Well, if nothing else, Saturday's defeat should certainly focus Irish minds this week and especially come 3.30pm local time in the Stadio Olimpico against Conor O'Shea's Italians. The Grand Slam and the Triple Crown are out of reach, but the Six Nations title is still feasible, albeit Ireland have left themselves absolutely no margin for error. It's win or bust from here on in.
"Definitely," said Robbie Henshaw at the squad's Carton House base, the bitterness of last Saturday's 27-22 defeat to Scotland still clearly in his mouth. "It makes us switched on 100 per cent for the next 80-plus minutes. You can't switch off in this competition or you will be punished. We learned that the hard way last weekend. It is a learning thing for the whole squad."
One imagines the Ireland players will be bristling and furious with themselves, all week long, although as Henshaw also said: “Playing angry is one thing, but we need to get our detail right first and we need to prepare ourselves the best we can, first and foremost.
“We need to have a look at what’s coming this weekend and how and where we can attack the Italians. Playing with emotion is obviously a great thing. But we need to know our roles and do our jobs the best we can.”
After Leigh Halfpenny kicked them in front, Wales eventually provided a template of sorts when translating more than 60 per cent possession and territory, as well as a 16-5 penalty count, into a win at the Stadio Olimpico on Sunday with three tries in the last quarter.
“They showed you have to grind it out,” said Henshaw. “You have to keep dominating, keep going forward at them. It is going to be a tough, physical battle. We’ll have to play smartly.”
Defensive review
The Murrayfield reviews began on Sunday evening after the squad reassembled at Carton House, continuing yesterday with “team unit” reviews, all of which made for painful viewing. They will also extend into Tuesday’s defensive review.
Reflecting on the manner in which their defence was outflanked for both Stuart Hogg tries, Henshaw said: “I think it was more our spacing around the ruck. We were too narrow and weren’t getting off the line. We were square on them instead of hunting them from the inside.
“Our spacing was what we needed to fix. In the second half we did fix it and that allowed myself and Garry get off the line, putting in some shots and shutting down Finn Russell.”
Attributing this to their “slow start”, Henshaw said: “We certainly didn’t train that way. We trained how we played in the second half. Why we were narrow, I’m not sure. We’ll have our defensive review. So we’ll talk about it then.”
There could also have been more talk on the pitch, Henshaw said.
“Communication is definitely a massive factor in our attack and defence. Without it, we’d be lost. For us, on the weekend, our communication could have been better. Johnny and Jared have been around a while. They’re masters at it. A few younger guys: myself, Garry and Paddy are still growing in confidence, finding a voice,” he said.
Exacting position
They will assuredly learn from Saturday’s experiences, as indeed they did during the course of the match. “I think we grew into the game. We fixed the defence and attacked flatter in the second half. It felt like a different game for us in the second half. If we go into this week with the mindset we had in the second half, we’ll do a lot better.”
Outside centre is regarded as the most important and exacting position defensively on the pitch and certainly heaped a “big responsibility” on Garry Ringrose’s young shoulders. Henshaw said: “But Garry’s a class footballer. He’s well able to deal with it. Showed in the second half his defence is top-class. No doubts there. He’s well able.”
Offensively, Henshaw also said Ireland needed to “take the ball to the line flatter and be more of a threat”, although they still made a dozen line breaks compared with Scotland’s six, but failed to capitalise on those opportunities.
“Definitely,” said Henshaw. “That is an area we pride ourselves on. When someone makes a line break, we all bust a gut to get up there to try to finish it. Unfortunately, we weren’t able to convert those line breaks. It is an area we will look to assess and improve.”
Turning point
A prime example was the turnover generated by Conor Murray and his ensuing pass infield to Jamie Heaslip, whose attempted offload to the supporting Henshaw was picked off by Sean Maitland.
“Looking back on it, I think I tripped or collided with one of their players,” said Henshaw. “It was frustrating because Jamie saw me there and threw the pass, and then saw me on the floor and Maitland intercepted it. It was obviously a turning point. Maybe if we carried and resourced the ruck, we could have scored.”
On the injury front, for all the mental as well as physical bruising which Ireland team manager Paul Dean referenced from last Saturday’s opener, the latest medical bulletin appeared relatively upbeat. Tadhg Furlong’s bruised shoulder was the only injury arising from Murrayfield, and apparently neither he nor Conor Murray, whose game time is being managed, trained yesterday afternoon.
Donnacha Ryan, Finlay Bealham, Andrew Trimble and Andrew Conway, all of whom were ruled out of consideration against the Scots with relatively minor niggles, trained fully. Peter O'Mahony (hamstring) and Johnny Sexton (calf strain) were only due to "recommence running" which must leave them in something of a race against time, so to speak, for Rome.
Ian Keatley, the only addition to the original 40-man squad and an unused replacement last Saturday, has remained in camp.
