming weeks.

But it simply cannot be ignored that for the fourth week in a row we have shipped an unforgivably easy try down our centre. And there can be no use of provincial pairings as an excuse this time, given it was Drico & Darce at fault last week. That Tuilagi try was clearly down to Keith Earls being all at sea on his coverage – which is a shame because I thought the Munster man was much improved on last week overall with decisive tackles after that incident plus some good runs forward.

I mean, if you want to resort to straw-clutching here, you could say that in each case our centres were found wanting there was a different pairing and they need time together to gel, but just how many matches would we have needed to get them to gel?

None of this can be much consolation for poor David Wallace. You really felt for him, didn't you? Hardly a textbook tackle from Tuilagi – not his strong suit and if Johnson starts him at the World Cup he will be found out – but a tragic piece of luck for one of Ireland's greatest ever 7s who was all but certain of starting down under. Shane Jennings definitely has the talent to replace him, but I wonder if Kidney will be tempted to opt for a Ferris/O'Brien/Heaslip combo instead.

Add this to the fact that Tommy Bowe ignoring the threat of Delon Armitage outside him for England's second try COULD be put down to his not being fully up to test-match speed yet, PLUS the absence of Kearney, O'Driscoll & O'Brien in this last pre-World Cup outing, and I'm starting to wonder just how many recognised starters we can afford to rest against the Americans on September 11?

With everyone supposedly in need of gametime, especially when it comes to playing together in key combinations, I'm not sure if Declan Kidney has the luxury of using the clash with Eddie O'Sullivan's men as an extra so-called “warm-up”. Which in turn, of course, puts our required starters for our big clash with the Wallabies right in the firing line.

Then of course we had the news we were dreading all the more – an eye-socket injury to Cian Healy as the result of a high tackle from the over-eager Delon Armitage. Seems as though all he will miss is the USA game, but still we must keep fingers, toes AND eyes crossed that he'll be ok after that. He may have gotten pinged a few times in the scrums on Saturday, but there can be no doubt that he, Flannery and Ross must comprise our front row in New Zealand when it counts.

So where does that leave us as Irish fans? I mean – if we're to go completely by the results and performances of the past few weeks, we could be forgiven for getting our towel ready to chuck in the ring. Perhaps some Leinster fans, on the other hand, would suggest that a dreadful month to start a season does not an unsuccessful campaign make, given what happened to us after our “Sucky September” last year.

For now, I'm still inclined to lean towards the latter option, but after the 320 minutes of rugby by the men in green I've seen in recent weeks, my hopes could do with being a wee bit warmer.  JLP

Leinster-14 Northampton Saints-19

I am of course very grateful to all who offered a summary of the match! JLP

REPORT BY MICHAL SLAWSKI

(see his own great rugby blog “From The Bottom Of The Ruck”)

Donnybrook Stadium was the venue for Leinster’s last friendly before the start of the Rabodirect Pro 12. A big storm hit the ground before the match, so it was pretty slippery underfoot. But the sun shone for the whole match, and the dampish weather didn’t take away at all from the genial atmosphere amongst the 3900 spectators, including a decent few Saints supporters. An ideal opportunity to have a few pints, catch up with your mates and take in a bit of rugby.

The match was dominated by the Saints, not too badly affected by the absence of their England stars, and most of the match took place in the Leinster 22. Defense was the order of the day for Leinster, and they stuck at their task well, with a careless pass delivering the only try for Northampton. I hope the Irish team watches the highlights and sees how it’s done. Dominic Ryan deserved his man of the match award with sterling tackling and for making a pest of himself at the breakdown. The front row of van der Merwe, Cronin and Hagan made a good fist of holding their own against an impressive Saints front row through a series of fascinating scrum resets. Steven Sykes played well until he was subbed, and Boss was his usual lively self from the base of the scrum. Fionn Carr took his try well, and nearly got another from an earlier breakout. Berquist looks like he’s going to add a lot to the team, and his place kicking was impeccable.

