Emmet Moloney writes for the 'The Irish Farmers Journal' and is a former sports columnist with 'The Kerryman'.

Declan Kidney’s side head to Paris this weekend in search of only their second win in St Denis but this French side aren’t for turning, writes Emmet Moloney...

This weekend, our sporting focus will be on Paris where our rugby heroes are going to go down narrowly to France. There will be no shame in defeat. The French at home are almost impossible to beat and, once they cut loose, impossible to stop. Declan Kidney is the shrewdest coach in the Six Nations and he will have had a plan in place for this game for some time. Ireland will try to prevent the French from running the ball in open play. This means the aimless kicking that is now such a feature of rugby will be curtailed on Saturday. Ireland must find touch, where our line-out can shine. Kicking down the middle of the field would be suicidal against Les Bleus as they have some devastating open field runners.

We’d like to think that we do too. On paper, our back three are a match for any team. Rob Kearney looks like the best counter-attacking full-back in the world, but if he didn’t even try to take on the Italians, I can’t see him running at the French. Maybe Deccy has an ace up in his sleeve. It wouldn’t be the first time that he has pulled a rabbit from his hat. Team selection is where he can change our game plan but last Saturday was disappointing in terms of ambition. With the best backs in the Six Nations, we expected more than we saw. It does not augur well.

We knew how Italy would play and how limited they would be, but we didn’t see Ireland wanting to open them up. We looked happy to take the win in comfort. I wonder if there was an air of self-preservation for the more difficult tasks ahead. If the bonus-point system that makes the Heineken Cup so exciting was in place, we may have seen a different, more entertaining game. As it was, we saw the totally predictable Irish win and more kicking than you would see at a National Football League game.

Ronan O’Gara’s astute kicking game will not beat France on its own. We need tries. Scotland managed a decent number of line breaks against the French and that won’t help us because they will be working on their defence all week long. It’s what happens in rugby. If your scrum is in trouble one week, you work on it all week and for the following match your scrum is not the problem. Something else is.

Our best hope is Declan Kidney shaking things up. When Paddy Wallace came on against the Italians, tired as they were, he made our three-quarter line look more potent. We need more of that. Ronan O’Gara’s best moment in the game was the flat pass he fired to Andrew Trimble, releasing the winger. We need more of that, too.

We need quick ball and despite the fact that Eoin Reddan will be held in reserve on Saturday, I think we should review Peter Stringer’s position. If Johnny Sexton is the out-half of the future, then Stringer will come back into the reckoning due to the speed of his pass. The fact that he doesn’t possess a real break and physically is a little small for international rugby is amplified when he plays beside O’Gara, who has the very same drawbacks. Not so with Sexton. He can tackle and break.

The slow ball that frustrated us on Saturday wasn’t helped by Tomás O’Leary’s tendency to take a step before passing. Forget his try, last Saturday wasn’t his best game. Despite Deccy’s promotion of the Corkman, his place could well be under threat in this Six Nations. We need faster ball if we’re going to see D’Arcy and O’Driscoll explode into games. And they need space to do so and that space comes from fast ball. Without it, we cannot beat France.

Kidney has proven himself a master of the one-off result. And Ireland have developed the wonderful habit of winning tight matches. But this is the toughest test of his tenure to date. In Paris, teams tend to get rolled over with the French feeding on momentum. They can make players look old very quickly and have retired quite a few green jerseys in their time.

Many is the player that arrived in Paris as the great green hope, only to be culled in the aftermath of a hammering. Then there is the opposite – like Brian O’Driscoll, who chose Paris to announce himself to the world in 2000. What will we see on Saturday? Will Johnny Sexton come on and save the day, usurping Ronan O’Gara as the starting out-half? Or will an Irish reputation lie in tatters as a host of French players trample through him?

My guess is none of the above. Ireland’s game plan will decide the outcome, not France’s. Ambition could be rewarded, caution could see defeat – albeit a close one. Saturday has caution written all over it.

FOOTBALL LEAGUE UP AND CRAWLING
In case you didn’t notice, the National Football League began last weekend. Every county in Ireland, bar those football-loving Cats, was involved. Yet it would have passed you by quite easily. There was no hoopla, no razzmatazz, no promotion – no-one seemed to care.

Every year around this time we ask why the GAA cannot “do communications”. Their website is a joke in the modern era and promoting our games seems mysteriously beyond them. Kids should be tugging at their parents’ sleeves wanting to attend county matches. Instead, they don’t know the games are on. This weekend will be all about Ireland and France. Just like last Sunday, RTÉ will probably lead their sports news with soccer, relegating the National Football League in importance. And why not? If the GAA itself doesn’t seem to care, why should RTÉ?

I attended a Waterford Crystal League hurling match under lights two weeks ago between Clare and Tipperary in Borrisoleigh. There was no public address system and no scoreboard but the match had to be put back 15 minutes because of crowd congestion. Around 3,000 people were at the match on a Tuesday night in January. A school night!
The interest in there. Wouldn’t it be nice if the GAA tapped into it now and again.

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