RUGBY IRELAND TOUR: New Zealand Maoris v Ireland:ALL BUT four of the 34-man man squad still on tour took part in a relatively full-on final captain's run at the Rotarua International Stadium prior to meeting the New Zealand Maoris today.
This is all part of the plan to expose as many players as possible to the conditions hereabouts, particularly as this venue – which was expecting a 20,000 crowd – will be where Ireland play Russia on Sunday, September 25th, in their third Pool C match at RWC 2011.
Only John Muldoon, his broken arm in a sling and tucked underneath his tracksuit top, David Wallace and Gordon D’Arcy took no part, while Jerry Flannery was confined to some slight jogging along the touchline.
You could have played snooker on the pitch, which was pristine even by New Zealand standards, which has a base of sand and pumice (crushed volcanic rock).
This match also exposes them to the kind of refereeing that will pertain at the World Cup, for in Mark Lawrence, a superb communicator with the players, the Maoris and Ireland are afforded one of the very best in the game.
So, despite the host of injured players back home, and adhering to the policy of exposing as many of the squad as possible on this tour, coach Declan Kidney had no regrets about taking on this match.
“It’s a part of the season where it’s important that players play.They need to get themselves out on the pitch. Had we two weeks to go to the Australian game some fellas would be wondering ‘am I going to get a game at all’.
“Some guys would have wondered ‘do we have to sit on last week for two weeks?’
“I don’t like cliches, but you get back on the bike, don’t you? And if we’re afraid of it, then we’ll never improve.
“So, at international level you have very little time together and you want to get a mixture right between training sessions and matches. At this stage of the season, what you want is games.”
As Kidney sees it, leaving a two-week gap between Tests would have been the easy option.
“You have to learn things and sometimes you learn things you don’t want to know. But you’re better off knowing them, and we’ll learn from last Saturday.
“The fact that we’ve a six-day turnaround, the fact that we’re playing in Rotarua for us is brilliant. You can’t put a stock on that. How much difference that will make come Rugby World Cup we’ll see, but they’re all good experiences to have under our belt.”
Aside from keeping everyone feeling involved, they’re also affording players rare opportunities to wear the green.
“They’re getting a whole host of experiences, they’re training with the likes of John Hayes and Brian O’Driscoll and Ronan O’Gara. For younger fellas you can’t buy that.
“They’re seeing it’s the same game, it’s just the pace is faster and the hits are just slightly harder.
“The little bits make more of a difference at this level and that’s what we found last Saturday night. Coaches can say it a thousand times, but you experience it once and it will live with you forever.”
If it doesn’t break you it will make you could be the Irish axiom for tours to New Zealand. Indeed, tours here have a habit of making or breaking players, and this one is sure to follow suit.
REPLACEMENTS
NZ MAORIS: D Coles (Wellington), C Newlands (Hawke's Bay), R Graham (Waikato), K Lowe (Hawke's Bay), R Tipuna (Wellington), W Ripia (Taranaki), J Willison (Waikato).
IRELAND: S Cronin (Connacht), J Hayes (Munster), D O'Callaghan (Munster), D Wallace (Munster), P Stringer (Munster), R O'Gara (Munster), R Kearney (Leinster).
Referee: Mark Lawrence (South Africa).
