Ireland V England (14-13) February 28th 2009

Unbelievable tension but Ireland moves a step closer to the title

Being the favourites, was there a lot more pressure on Ireland to deliver this time out?

The main pressure always comes from within the squad. The media do all they can to build one team up as favourites but you cannot let the media dictate. The spirit in the camp is really good, we have a game plan that’s working, that builds confidence in the squad. We are not going to panic; we know now we just need to go through the phases and we will get what we want. It was a big test for us, playing England is always a big game- especially in Croke Park.

Did the game go according to the match plan?

To a degree it did. We knew their defensive line was good and that we would have to crack it. We knew it would be a physical game and we would have to take them on head to head. They are so big they try to muscle teams, but we were happy enough. Our defence, ball retention and set pieces were all good. We could have been a bit smarter with the ball. We did the same thing a number of times, one off-pick and go and then get smashed by 2 of their players. It was good that we could retain the ball, but we realise now there is no rush to take a pick and go, we should try to pull in a few more of their players and give our backs some space to run. We knew before the game and commented a number of times that our work rate would always have to be higher than our opposite numbers, I think we achieved that and overall we deserved the win.

Scrums seem much more difficult to referee with a lot of collapses or penalties off the back of them; do you think the ELV’s are responsible?

The scrum has become much more potent attaching mechanism now, with all players tied in and the extra 5. When teams don’t win the engage they are likely to bring it down to win the re-set. It’s a more effective way of getting over the gain line.

Were you aware of the penalty misses during the game? Does it have an impact during the match?

Our experience has taught us not to panic when these things happen. We had the majority of procession and territory. Ronan had an off day, but the chances kept coming through England’s lack of discipline. We were controlling the match all the time. We do need to look at this though, we had a lot of procession and a lot of territory but at the end we did not have a lot of points.

England gave away a lot of penalties through lack of discipline; do you think this was the difference between the two teams?

They did give away a lot of penalties; they slowed down the ball a lot. If we had got quicker balls, maybe we would have scored more points against them. The game could have really opened up for us, so it’s hard to say. We were aware that the referee was fresh from Southern Hemisphere where the full ELV’s are in play. We knew he would be strict on negative play so we did our best to keep that in mind and tried to keep the game flowing and positive. England did get punished.

Kidney is the first 6 Nations coach to criticise the ELV’s. Do you think he is alone in his views?

Declan was referring to the type of Ping Pong that can occur, kicking over and back 7 or 8 times. It must be extremely boring for the supporters to watch. It is just waiting to see who cracks first who makes the first mistake rather than who makes a good play.

Is this team motivated to win this title as a result of past disappointments?

Two years ago we entered the championship in great shape; we had a couple of triple crowns under our belts and a very settled squad. Losing to the French in the last few minutes 2 years ago combined with the disappointment of the world cup, has focused our minds. We know how much it hurt. Lads get older and the chances aren’t going to come every year for the next 10 years. Every year we make a conscious effort to be focused maybe having a new coach this year has also increased the focus.

Jerry Flannery in conversation with USN