Steadman looks to replicate Irish success

Published on Thursday 5 February 2009 23:14

SCOTLAND may carry a little luck of the Irish into Sunday's game with defence coach Graham Steadman confident that his recent success against the Welsh can be transported over the Irish Sea.

The former Great Britain rugby league cap started coaching in rugby union with Munster in 2005 and stepped up to Ireland's national squad the following year. He joined the Scotland set-up in the summer after Ireland replaced Eddie O'Sullivan with Declan Kidney.

In 2007, Ireland had the tightest defence in the RBS Six Nations Championship, conceding just five tries, half of the year before, and scoring 17. On average, teams needed nearly 18 minutes in possession to breach their try-line. Last season it rose to ten tries conceded, better only than Italy and Scotland, but in two seasons Wales only crossed the Irish line once.

"And that was Shane Williams at Croke Park last year, who is not the easiest guy to stop," Steadman said. "But I'm very confident that we have players capable of stopping him and Wales.

"Much of it is about confidence and coming into this championship off the back of top performances in the Heineken Cup and Magners League is huge, and we now have to get these boys believing in themselves at this level to move forward.

"Wales are a great test first up – a team that plays with width, but also have individuals like Shane Williams who is a free spirit and can pop up anywhere."

Steadman is known as a methodical coach who leaves little to chance, and his input in selection this week is perhaps most clear in the decision to leave out Thom Evans, partly on account of his defence not being deemed quite as good as Simon Webster and Sean Lamont.

"It was a tough decision, let's make no mistake about it," he added. "Thom has come from nowhere and is an exciting player, but he has only been involved in top-level rugby for two seasons.

"It's not just about defence because the two other guys have proven try-scoring records as well as experience at Test level over many years, and so they have the edge on Evans this week, but there is a lot of rugby between now and the end of the championship and the pressure is on the guys with the shirt to perform."