Northampton were always in the lead, adding steadily to their total with a series of penalties. Now far be it for me to criticize the Saints, but do they really need to ship Myler and Lamb over to Dublin to get kicking practice? They could do with some attacking practice as their only try, by Paul Diggin, was handed to them on a plate. Leinster kicked everything they got down to the corner, turning down certain points in the first half. They finally got on the board in the last ten minutes with a well worked forward try from a line out, with Jason Harris-Wright crashing over with his first touch of the ball. Carr’s try meant the match ended on a high for the Leinstermen. They look in good nick to get their Pro 12 season underway.

REPORT BY DAMIAN SCOTT via Facebook

Very young team. Hard to call how the game went with so many changes. I think all 27 players got a run out. Carr, Cronin, Madigan and Fitzgerald stood out among the starters. Berquist was commanding when he came on. Very good kicker of the ball. Leo Auva'a had some very good bursts up the middle when he came on. He is a tank!!! Saints didn't threaten much overall and it was a good defensive display by Leinster. Their try was a mistake by Sheridan (pass across the line that was a bit far and easily intercepted 10 metres out). Good run out overall I think...

REPORT BY @kendoesracing via Twitter

“Leinster a bit rusty and a few silly mistakes. Thought we defended really well.”

“MUJATIGATE” by JLP

Seeing how I was out of town, I didn’t think it could be possible for me to be involved in reporting of this match but a certain Mr Brian Mujati saw to that!  Apologies if you’re already understandably weary of this whole thing by now – it’s just this blog is meant to be a resource for posterity so I can’t let the write-up of this match go without mentioning it!

Once Leinster reached the Heineken Cup final I added as many Northampton Saints players to my timeline as I could.  So last Saturday morning as I poured through my Twitter timeline I spied this tweet from their prop Mujati :

"Steven Sykes and Heinke van der Merwe were calling me a baboon during the scrums last night. Racism is still alive and things don't change."

So naturally I retweeted it as did others, and not long afterwards the tweet itself was taken down.  Many were shocked at the allegations, others pointed out that the prop himself had tweeted several things about Irish people when he arrived in Dublin, expecting to see people drunk on Guinness & Leprechauns everywhere, stuff like that.  Anyway – Leinster rugby released statements first on the same day that the matter would be “investigated”, then on the Sunday there was another one that read like this :

"Following the allegations made by a Northampton Saints player in the aftermath of Friday night's friendly between Leinster Rugby and Northampton Saints, Leinster Rugby acknowledge that there was an exchange during the match between two Leinster players which was misinterpreted...

It was regrettable that any offence was caused. Both clubs have agreed that the matter is now closed and will now focus on preparing for their respective league campaigns."

And that was that.  Or so we thought.  One eagle-eyed tweeter noticed Mujati had altered his Twitter profile, and this time I took a screengrab.  After that did the rounds for an hour or so someone else spotted he had changed it back again!

Naturally I have no time for any type of racism in sport or anywhere.  It goes without saying that any sporting organisation should act quickly and decisively when such allegations are made.  But particularly in the professional era we find ourselves in, such matters will always be dealt with behind closed doors, and so they should, I say. 

And this incident, together with others that have happened in the past (Matt Giteau’s early announcement that he wasn’t in RWC squad to name but one) make me wonder if the club’s powers-that-be won’t find some way to factor some kind of twitter control into contracts that are drawn up in the future.

Whatever the repercussions, it’s all a nasty business to have out there right before both a World Cup AND an exciting new domestic season are about to begin. JLP

Click here for match highlights on Leinster TV

IRELAND-22 FRANCE-26

PRE-PLANE CRASH

As this warm-up series drags on for the Irish team, the matches are becoming more and more like episodes of the hit TV show “Lost” - I'm going into them with many questions, none of which get answered - instead I get a ton of different questions.

