Ireland managed to snatch a draw in a smash and grab raid in the closing minutes of this match at Croke Park on Sunday afternoon.
Yet again it was Brian O’Driscoll that saved the day and Declan Kidney certainly owes his Captain a big thank you for sparing his blushes after his questionable selection decisions for this game.
Last season O’Driscoll had won a bet with his team mates by getting the phrase “Knowledge is knowing a tomato is a fruit; Wisdom is not putting it in a fruit salad.” into one of his press interviews but it now appears that these words of wisdom have come back to haunt his coach.
Ireland’s tomatoes were Hayes and Flannery and the wisdom should have been not to play them when they were obviously not match fit.
It was always a risk to pick two players so out of match practice and it was a risk that backfired quite spectacularly with the Irish front row absolutely destroyed, both in the scrum and, with the exception of Healy, around the pitch. So ineffectual was the contribution of Hayes and Flannery in the set and the loose that the Irish pack played most of the game on the back foot allowing the young Australians to dominate the contact areas.
The worrying aspect of this game was why Ireland decided to go down the route of selecting these two players, and particularly the message the selections sent out to the match fit players coming through the Ireland ranks. Comparison of Irelands selection policy with that of, twice world cup winners, Australia makes Irelands selection decisions even more questionable.
From IRB records Australia has approximately 20,000 registered schoolboy players, Ireland has approximately 57,000 with almost three times as many schoolboys going through the Irish system. When it gets to adults Australia has 37,000 and Ireland has 22,000 indicating perhaps that Australia brings in players from other sports and Ireland loses theirs. Worrying indeed that Ireland starts with a much larger playing base but loses them whereas Australia manages to achieve the opposite.
Over the years the IRFU appear to have adopted a play for today, worry about tomorrow later, policy with results being key and not the development, or testing, of the young players coming through the system. The only youngsters to have broken into the Ireland team in the last five years have been those selected due to injuries rather than potential and ability, Cian Healy being a case in point. Sublimely gifted players like O’Driscoll may be able to raise his game on demand but this is patently not true for the rest of the squad made up of mere mortals.
The average age of Australia was 24.4 years with four players 21 or less, the oldest player was Chisholm at 28. The average age of Ireland was 27.6 with no players below 22 but eight 30 or older, the oldest player was Hayes at 36.
The 2011 Rugby World Cup is now less than two years away.
Pictures of the game from rugbypicture.co.uk here…
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