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Alan Quinlan has defensive concerns ahead of Scotland clash

Alan Quinlan joined Monday's OTB AM to reflect on Ireland's 37-27 win over Wales in the 6 Nations...
Newstalk
Newstalk

13.47 26 Feb 2018


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Alan Quinlan has defensive con...

Alan Quinlan has defensive concerns ahead of Scotland clash

Newstalk
Newstalk

13.47 26 Feb 2018


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Alan Quinlan joined Monday's OTB AM to reflect on Ireland's 37-27 win over Wales in the 6 Nations at the weekend. 

The former Munster forward wasn't impressed with Welsh coach Warren Gatland's post-match press conference, believing he should have been more gracious in defeat.

"I was disappointed with him to be honest - his team were second best the whole game," he told Ger. "Of course they had that threat that we spoke about last week and everybody knew they were dangerous with ball-in-hand - the Scarlet's-type game plan.

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"He should have given more credit - it was quite condescending and we don't like to see that in sport. 

"Give out, have a rant about your team or the referee but just being smart like that - it was disappointing. I like Warren a lot but just saying 'ah yeah, they were exciting, they played great'".

Despite the seemingly comprehensive nature of the win - Ireland should have been out of sight going into the last 10 minutes but needed a last-mute intercept try from Jacob Stockdale to secure the victory. 

Ireland have conceded seven tries in their three games so far in the tournament and Quinlan is concerned about our defence with a free-flowing Scotland coming to Dublin in two weeks time. 

"You go back to Argentina in November - so many things were right. It was a really, really clinical, good performance and at the end, Argentina get a couple of late scores - the atmosphere goes down.

"It's a team issue and it's a communication issue and it's a dominance issue out on the field where guys need to communicate better. It's not a technical thing where guys are going up missing one-on-one tackles. 

"I think the emphasis from Andy Farrell's defence is to get off the line and all the modern-day defence coaches are trying to do this but spacing is an issue and we're quite narrow and you go back to Argentina at the World Cup where that outer channel - we were punished a little bit. 

"And, it's difficult off phase play - this is probably the key off phase play. The set-piece, line-out, scrum - you're set. You know where you're going, everyone's pointing in front of them but it's when the ball is kicked up the field, down the field, there's lots of multi-phase plays - somebody makes a bit of a line break - how do you readjust? How do you get that spacing right? And, unfortunately, we're still a work in progress there," he added.

Monday's OTB AM Podcast is available here:

Alan Quinlan has defensive concerns ahead of Scotland clash

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