And if it weren't for the pressing matter of the squad being named today, I could have a field day with that analogy, but I best not. Though let's just say Paddy Wallace was a front-runner to be the Smoke Monster and leave it at that.

So let's get down to analysing this one shall we. And analyse we must. This writeup is much longer than normal, but that's only because I want to demonstrate just how far away from “World Cup ready” we looked on Saturday evening.

I want to focus on three sequences in particular – the one that led to the first French try (that goes back a good six minutes the way I see it), and those that came after a scrum for either side in the second half.

Of course, we got off to a great start, taking an 8-0 lead. He may have been facing the smallest Frenchman on the pitch, but it was still a powerful finish from Healy. 

Ironically it took the visitors 22 minutes to get the ball into our 22. And if you want to be overly cynical and suggest the French “weren't interested” in that time, go ahead. I for one thought we started brightly, took the game to the opposition, though like always, I did retain doubts that we could sustain it for a full 80 minutes.

Things began to go pear-shaped on 24 minutes. We had just forced a turnover off a French lineout courtesy of Donncha O'Callaghan and for me it is at these stages of the game when we just cannot afford to make mistakes. The French backline had been set for a move so the second we steal possession we should be making as much hay as we can.

Well O'Leary flung it to Earls – sadly his instincts at this moment were compromised by a desire to get it to the far side of the pitch which either came from the coaches' instructions or his backline's screams.

What resulted was an absolute shocker of a pass that had to be retrieved by Andrew Trimble and brought into contact with little or no support, which resulted in the predictable penalty to France which got them on the scoreboard.

I believe this was preying on Keith Earls' mind when he ran into Johnny Sexton on 26 minutes. You can clearly see in the replay that the outhalf is calling for the ball. You can also see that he is in the better position. As much as I don't want to appear to be defending the Leinster player for the sake of it, I can't see any justification for our left winger to be doing anything but withdrawing and preparing for a pass once it was caught.

But much like an argument that was made for Luke Fitzgerald's poor form this year, I believe Earls still had his crucial mistake from earlier on his mind and was trying to make up for it. And to make yet another vital error in that situation can only serve to multiply your dip in confidence.

From the ensuing scrum Jamie Heaslip managed to halt them at our 22 with a superb piece of jackling, one of many instances of him doing that on the day. Then enter one Mr Tomás O'Leary.

At full time I tweeted this. It's a bit harsh I know, but as you can see several agreed. And you'd be forgiven for thinking it was all because of “that pass”. Well it wasn't.

Even with our bright start I couldn't understand why O'Leary was passing every single time the ball was presented to him. It had to be a result of coaching instructions, because that is just not his game. As Thornley has said in his defence of the Munster scrumhalf being Kidney's favourite, he's there for his “physicality”. So why wasn't he taking on his opposite number once or twice off rucks and scrums to prove it?

Plus there was the fact that he was often creamed by French forwards whether it be attacking as you see in the lead photo, or being steamrollered by prop Nicolas Mas in the 1^st half.

Anyway...after Heaslip's forced turnover, O'Leary chose to box-kick. And given what I said about the importance of making the most of transition situations, it wasn't a bad call. But it WAS a woeful kick. It's called a “box-kick” because it is meant to stay in the 5m tram-lines. This didn't even stay in the 15m line.

And although the fact that Trinh-Duc both attempted and made a drop goal was unusual from that situation, I'd be a lot more worried about what Quade Cooper and the Aussie backline could do to punish such a poor kick.

So just like that, it was 8-6. the French tails were up, and all from our own doing. And it wasn't to stop there. Right from the kickoff O'Callaghan gets pinged for being off his feet and we're back under pressure with a lineout outside our own 22.

Here is where we could see the difference between the two sides. Having worked hard to build a lead we seemed to do everything we could to give it away. The second France get a good attacking position they show the ability to turn on the magic. And before we knew what hit us, Cedric Heymans was touching the ball down over our line.

