OK so the team for the biggest game in Ireland’s recent history has been announced and thankfully Ireland have abandoned all pretence at playing an open game with the selection of O’Gara at out half in place of the much more talented, but slightly more flaky, Sexton.
We’ll it is the team we have been calling for ever since it became obvious a few season’s back that Kidney, and the commercial managers at the IRFU, were never going to sacrifice the business of results and bums on seats in favour of all out development and believe me if David Wallace had stayed fit he would be in there too with Ferris or O’Brien benching.
The one glaring anomaly in Kidney’s pick is the selection of the unproven Conor Murray, a surprising gamble for the manager, though, in the type of game that Ireland are expected to play, any scrum half that can quickly shovel the ball into the arms of the charging back row should be good enough.
Now, don’t get me wrong, I’m not being disparaging of Ireland’s efforts and while it would be nice if we could play with the flare of the Australians or French or the athleticism of the All Blacks it has to be realised that we can’t, and to try and develop a “second class” version of one of these teams would be a mistake. What we can do, and do rather well as the Aussies found out, is harass and harry the opposition, drive the ball on up the middle and count on the likes of O’Gara and Bowe and O’Dricsoll and Kearney to make reasonably good use of their chances. It’s a limited game for sure, but to me it can be just as rewarding and exciting as the open attacking play of the likes of France and Australia and infinitely more rewarding than the “too fast to referee properly” systematic “law stretching in the name of entertainment” of the All Blacks!
There is a problem with Ireland’s game however in that it relies on all the players “being up” for a game plan that requires a concerted level of ferocity to overwhelm the opposition and while it may have been easy to find this extra incentive against the much fancied Aussies it may be more difficult to find that extra fire against the more familiar Italians.
The Italians greatest strength may also be Ireland’s greatest weakness in that true exponents of the front row dark arts, in Castrogiovanni and Perugini, are up against a pugnacious gym jockey and a slightly above average prop. Not disparaging of Healy and Ross (who are streets ahead of the alternatives) Healy has improved remarkably and Ross is seldom troubled, but they will have problems at the set piece. Whether it will matter or not is the question?
I’m finding this one a lot harder to call as we get nearer to the big day. On paper it should be Ireland, with a degree of comfort though we all thought that about the Australian’s before Ireland ripped up the form book with their historic win, but this game might actually mean more to the Italian’s than the Aussie game did for the Irish. Italy will have been planning for this game ever since the Pools were announced and like Ireland they will see it as a fantastic chance of qualifying for the knock out stages, but heart and head still says Ireland.
Let’s hope it a doozy! Those first few scrums should be worth getting up for!
Now, with my completely biased Ulster hat on – Earls in favour of Trimble? Why, oh why, oh why?
Ireland: Rob Kearney, Tommy Bowe, Brian O’Driscoll (capt), Gordon D’Arcy, Keith Earls, Ronan O’Gara, Conor Murray; Cian Healy, Rory Best, Mike Ross, Donncha O’Callaghan, Paul O’Connell, Stephen Ferris, Sean O’Brien, Jamie Heaslip. Replacements: Sean Cronin, Tom Court, Donnacha Ryan, Denis Leamy, Eoin Reddan, Jonathan Sexton, Andrew Trimble.
Italy: A Masi; T Benvenuti, G Canale, G Garcia, Mirco Bergamasco; L Orquera, F Semenzato; S Perugini, L Ghiraldini, M Castrogiovanni, Q Geldenhuys, C van Zyl, A Zanni, Mauro Bergamasco, S Parisse (capt). Replacements: F Ongaro, A lo Cicero, M Bortolami, P Derbyshire, E Gori, R Bocchino, L McLean.
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One Response to “RWC 2011: Ireland and Italy announced.”
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Before the historic form busting win against the aussies, everyone that supported Ireland or Italy knew that saturdays game was always going to be the crunch game of the pool to decide on who went through as the 2 place team to meet the Boks. However as it stands at the minute Ireland’s ‘prize’ for winning on sat … is a match as pool winners against Wales (probably), and not as the runners-up. Italy’s ‘prize’ however is their first appearance in a RWC QF against the Boks…… and having said that it wouldn’t matter who they play next, as this would be like winning the tournament for them and what a way for Nick Mallet to say Caio to the Azzurri. So the pressure is on ! I’m looking forward to this one game in particular cos although it might not be a high scoring game it will be a tough bruising battle.
The head says Ireland to win !!
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