No Conclusions Drawn
It doesn't feel like an international at all", announced Tony Ward to his room-mate John Robbie in their Shelbourne Hotel bedroom on the night before the Ireland v Romania game. Ward was referring with some bemusement to the fact that each time he came across one of the Romanians in the hotel, he was greeted with much polite, pidgin English and smiles. Normally there is an unspoken understanding between the two teams to ignore each other until after the match. By Paddy Agnew.
In another, more important sense this international did not seem like the real thing. Through no fault of anyone's, except possibly the Romanians, this match was a wasted field exercise - it did not tell the Irish selectors and coach much about many of the most pressing problems which they will face when they come to picking a side to face France in January.
Take the number 15 berth. With Rodney O'Donnell's career ended by a near fatal neck injury in South Africa, a new full back will have to be found. For this match the selectors decided to give Kevin O'Brien of Broughton Park and Lancashire another run. There has never been any doubt that O'Brien's strength is in his attacking game in a dominant Lancashire side. However it is highly unlikely that Ireland will ever achieve the same sort of dominance in a championship game. For Ireland's purposes, what was needed was to see how O'Brien performed the basic defensive full back duties. The Romanian match told us nothing on this score because (a) the Romanians spent more of this match defending than attacking and (b) when they did attack, they did so through their half-back's running or through long range kicking from the centre which never put O'Brien under pressure. What we did not see was how O'Brien could deal with men running at him in a tackle-or-concede-a-try situation.
The suspicion created by some of the tries let in by O'Brien against the All Blacks last winter (when playing for a winning Lancashire team), by some basic defensive errors against Scotland B (when playing for Ireland B), and most obviously by that horrendous mistake against England at Twickenham last year still remains. Namely, in defence O'Brien is not sound enough to play on an Irish team. The selectors are no wiser now than they were before the Rumanian match and the full back berth must still definitely be up for grabs.
The player most likely to grab it from O'Brien, if anyone takes it from him, is Hugo MacNeill of Trinity and Leinster. Playing for Leinster against the Romanians, he may have dropped an important ball and his touch kicking may have been poor, but on the balance of his most recent Leinster performances he deserves a chance. Unfortunately for him his best performance was perhaps against East Romania during Leinster's May tour and that was of course not a match that many Irish men and women will have seen. MacNeill is far from the complete full back but with-an eye to the future, he probably represents a better proposition at the age of 20 than the 25 year old O'Brien.
At last, and with the help of a cheekbone injury to Paul McNaughton, the selectors picked "Ollie Campbell and Tony Ward on the same side. Before the match we knew that they were both international out-halves. What we did not know was how Campbell would adapt to the defensive strain of playing in the centre where big men are likely to try to crash or burst through. An Irish centre, like an Irish full back, must first and foremost be able to take his man. That Campbell would add beautiful quick handling to the back line as well as perceptive kicking and a sidestep was obvious about such a class player. What we still do not know is how he will survive the hard crunch side of the centre's game. As explained before, the Romanians did not run the ball through the centre and Campbell's role was an attacking one.
It was the pace and accuracy of the passing of both Ward (who missed out David Irwin) and Campbell (who missed out Kevin O'Brien) which set up Frank Quinn for his try. If the selectors are sincere about playing these two on the same team, (the selection might have been labelled "Retained by public demand "), then they will have to try it again. Certainly neither player did anything seriously wrong. If Ward appeared a little nervous on occasion and then again to be trying too hard, that is only understandable considering the pressure which the last eighteen months of being on the fringe of the team has caused.
When he went out to South Africa this summer, Tony Ward was seen as a player who, in the words of one of the touring press party, "several English and Welsh coaches would like to get their hands on and improve." In the Romanian match we saw reminders of Ward's ability to jink inside his man brilliantly, only to find himself isolated, cut off from both his centres and his back row. In defence his alertness prevented a dangerous situation when midway through the second half he intercepted a pass from Bors, the No.8, to Paraschiv, the scrum half and captain. From a well controlled Romanian heel on the 22 a dangerous break seemed on until Ward came in from the normal out half position to do a bit of back row work. The scrum had wheeled and Ward had realised that the Irish back row were on the wrong side of the wheel to do anything.
Frank Quinn, the single new cap on the side, gave evidence that while he can take a chance if he gets it, he has no blinding wing three quarter pace to make the chance for himself. On at least two occasions when he was in a man to man situation with his opposite number, Fuicu, it was obvious that he could not get past him. Quinn's inexperience told in the last minutes of the game when he collected a Rumanian ball just outside the Irish 22. O'Brien was directly behind him, inside the 22 and calling for the ball, intending to hit a relieving kick. Quinn chose instead to run the ball (a pleasant feature of the game was the willingness of the Irish to run) and from the resultant movement David Irwin was caught in possession and penalised for failing to release the ball. Romania equalised from this penalty. Quinn's good handling, neat footwork and good kicking should nonetheless mean that his name will be in the hat when it comes to picking a team in January.
Another change on the Irish team, enforced by Lions tour injury, was the recall of John Robbie to the scrum-half position. Colin Patterson's career, at least in the immediate future, must be in some doubt following the serious knee injury he suffered in South Africa. Indeed when Patterson appeared in the press room after the Rumanian game, on which he had done a radio commentary, there were those English journalists who had not seen him since the Lions tour who were astonished that he was actually walking again.
The elegant and tactically aware Robbie comes fresh from his success in South Africa where the forward dominance enjoyed by the Lions allowed his specific talents to shine. How John Robbie would function behind a beaten pack also remains to be seen since although several people were surprised at the amount of ball won by the Rumanian forwards, on balance the Irish forwards won the up front battle, particularly in the scrums, rucks and mauls. Robbie's performance against the Romanians may not have been his most impressive ever in that his passing was uncharacteristically inaccurate and that he did not take very much on himself.
There is a ready explanation for this in the fact that Robbie played the majority of the match suffering from concussion. Given the same kind of service on most days he is likely to shine; but will he get such service?
Forward problems remain. Is Brendan Foley the answer to the much sought second row partner for Moss Keane, who for all his immense contribution to an Irish team is not a great line out jumper? There is definitely a case for suggesting that a really fit Kilkenny electrician called Duggan could push Donal Spring hard for the No.8 berth. Duggan's performance against Leinster played its part in that fine win. Again in the back row, Colm Tucker will find himself in contention with John O'Driscoll. It is ironic that both these players toured with the Lions and both returned with greatly enhanced reputations. These are but some of the problems which the Rumanian match did not solve.
On the plus side, there will be no denying that to have played representative matches and an international against a touring side at this time of year will be an advantage come the first home championship international. Tom Kiernan puts it this way:
"I have no doubt that we feel the benefit of this match when we take the field against France... I am a bit disappointed that we did not win a match which we could have won, but the whole thing of getting together and playing a match has been very satisfactory. . . Remember our players are far from their seasonal peaks at this time of the year."
With Kiernan in charge of the team, helped with the specialist forward knowledge of Ray McLoughlin, there is more justification than usual for the perennial optimism about the championship. Meanwhile, for the Romanians it was "the greatest day in our rugby history." .