Knowing when to stick
This seemingly endless preamble to the World Cup is doing strange things to some people. All these training camps, video sessions, freakish injuries and squad permutations has finally got to some people who really should know better.
At a time when the utility player is this season’s must-have accessory, it’s crucial that your decision makers don’t panic and ditch their timeless classics for cropped trousers and a satchel. Professional sports coaches are supposed to be able to keep their cool when the rest of us are starting to go ga-ga and yet there’s been some bizarre stories over the past week.
Australia are going to travel halfway around the globe with just two hookers! Whatever about bringing two scrum-halfs (Matt Giteau’s already repaying the ARU’s decision to rewrite their rules), the gamble of using a loosehead prop as your emergency hooker is an astonishing move by Michael Cheika. England have ditched Luther Burrell in favour of the media magnet and convert-in-progress that is Sam Burgess. Even the normally pragmatic Warren Gatland is suddenly handing an inexperienced prop his Test debut on the eve of his squad selection.
In Ireland, we’ve suddenly become obsessed with whether or not Ian Madigan could possibly play across the backline on his own against France and allow Joe Schmidt to deploy a 14-man pack. While I’ve mentioned before that Madigan’s versatility is an unquestionable bonus for Ireland, I don’t think there’s a chance that Schmidt will consider going to the tournament with just two recognised scrum-halves.
Sam Burgess has been selected in England's World Cup squad, despite only having one international cap. Picture by: Anthony Devlin / PA Wire/Press Association Images
Pragmatism ≠ Conservatism
When you look at the way that the Ireland team has developed their style of play under Schmidt, you can immediately see the importance that is placed on the half-back players. That might seem like an extraordinarily obvious observation, but there are plenty of Test teams that use brute power and raw speed to get the job done instead of a reliance on accuracy, execution and tactical thinking (all JS buzzwords).
Quite simply, our half-backs are more important to the team than some of the other big-hitters at RWC2015. The emergence of Conor Murray as a playmaker and a decision-taker under Schmidt and his importance to Ireland’s success in that time cannot be underestimated, so to suggest that Madigan would be thrown into a completely new role in such a high-risk situation would be to go against everything that the Schmidt has done since becoming Ireland coach.
Incidentally, much of this debate about Madigan at Number 9 is because of a perceived lack of form from Isaac Boss and Kieran Marmion, which once again causes me to wonder why Paul Marshall, Luke McGrath or John Cooney weren’t given more of a chance to stake a claim.
Kieran Marmion. Mandatory Credit ©INPHO/Dan Sheridan
Insider Trading
One other observation that seems to have slipped under the radar from yesterday’s team announcements. Gordon D’Arcy is back playing for Leinster. Even though Schmidt has insisted that those who have been released to their provinces for the weekend could still be on the plane next week, it’s hard to see how a pre-season run-out against Moseley is going to help D’Arcy to get to another World Cup.
Perhaps an even bigger surprise is that Darren Cave is nowhere to be seen this weekend. After a really impressive display against the Welsh last time out, he seems to have once again drifted out of the reckoning with all the focus on whether or not Luke Fitzgerald or Keith Earls will be brought as the cover for outside centre. Again, Madigan’s ability to cover inside centre is a nice bonus for the Irish coaches but as I pointed-out last week his defence remains an area that he needs to work on.
What if Robbie Henshaw gets injured in the early pool games? Does Madigan then become the first-choice inside centre against Italy and France? These are the kind of problems that Schmidt will be grappling with over the weekend. As the head coach, he’s got to imagine the worst case scenario and then come up with a way in which he can best deal with it. That pressure seems to be getting to other coaches out there, but Schmidt has yet to crack.
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