Last chance for Ireland to play ‘new’ game

Last week's meeting of Australia and New Zealand, and by extension the entire Tri-Nations, should have had red blooded Irishmen everywhere quaking in their boots.

Rugby has changed, for now there is no point worrying about why or what it will do to the game long term, we can only play the whistle. Since the rule change in this hemisphere it has meant little more than an inflated number of penalties and frustrated tacklers. But down south, aside from the world champion Springboks, it means the style has well and truly been turned on.

That silver fern might as well be a stamp of approval from the gods of running rugby. The All Blacks ran riot, winning every single Tri-nations match including a test in South Africa where Dan Carter kicked the ball only once in open play.

The IRB released it's statistical analysis of the tournament this week and the figures highlight some stark realities compared to the game we know. 

Tries were almost doubled (27 to 52) and the number of passes increased. There were the same amount of penalties scored as tries (the 2009 ratio was 2.5 penalties per try) and astonishingly there was not a single drop goal in the duration of the tournament. Only South Africa, increasingly looking like aging dinosaurs in the time of sabre-tooth tigers, even attempted one.

The All Blacks won the tournament by unleashing some scintillating rugby, but they also had the experience and general big game nouse to back it up when the going got tough.

At times, Australia were equally, if not more entertaining than their foes from across the Tasman. Against both the Blacks and the Boks (twice) they raced into healthy leads before letting the momentum swing back all too easily.

This week, playing their Bledisloe Cup rivals in Hong Kong, history appeared to be repeating itself. The Wallabies were 12-0 up in a flash thanks to tries from Adam Ashley-Cooper and Quade Cooper. But by half time they trailed 12-14. Nobody quite knew how the All Blacks were winning but they were.

Then they gave the kiwi's a taste of their own medicine, trailing by five points in the game's dying embers, up stepped young James O'Conner. At just 20 years of age the innocent visage of O'Conner is an unlikely talisman for such a powerful rugby team, but he consistently delivers quality in spades.

After something akin to choking occurred to Cooper, Matt Giteau and Kurtley Beale when the kicking tee was produced. O'Conner, complete with ice cool veins, stepped up and sent a 35 metre conversion from the right hand side (the difficult angle for a right footed kicker) across the black spot of the goalposts. 

Australia had handed their neighbours their first defeat in 16, forcing us to wonder, how the south ocean islands might react if Australia go and claim a third World Cup crown in 2011.

With two weeks of international training in the bag, now would be the perfect time for Declan Kidney to jump on the bandwagon driven by the Bledisloe cup sides, throw caution, if not to the wind then certainly into the back seat.

This week, the Springboks arrive in Lansdowne, as they did four years ago, under strength. Having not lost a home test against them since 2000, there would be little sense in going into this fixture with a 'win is a win' mentality. To survive we need more than that.

The next four weeks of international rugby is ideally suited to get the ball rolling, after some low confidence Boks, we face Tonga. After that, the proposition of the All Blacks is virtually unwinnable, so what is there to lose? Lets throw that pill around, we might even learn something along the way.

The odds are that an expansive approach will produce a win over Tonga, a defeat to New Zealand and anything is possible against this incarnation of South Africa. By the time Ireland's tired troops are required to front up against Argentina, another side in danger of being left in the dark age by the rules designed to subvert their (and our) ilk, it will be a difficult task. 

But this year containing a minimum of 17 tests, it will be impossible if we do not try.

Ireland have the artillery, that is without question and on Wednesday Tommy Bowe confirmed that the desire is also in place:

"We want to bring our game on. Watching the Tri-Nations you could see that the tempo of the game has really moved up a notch." Exclaimed the Ospreys back, adding;

"We want to play a type of rugby where we're working the opposition and trying to get on the front foot and playing a bit of rugby. It suits me to a T. It's just trying to get myself involved and get my hands on the ball."

But the backs need to be issued the license to kill. To run without fear of isolation. To attempt quick line outs without expecting to be dropped if things go slightly awry.

There are small hints of this happening at provincial level. Fergus McFadden showed great presence of mind against Edinburgh last week, keeping an attack alive with a quick line out. Andrew Conway's try soon followed on the opposite wing. 

But a few smidgens of anecdotal evidence is not enough, too often our teams try to play last decade's game. In 2010-11 when the green jersey is on, we need to see the new game in full flight. Mercifully, Bowe confirmed that their is a conscious effort in place to move forward from the glory days of 2009..

"We are trying to play more open rugby. We played a certain style of rugby that got us to the Grand Slam but we're trying to build our game and move to another level. It was a disappointing summer but I think we're going in the right direction." 

That direction has to be found in the next month, four games to complete a three point turn and spin the tyres into the six nations. Damn the skid marks and smoke left behind!