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Ireland boss Andy Farrell admits his players are well aware they are viewed as “vulnerable” by weekend opponents Fiji.
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The Six Nations champions have made an unconvincing start to the autumn, scraping a nervy 22-19 victory over Argentina following a dispiriting 23-13 defeat to New Zealand.
Fiji have lost each of the past five meetings between the nations but arrived in Dublin optimistic of claiming another scalp on the back of wins over England, Australia and Wales during the past 15 months.
Earlier this week, visiting scrum-half Frank Lomani spoke candidly to the media about sensing an opportunity to topple Ireland, who have slipped off the top of the world rankings this month.
Farrell hopes his much-changed hosts can rise to the challenge.
“You think the lads don’t read it (press coverage) but they do,” said Farrell, who has made seven alterations to his starting XV, including handing debuts to Leinster hooker Gus McCarthy and Ulster back-rower Cormac Izuchukwu.
“They might tell you that they don’t but they do, 100 per cent they do. It’s great. It’s what you want.
“You want to play against sides that are confident and who think that it’s an opportunity for themselves because we have to rise to that.”
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Fiji, who upset England at Twickenham ahead of last year’s World Cup and then beat Australia in the pool stage of the tournament in France, are seeking a seventh win in their last eight outings.
Defeat to Scotland in their autumn opener is the only blot on that record, with Mick Byrne’s visitors hoping to build on back-to-back wins over Wales and Spain.
Asked if he feels the opposition may have saved their best performance until last, Farrell replied: “Yeah, I’d expect that.
“Listening to their scrum-half they expect that as well which is great.
“They’ve proved over the last couple of years their consistency of performance because of their players playing in big games, not just internationally but all around the world now.”
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Ireland have conceded 54 points from penalties during their last three games.
Farrell insists he is not encouraging his team to “play on the edge” and acknowledges the discipline issues must improve.
“Referees always get things wrong and so do we,” said the Englishman.
“Our way of going about these things is you take the referee out of the game by making sure that you do things properly anyway.
“We’re not the type of side – even though it wouldn’t look like it over the last couple of weeks – who wants to play on the edge, or over the edge. We want to be accurate with what we’re doing.
“Obviously there’s a couple of trends with offsides. That’s a little bit too much enthusiasm, lack of composure, and it’s not one person, it’s a mixture.
“It’s something obviously that we keep talking about and owning up to. We need to have a better performance in that regard at the weekend.”
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The number of Irish body parts and limbs offside and/or laying about the rucks, or slowing rucks is definitely strategy. Andy Farrell is definitely coaching them to hug the line - despite what he says.
I hope that this area of the game is monitored carefully by Hollie Davidson so that Fiji gets a fair shake and ability to play to their strengths.
Which is fast and wide.
Fiji. 1 solitary point. That's all it takes. Take all the kickable penalties. Punish them out wide.
Agree.
Ireland are off their feet at the majority of their attacking rucks. Its so common that commentators don't even notice it. We hear about "clear outs" and "clean outs", which don't exist in the Laws (the correct word is "binding"), and the obligation to "endeavour to stay on your feet" is nowhere to be seen.
Ireland is not the only team to adopt this coached flopping and diving at attacking rucks, but its clearly part of their quick ruck ball strategy.
No need for law changes here. We just need refs to award penalties when players don't endeavour to stay on their feet.
There is nothing particularly significant about Ireland in this regard compared to other Tier 1 nations. To look at 'strategy' for illegal play its best to see what teams push boundaries with new laws. SA have milked two tries at ruck block downs. The strategy is to charge the first few before the ball is out at about 4 seconds but pull out and put up hands in reigned apology. The referees usually allow the scum half to clear without awarding a penalty in this scenario. The problem with that being that the scrumhalf is now taking over 5 seconds through no fault of his own. Having achieved a few slow balls > 5s , the SA forward can now pick a scrum to charge dead on 5s. Now if the scrum half waits, he will concede a penalty, as we saw against Scotland. With the new rule in place, any early charge should result in an immediate penalty.
SA also got an offside block against England which was pivotal again after a couple of 'apologetic' offside aborted charges forcing England to clear slowly.