RUGBY: 'Ireland can win comfortably'
FORMER international Willie Anderson previews the Six Nations clash between Ireland and Wales.
We were all delighted to John Hayes, a tighthead prop securing 100 caps, is quite an achievement.
But this week I think is also fantastic for Brian O'Driscoll to be joining the centenary club.
I have been fortunate to have had Brian in a team I was coaching.
No one can ever say they coached Brian, because he is Ireland's Wayne Rooney, he is a George Best, simply a natural.
He is the sort of guy who works on the areas he feels he needs to within his own mind.
Brian deserved the accolade of being captain of an Irish Grand Slam winning side, and also the skipper of a team which won the European Cup. Those would have been goals of his and I guess the perfect way for him to crown if off would be with a World Cup win.
I am not sure if that will be within his grasp, perhaps if it was this year, with that Irish team.
Brian O'Driscoll is one the greatest players I have been fortunate enough to have been associated with. The most exhilarating thing from a coach's point of view was his desire and competitiveness.
You know if you were playing a game of touch, Brian would have done whatever it took and that including tackling, to make sure the team he was on won the game.
That desire and competitiveness is incredible and it makes him stand out. Although he is a centre, sometimes it is like watching an openside wing forward. If he goes into contact you can be sure the ball will come out on the right side, when he makes a tackle it sticks and if he gets half a break he will likely score from it.
Looking ahead to tomorrow, Declan Kidney has stayed loyal to a team which won and now the players must go out and make sure they play their part.
The Irish coach is obviously aware that the scrum will hold up stronger against Wales than against England, but I still think there needs to be serious consideration given to the tighthead prop area.
John Hayes is probably a 50-60 minute man now and Ireland must identify replacements looking ahead to the World Cup in 2011.
Against England, Kidney had a game plan which worked well, identifying the weaknesses and exploiting those. He will of course do the same against Wales.
But Ireland must also be careful of what the Welsh can do. We saw them coming back from the death against Scotland to win, and they also bravely put on a fight back against France and fell short.
The defence will be under even more scrutiny because of the way Wales play. They need a game plan which they stick to, because if they go out of it then it could lend itself to the Welsh game, which does broken play, counter attacking and turnover ball exceptionally well.
The Irish up front are stronger than the Welsh pack and they have enough cutting edge in the backline to make it count.
I believe the Welsh have insecurity at the moment. Warren Gatland has had his problems with injury and indiscipline on and off the pitch.
Ireland will need a step up in performance, however, and they will really need to keep their discipline in terms of defence.
But I do feel Ireland can win this game comfortably and they should go on to win the Triple Crown next week against Scotland.
p Ulster's hopes of a Top Four finish in the Magners League look extremely difficult now after what was a poor loss to Scarlets last week.
That had opportunities to win the match, which is disappointing in itself because to a degree they did perform.
But unlike the Scarlets, they did not take their opportunities. They should have had two tries in the first half.
The key word this week is discipline and that is right across the board.
They were ill disciplined in making decisions, when they got into contact and even presenting the ball.
And discipline in itself for not reading the referee, a guy who they had two weeks earlier, knew what he was like, but still went out and failed to read him again.
What I was coaching at that level, you would have had a sheet on the referee and have known exactly what we was going to do, which areas he would look to ping you on.
To lose two guys to the sinbin was ill disciplined. Ryan Caldwell has this reputation down the years and no matter what anyone says to him he still seems to do the things he does and gets carded.
He has to look at himself and sort it out.
David Pollock, to a lesser degree, has found himself on the wrong end of penalties. Some would say that if a No Seven is not getting carded, then he is not doing his job. But you cannot really have a situation where you are playing a game of rugby and for 20 minutes of it you only have 14 men on the pitch.
Ulster seemed to fall apart after a good start, allowed Scarlets to play their game and perhaps the team selection was not 100 per cent right going into the game.
There were areas which did work well. The scrum was solid, but not as dominant as previous, while the lineout was good, but the ball won sometimes was scrappy.
It seemed that the forwards would maul the ball up the field, and then stop and give it to the backs, where Scarlets had better movement together and their fast ball had Ulster stretched at times.
In the whole scheme of things, it will be hard for Ulster to make that top four.
They will be playing teams who are below them in the league as well as those above.
But the teams below them are fighting for places in next year's Heineken Cup or looking to build going into this year's knockout stages, like Connacht who are featuring in the Amlin Challenge Cup.
Ulster really have to move on now, even though they are out of things, they really have to go for it.
Email to a friend
Print this page
Looking for...
Featured advertisers
Jobs
Search for a job
Motors
Search for a car
Property
Search for a house
Weather for Belfast
Tuesday 29 May 2012
Today
Sunny spells
Temperature: 13 C to 21 C
Wind Speed: 7 mph
Wind direction: South west
Tomorrow
Light showers
Temperature: 11 C to 20 C
Wind Speed: 8 mph
Wind direction: South west
