RUGBY:NO PLACE dampens the ardour of Irish rugby more than Paris, even on St Valentine's Weekend. A first defeat in 13 tastes all the worse because – if this doesn't sound too Irish – not only had Ireland not lost in 12 games, but also because of the scale of the defeat, the heaviest since an identikit, 33-10 scoreline against England in Eddie O'Sullivan's last match in charge two years ago.
Perhaps because it was Paris, and not Twickers, it somehow didn’t feel quite as demoralising though, and Ireland haven’t reached anything like a similar ebb. What’s more, they return to Twickenham to face an English side who laboured to a 17-12 win in Rome against Italy yesterday in a comedown from Saturday’s double header.
Better though England will be after registering two wins out of two, that display shouldn’t have had the Irish team cowering behind their livingroom settees.
After such a reality check on Saturday, it’s important to stay, well, real. It’s not the end of the world any more than it’s the end of an era, just the end of 15-month unbeaten run.
And there were a myriad of moments and factors at work. In the evolution of any side, they have to go through days like this, too.
As feared, a French side showing genuine signs of becoming something significant again produced one of their emotionally charged and inspired performances. And, as they did after they beat the then Grand Slam champions, Wales, here a year ago, they enjoyed a lap of honour.
Ireland had trooped off, heads bowed and beaten up, and retreated Paris nursing a variety of physical and psychological wounds. Rob Kearney had a scan yesterday which confirmed a strain to his medial ligament and is “considered doubtful” for Twickenham, while Brian O’Driscoll bruised a bone in his left knee.
An IRFU statement said they are “optimistic” he will be fit.
So too Leo Cullen (twisted right ankle) and John Hayes, whose bang to the head is unlikely to prevent him becoming the first Irish player to reach 100 Tests for his country in Twickenham.
There remains the nagging fear that Jerry Flannery, one of several who actually played well individually, might be cited for clattering clumsily, if crudely, into Alexis Palisson.
“You never know these days, but I wouldn’t have thought so,” maintained coach Declan Kidney. “The whistle was gone; it was a 50-50 ball; two guys collided; the referee didn’t make anything of it, and the touch judge had his flag out. He thought it was a penalty.”
Only those who started in Paris will meet in Cork on Wednesday for a two-day get together, while the rest of the squad remain with their provinces before reconvening next Sunday.
Most of the bench will probably start for their provinces this weekend, including Jonathan Sexton in Leinster’s home game against the Scarlets on Saturday. And Donncha O’Callaghan might return for Munster at home to Edinburgh this Friday.
In hindsight, too, Kidney and co might privately regret not having Shane Horgan or Andrew Trimble on the bench, for the ripple effect of Paddy Wallace coming on for Kearney also meant positional shifts for Gordon D’Arcy and Keith Earls.
Regarding his coming selection decisions, Kidney maintained they were “the same as I have for the last few weeks. Let’s see what happens. We’ll take a good look at next week’s Magners League matches.”
Kidney is inclined to use one of sport’s truisms, that you learn more from your defeats than your wins. So, what do Ireland learn from this?
“How important the little things are. The bigger the game, the little things are so important; passes that didn’t stick, momentum, staying calm at the right time. That’s what pressure is. We have to learn from that.
“We had a number of guys playing their first game here. They’ll benefit from having had the experience, and it’s a case of banking the experience and using it to our advantage.”
There was some good stuff amid the beating too.
“What pleased me most is that we said we’d attack for 80 and we tried to do that, even though some of it was from deep and you could say it was inadvisable. But if we’re to move forward as a side that’s what we have to do.”
It was a point echoed by Stephen Ferris, who admitted: “I think we didn’t play in their half enough in the second half and we had to chase the game an awful lot, which led to errors. We had to keep chasing and chasing.”
Looking ahead to Twickenham, the Ulster flanker added: “We need to be far more clinical, cut out the amount of knock-ons we had today and silly errors and get back into our pattern – get our ball-carriers to run over a few guys and give our backline a platform. And keep our set-piece working well, which it did today.
“You’re not a bad team overnight, and if we can just improve and cut out the silly mistakes, there’s no reason why we can’t go over there and get a win.”
Les Kiss will be busy going through an unusually porous defence, which conceded as many tries in this match as the whole of last season’s Slam.
The effort and character was immense, but the management and team leaders will re-examine the emotional pitch of the team, the discipline and the tactics, especially in the response to falling two tries behind.
Ireland regrouped from their last defeat, every bit as humbling at home to New Zealand, with a 12-match unbeaten run incorporating a Grand Slam. But perhaps the biggest test facing Kidney and his coaching team is managing the mental response to this setback.
The problem about raising the bar is that Ireland no longer have the Grand Slam to aim for, and, as with any long unbeaten run in sport, one defeat can leave teams psychologically drained and deflated.
“Yeah, it’s bound to,” admitted Kidney. “It hits everybody. You see the tennis players, the golfers, they go on a winning run and if they lose one . . . But you don’t fail if you fall down, it’s only if we don’t pick ourselves up. That’s what we have to do. We have to pick ourselves up.”
NEXT UP: Friday, Feb 26th: Wales v France (8pm). Saturday, Feb 27th: Italy v Scotland (1.30pm); England v Ireland (4pm).
