RUGBY:TONY McGAHAN is set to leave Munster at the end of the season after reputedly informing his players yesterday that he has agreed to become the new Wallabies defensive coach under Robbie Deans.
McGahan, who was defensive coach with Munster when they won the Heineken Cup in 2006 and doubled up as backs coach for their 2008 triumph, has guided them to two League titles in his four seasons to date as head coach. The Queenslander had been offered another one-year extension at the province with the option of a further year, but has seemingly found the lure of working with his national team too hard to resist.
Like Ulster, Munster will thus be obliged to begin seeking a new head coach. Anthony Foley would be an obvious front-runner, although after one season as defensive coach and this season doubling up as forwards’ coach, another year as an assistant may have been preferable.
The likes of Eddie O’Sullivan and Michael Bradley, though he is only in his first year at Edinburgh and has been overlooked by his native province before, will be touted, and John Kirwan has publicly declared his interest in the Ulster job, while akin to Leinster with Joe Schmidt, the province could also look toward the southern hemisphere.
Earlier in the day, McGahan’s one time boss at Munster, Declan Kidney, duly stuck with the same selection that he had pencilled in for Paris (595 caps, with an average of 27).
From a 9pm kick-off for the abortive match in Paris to a 1.30pm kick-off this Saturday, such is the lot of television dictated modern rugby. The Parisian night-time slot and return date on Sunday week hardly have the best interests of the travelling supporters in mind, and as with Sunday games, Saturday’s lunchtime slot is hardly conducive to an atmospheric occasion.
Nor is it to the players’ liking. Paul O’Connell admitting as much yesterday when stating that a 9pm kick-off was the lesser of two evils. “You can relax and go to bed for a while or watch a bit of TV, or go for a walk. But the lunchtime kick-offs, you’re straight into it.”
Mindful of Ireland’s frustrating tendency to start slowly, O’Connell conceded that the early kick-off obliges the team to ignite the crowd as much as vice versa. “You go back to the English game at the end of last year’s Six Nations, that first scrum where our front-row did so well. That really got the crowd into the game; little things like that. Certainly it will be important to get the crowd into the game, they’ve to see where we are mentally and physically. They have to see that early on. And if they do, they’ll react well to it.”
The game has been a 51,000 sell-out for a couple of weeks. The 700 tickets returned by the Italian Federation out of their 5,000 allocation were sold out within an hour through the Irish Supporters’ Club. The fans’ faith is encouraging, not least as O’Connell also admitted that the team’s record since their return to the redeveloped Lansdowne Road (three wins and six defeats) is something they are concerned about.
“We’re well aware of that [record] and it is annoying and it is frustrating. We’ve rarely put in an 80-minute performance there and that’s one of the big things. We’re an excellent side I think, but we haven’t been that excellent side for the 80 minutes as we should have been and that will be the goal for this weekend.”
Kidney acknowledged there will be an issue regarding match rustiness given the starting line-up have played only once over the last four weekends – and in Keith Earls’s case not at all – while Jonathan Sexton has played just once in five weeks. Training has thus been tweaked, with some extra contact work in 15-a-side match situations in last week’s curtailed one-day get-together and again yesterday.
As O’Connell noted, the revised schedule is some way short of ideal, especially as there will invariably be sore bodies after Saturday’s game. “It’s always the most physical challenge of the tournament. They’ve an excellent maul and scrum, they’re good around the fringes and it’s always tough on the body.
“They’re still really tough up front and when you’ve a strength up front, why would you go against that? They’ve attacked the short side a little more and they’ve been a little more expansive. They’ve looked a good team in the last couple of weeks.”
The template ought to be the 36-6 win in Dunedin in early November. The squad reviewed the Dunedin game on Monday night and allowing for a poor start, O’Connell noted: “Certainly we went hard at their scrum because obviously it’s a massive part of their game. Forwards wise, we were really disappointed with our defence of the maul in the first-half and they gained a lot of momentum from that. But we were very patient and that patience paid off even though it took a while.”
Ireland (v Italy):R Kearney; T Bowe, K Earls, G D'Arcy, A Trimble; J Sexton, C Murray; C Healy, R Best, M Ross; D O'Callaghan, P O'Connell; S Ferris, S O'Brien, J Heaslip. Replacements:S Cronin, T Court, D Ryan, P O'Mahony , E Reddan, R O'Gara, F McFadden.
