What has left Brian O'Driscoll scratching his head about this Ireland team

Ireland legend Brian O’Driscoll is a worried man.

Ahead of a fixture that Ireland has won 16 times in a row, that may seem strange. But the centre turned TV pundit is one of many to voice their concern at the way Ireland, Six Nations champions only two years ago, are playing.

Being interviewed on stage at a live recording of the Off The Ball YouTube show in Belfast this week, the 141-cap World Rugby Hall of Famer admitted he wasn’t surprised by last week’s limp showing against France in Paris, which ended in a 36-14 defeat.

Ireland hardly fired a shot in the first half and trailed 22-0 at the break, before the bench came on and made an impact to give the final scoreline a bit more respectability.

Andy Farrell has reacted by making six changes to his starting XV, not due to rotation, as has been the case in the past against the Championship’s historically weakest side, but in a bid to get a much better performance against an Azzurri team on the up.

“I think he’s at the point now where he’s got to rattle a few cages,” O’Driscoll said.

“In truth, there’s been a few guys that last week certainly didn’t really deliver for him on an important stage.

“A lot of coaches would go back and say, ‘right, I’ll give you one more go’. But actually, in truth, that performance had been coming. We were all worried about it and it came to pass, and something has to change to kind of stop the rot so to speak.”

Ireland have never lost at home to Italy in the Six Nations, their last defeat in Dublin coming at the old Lansdowne Road in 1997, prior to the Azzurri’s involvement in the Championship.

But their 18-15 win over Scotland’s ‘Golden Generation’ and Ireland’s no-show against Les Bleus gives Saturday’s game a different feel to it.

“It’s a massive game,” said O’Driscoll. “If you think about it, they’re buoyed by their form over the last year. (Gonzalo) Quesada (the Italy head coach) has come in and done a brilliant job, and there’s positive sounds from within the camp.

“(Michele) Lamaro talking after the match last week was saying we have ambition in our heads, but he wouldn’t tell you what it was. So obviously they’re not talking, let’s not get the wooden spoon, they are thinking can we win three games in the competition?

“It’s the first time they are coming to Dublin where they are a really, really big threat to us; they are very organised; they have got good x-factor; defensively they are very solid; we struggled against them in Italy last year, only won by a score, so this has been coming.

“They have been going in one direction and, in truth, we have been sliding a bit in the other direction, so something has to be done, a little bit more drastically than Andy Farrell would be used to, and the changes are as a result of it.

“I really like (Cormac) Izuchukwu coming in, and Robert Balucoune, albeit Tommy O’Brien can probably feel a bit hard done by; the game didn’t go for him.

“He provides something that not many other players have – that wicked speed and total commitment – but with Baloucoune you also get that.

“Players like that, and I think Arundell, I think Feyi-Waboso and Louis Bielle-Biarrey, when they get the ball in their hands there’s an electricity to what’s going to come next. The stadium can feel it, the opposition can feel it, and the more of those players you get in your team, the better chance you have.”

As well as changes of personnel, O’Driscoll hankers after a return to the style of play that took Ireland to number one in the World Rugby Rankings.

While Ireland are by no means alone in kicking the leather off the ball, O’Driscoll feels that by following the trend of kicking-to-compete, they are doing themselves a disservice.

The ball was put into the Paris sky 78 times in the opening match of the Championship, with Ireland responsible for exactly half of those kicks.

With their best leaper and catcher of the ball, Mack Hansen, absent through injury, it was never going to be an area where Ireland dominanted.

“It feels like we have over subscribed to the kick-contest game,” O’Drioscoll lamented.

“If you look at the first launch play … ball down off the lineout, into midfield, box kick from Gibson-Park.

“Okay, you catch that one and you maybe get a bit of momentum, a bit of territory, but if you don’t, it gives confidence to the opposition.

“What has happened to backing ourselves as the skilful team that we’ve been for the best part of a decade?

“Joe Schmidt teams were always the best passing teams, and I genuinely believe that, and this is significant, since Leinster, who make up so much of the Lion’s share of the squad, stopped doing the multi-phase game, it has contributed massively to what has happened in the national camp.

“Since they have come away from that, the passing quality is not as good, players are checking their runs, there’s not as much cohesion.

“For me, I’d love them to go back to practising skills a little bit more and backing themselves and not going back to the kick contest when it hasn’t worked for two or three phases

“A couple of years ago, when Ireland were at their best, when it broke down they got back to their formation and shape within a phase.

“Now, it’s like we can’t do that so let’s kick it in the air and see if we can get a 50/50 contestable kick back.

“I just think we are never going to beat a team by just competing in the air. We have got to think our way around beating the best sides.

“When you look back and reflect on our best rugby and our inspiring rugby, it wasn’t about our kicking game, it was about us backing ourselves to get soft shoulders, get offloads away, to take a few more risks. I think we are becoming increasingly risk adverse.”