That World Cup quarter-final defeat to the All Blacks cut deep and some scars lingered longer than others.
As painful as any of the wounds were those prompted by Wayne Barnes awarding three scrum penalties against Ireland and specifically Andrew Porter, which assuredly contributed to the loosehead’s post-World Cup blues.
While not wanting to resort to sour grapes, Andy Farrell did go so far as to state that the Irish camp had “a different view” of those scrums from Barnes, while both Peter O’Mahony and Paul O’Connell maintained they too thought the Irish pack scrummaged legally and, if anything, was on top.
There were only five scrums in the game and all on the All Blacks’ put-in, which is testimony to their remarkably low error count on the night. But considering that, you’d have to wonder if Barnes had any preconceived ideas regarding Porter and the Irish scrum.
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In any event, in advance of Friday night’s daunting Guinness Six Nations opener against France in Marseille, Irish scrum coach John Fogarty admitted that the pictures which the Irish scrum are painting for referees is a concern.
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“I think that’s something that we need to be tidy with, 100 per cent,” Fogarty said after the injury-free Irish squad trained in their Quinta do Lago base on Monday.
“You’ve got someone like [Uini] Atonio, he’s been around the block. He will over-lean or he will fade a fraction,” said Fogarty, motioning forward and then back. “And he can do that through his back. Tricky.
“It’s a tough job for [referee] Karl Dickson. Big crowd, big occasion. And this part of the game needs to work. We’re going to be working with officials to make sure we’re showing the best possible pictures.
“That’s number one. Second thing for us is after a set, the game changes slightly and we need to. We’ve been trying to develop nice feel in what we’re doing so that we can adjust on the move and not just let it fall around.”
“The third thing would probably be mentality,” he added. “Being able to come back to neutral and be able to find each other when we need to.
“So, we can hear, listen and talk to each other. We’re back. And we’re back to our plan, our way. Nice picture.
“It’s really important the boys take those pieces with them in an arena like Marseille against a team like France. At the same time, what an opportunity. It’s unbelievably exciting for us.
“The players should be nice and clear in their heads. Now they’ve got to go and make it happen. That’s international rugby . . . Go and make it happen, boys. Andy says it the whole time. ‘Go out there and get it’.”
Pausing at length and smiling wryly, Fogarty maintained that anger was not the correct word to describe his feelings as those scrum penalties against New Zealand mounted.
“We’re disappointed we conceded three penalties in that game. Very disappointed. We’ve gone away and had a good look at what it is we’re doing to show the referee . . . I think anger is the wrong word. You’ve got to be able to understand what’s happening and be able to solve the problem. And you’ve got to be able to do it ‘now’.
“Me getting pissed off on the sideline, the lads getting pissed off on the pitch, it’s just not going to help. We’ve got to be clear. There’s moments when you’re pissed off, for sure. But it’s quickly pushed aside because it’s almost a selfish thing to be thinking. We’ve got to get some clarity on what’s happening and we’ve got to be able to communicate it clearly.
“So, yeah, you’re disappointed in some of the stuff. But you’ve got to f*****g learn, and you’ve got to get better and you’ve got to go out and show it. What an opportunity we have now to show this on Friday night.”
Although the temperature has dropped from the low 20s in the squad’s first few days here last week, they still trained in 17 degrees under relatively cloudy skies on Monday, with Tuesday the day, as Fogarty puts it “when we go at it [in] the scrums. We need to feel that in our legs, we need to be making good decisions under real stress and pressure”.
Fogarty said that the team will continually evolve, with tweaks here and there, but stressed they couldn’t discard the work that had led to 17 successive Test wins before that World Cup quarter-final.
“We’ve had an amazing couple of years. The team has grown in leadership and resilience. There’s been some brilliant days and some brilliant learnings, and all of that is still there and still very relevant for the squad, and we’re adding our pieces as we go now.”
Fogarty also extolled the virtues of Oli Jager, the uncapped ex-Crusaders tight-head who has been training with the squad.
“Oli has played with a really well-coached club and he’s got some really, really good habits, particularly at scrum time.”
Yet, despite the retirements of Johnny Sexton and Keith Earls, and injuries to others – notably Mack Hansen – Ireland would appear to have the most settled side going into the Six Nations.
But if anybody is banging the door down to force his way into the mix, it’s Joe McCarthy, and Fogarty highlighted the importance of competition.
“Joe has brought his own energy, and he’s had learnings along the way, he’s had some nice form for Leinster and he’s in here now competing with that group, and that makes that group a better group. That makes that group properly focused for training sessions and they’re going after it.”