It was indeed a clinical line by Rougerie and a perfect handoff, but as much as I hate to say it, our captain was sold down the river in his coverage. I honestly can't remember ever seeing him being so stranded and when D'Arcy should have been covering the support runner, he instead had to tackle the powerful French number 13 which made the final offload and finish look extremely easy.

So my point is – in almost every phase of play in that six-minute spell, we were shown wanting. And these are all errors that just can't be there if you're to have any hope of reaching a final four in the World Cup.

Two second half scrums further highlighted the gulf between the two sides. First we had a perfectly-executed move by the French from their own 22.

Parra faked a run to the open side, Picamole took it off the base of the scrum and offloaded to Palisson before proceeding to block Sean O'Brien's ability to get in a tackle. Before you could say “sacre bleu!” the French winger was chipping it over Trimble and but for an unlucky bounce would have been over. Still, they forced a penalty and Parra's man-of-the-match-winning placekicking gave them a vital opening score of the second term.

Then just five minutes later we have a scrum in our own 22. We attempt a very similar move, only it's O'Leary that's looking for the pass from the number 8. Now – did Heaslip screw up the pass or did his scrum-half over-run it? I say 50/50. But the point is, our transmission was garbled where the French one earlier had been loud and clear.

And you probably don't want me to remind you about what happened next. All I'll say is, that was yet another time O’Leary should have showed his physicality by tidying up the play as best he could.

The most frustrating thing about the Munster scrumhalf's poor showing was the that many, including myself, presumed he was a shoo-in to start in New Zealand regardless. But when he was taken off on 50 minutes for Eoin Reddan, I got the sense that this was a message from the coaching staff that the “hook” had been demployed rather than it being a planned change.

From then on, things got better. Reddan did everything O'Leary didn't. The ball was much quicker, and the scrum-half “pick and go” was back on the table. Again, many cynics were claiming that the visitors had given up when we scored the last two tries, but I suggest these people either don't know what they're talking about or suddenly went blind when the likes of Rougerie and Heymans threw themselves into tackles into the final 10 minutes or when the French pack started a dust up after O'Brien's try which finished the match.

And of course, there WERE many positives. Andrew Trimble had yet another good outing and must be knocking on the door to start in New Zealand at this stage. Although Flannery breathed some fire into the pack when he came on, I thought Rory Best's display was a vast improvement on the previous week. Sean O'Brien was our man of the match in my eyes with Healy and Heaslip close behind.  Not only was our own lineout better, we were even causing mischief on their throw.  And how good was it to see Stephen Ferris barrelling forward for an offensive gain again?

Then there was the ROG/Sexton 10/12 experiment. I saw Johnny's reaction to O'Gara coming on. He didn't even flex a muscle towards the touchline. I think the move was planned. And since the Leinster man is such a solid tackler, let me say I find this a good option, however wary I may be of our two prized assets being on the pitch at the same time.

Sadly there were also more negatives - Shane Jennings didn't do enough to avoid our hoping David Wallace can recover from injury. Then of course there were our penalty gremlins...the referee that day, Craig Joubert, will be calling the shots when we play both USA and Russia down under so hopefully we'll be able to get on the right side of him when it matters.

Overall, I can't help but give the Irish set-up a C-minus for this showing. When you think of it, the result was almost a carbon copy of our defeat to the same Frenchmen back in February. 22-25 v 22-26, 3 tries to 1 vs 3-2. Which means we don't seem to have learned a whole lot since then!

And it can only leave you wondering if next Saturday's clash with the English will be a hindrance more than a help. As morale-boosting as a win would be, will it be worth a price similar to that paid by poor Felix Jones?

So when Declan Kidney announces his 30-man squad at 1pm on Monday, whatever decisions he might make, you can't exactly see it being received with a fanfare by Irish fans. From now on it's up to the players to prove that their time in September wouldn't be better served being stranded on a mysterious Pacific island.

No matter how much each individual wants to be on the plane, if they can't play together, our hopes will die alone. JLP