Evolution not revolution
THIS is what it's all about. Ireland versus Wales in the oldest international rugby ground in the world, in the oldest international rugby tournament in the world. The World Cup is all well and good, but for Ireland this is what it's all about.
We might entertain dreams of one day winning the Webb Ellis trophy, but in our heart of hearts we know that the Six Nations and championships, Triple Crowns and the very occasional Grand Slam are the height of our ambition.
We are afterall a small country, with a small (but growing) rugby playing population – certainly nothing on the scale of England or France. And yet in our own back yard we've proven as fiercely competitive as any nation in the northern hemisphere.
In the immediate aftermath of the 2003 World Cup who would have imagined that Ireland would be the more consistently competitve side than England over the rest of the decade and the beginning of the next?
How we've managed to do so is through shrewd planning and consistent management of our resources. Declan Kidney and Eddie O'sullivan before him went for evolution over revolution. They resisted calls – and Declan Kidney has resisted in the lead up to this Six Nations – to make wholesale changes at various times.
Instead you've seen the team change gradually, giving new players time to bed in (Jamie Heaslip, Rob Kearney and Mike Ross were all gradually introduced replacing long serving players like Girvan Darcy, for example) and allowing the team to remain competitive at all times.
Its in this light that Kidney went for a seemingly conservative panel for the championship this year. Initially at least. Take a look at the final panel announced this week and you'll see five uncapped players in contention – Simon Zebo (left), David Kearney, Peter O'mahony, Eoin O'malley and Brett Wilkinson. These guys will be introduced with as little fuss and as seamlessly as possible. Contrast that to the upheavals in England and France with new coaches in place, new philosophies and new faces and ask yourself, would your prefer that or what Ireland have done this past
decade?
