Wary Ireland learn from history
Ireland coach Declan Kidney hopes history won’t repeat itself when his side face Scotland in the Six Nations at Lansdowne Road on Saturday.
The Scots, looking for their first win of the 2012 Championship, enter this match on the back of five straight defeats – a run dating back to last year’s World Cup in New Zealand.
But it was a similar story two years ago when they turned up in Dublin for Ireland’s farewell to Croke Park – their temporary home while Lansdowne Road was being redeveloped.
Scotland hadn’t won any of their four previous matches that Six Nations, although they had drawn 15-15 with England at Murrayfield.
Kidney though warned the Scots “have a habit of spoiling Irish parties” and they did exactly that, winning 23-20 to give Andy Robinson just one of two victories in 13 Six Nations matches to date in charge of Scotland.
“We went down this road two years ago, didn’t we?,” Kidney said on Friday as he contemplated the Scotland team of 2012 that has been beaten, but not disgraced, by England, Wales and France in this season’s Six Nations.
“They have performed well in every game. If it clicks for them it will be an unbelievable challenge.”
Narrow margins have been a common theme for the Celtic rivals this Championship, with Ireland’s bid for a Grand Slam falling at the first hurdle in a nailbiting defeat by Wales before their title hopes ended with last weekend’s 17-17 draw away to France – a match which the Irish led 17-6 at half-time.
“When I was asked at the start of the Championship, I thought Scotland were in a prime position to move very well and if you look at the thin margins that are there and the thin margins that have affected our own results, it’s the exact same for Scotland,” Kidney said.
Saturday sees Ireland playing their first Six Nations match in more than a decade without either one of injured stars Brian O’Driscoll and Paul O’Connell.
And they were dealt a fresh blow when, earlier this week, openside flank Sean O’Brien, the reigning European Player of the Year, was ruled out with a foot infection.
His place will be taken by Peter O’Mahony, with the 22-year-old now set to make his first Test start.
“The benefit of the change is that Scotland won’t have been able to analyse him as much as if he’d several caps under his belt,” Kidney said.
“You can look at this as a disruption to us, but maybe it’s a disruption to Scotland. Perhaps they’ll have been anticipating a different type of challenge. They may have to adjust to us now,” he pointed out.
AFP
