Ireland v Italy Preview.

Written By: Editor on February 2, 2010 No Comment

It may appear somewhat churlish in the week leading up to the start of the Six Nations tournament to even contemplate criticising Grand Slam winning coach Declan Kidney, but forgive my boorish behaviour as I do have a nagging worry about a couple of aspects of the team selection.

My concern is, yet again, with the front row, namely the two props that were destroyed by Australia and South Africa in the November internationals and a decidedly not match fit Flannery. With this trio in concert I see the Ireland scrum being under intense pressure throughout the game which could give Italy a sniff of a chance and will, if the same players are selected next week, have the French pack rubbing their hands in anticipation.

I would have much rather seen the bulk of Court starting at loose head with Healey to come on and display his running game as the game breaks up and the same goes for Fogarty and Flannery with a similar switch. Rory Best would have been better served getting eighty minutes under his belt in the Wolfhounds side.

Fortunately for Ireland, getting tanked in the front row shouldn’t make a great deal of difference to the overall result against Italy, it’ll probably just lengthen the time it takes to pull clear, but next week it could be a completely different matter and I would have liked Court to have been fully tested against the Italian pack.

No real complaints with the rest of the side, Trimble and McLaughlin are the right calls and D’Arcy is displaying decidedly better form than he has in the past and is worth his spot at the expense of Wallace. I’m particularly looking forward to watching the back three of Kearney, Bowe and Trimble. I think it could be very, very exciting.

Ireland to win, but it won’t be a romp even with the Italians missing the influential Parisse.

Ireland: R Kearney, T Bowe, B O’Driscoll, G D’Arcy, A Trimble, R O’Gara, T O’Leary; C Healy, J Flannery, J Hayes, D O’Callaghan, P O’Connell, K McLaughlin, D Wallace, J Heaslip. Replacements: R Best, T Court, L Cullen, S O’Brien, E Reddan, P Wallace, K Earls.

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