Let’s not get too far ahead of ourselves

I wonder should Roscommon GAA consider hiring whoever is in charge of PR for Irish rugby?

How in the name of all that’s good and holy were the expectations for Ireland so low coming into this Six Nations? Barely six months on from supplying over half of the starting line-up for the Lions, all the talk in the media was that Ireland would do well to even finish third in this year’s Six Nations.

That’s bordering on sheer bizarre! An average series of Tests in autumn and some below-par performances by the provinces in Europe were hardly enough to suggest a massive fall from grace.

Andy Farrell will surely have been delighted with the bar being set so low. It set things up perfectly for an ambush of sorts on Saturday in Twickenham. Ireland’s brilliant win over England was a tasty starter dish on a super day for Rossie sports fans, the main course being the sweet victory over Galway in Pearse Stadium that evening.

Mark Dowd and company will have to look at the rugby playbook to try and dampen expectations as Roscommon are now sitting pretty in Division One on the back of some excellent performances. We’ve been down this path before and have gotten ahead of ourselves. Hopefully, that won’t happen this time around.

In spite of what will be said, particularly in national media, nothing too meaningful can be taken from the league results thus far in terms of how things might look come championship. No matter how the next few games go, the big challenge for this team will come when the tempo is upped in knockout football in May and June.

For now, all we can do is take each game on its merits. Saturday night, in that sense, was superb. It was a really pleasing victory, mainly for the battling characteristics we showed in outfighting Galway when it came to crunch-time towards the end.

Driving west on Saturday evening in torrential rain, I was half-expecting a bit of a scutching from Galway. It’s rare, if ever, that we see a team go through the league playing well in all seven games. There’s always an off-day, and I just felt Roscommon were likely to hit a low-point coming off the back of the obvious high in beating Armagh in Hyde Park.

I needn’t have worried. I felt much more optimistic by half time. Yes, we were 11 points down, but it was a ten-point-or-so wind, which had been blowing in Galway’s favour.

I wouldn’t overplay the comeback either. We just made similarly good use of the wind as Galway had done and managed to sneak out the right side of a one-point margin. The scoring pattern was interesting and indicative of a bit of a trend we’re seeing in these games where there’s a sizable breeze at play.

Things were tight for the first quarter. In fact, we were very happy as Roscommon tried to keep the scoreline so tight for so long. In the second quarter, Galway got going and ran up an 11-point lead by half-time. Once they kicked a couple of two-pointers and started to pin us in on our own kickout, they kept the scoreboard operator mightily busy.

I think it was Mark Lawrenson who quipped on Match of the Day years ago, when discussing transfers, that Liverpool had made the best signing of all, last name Mentum, first name Mo!

Momentum is now the biggest buzz word in Gaelic football.

Saturday night was a prime example of that. Once a team get that momentum and is playing with the breeze, like Galway in the first half, they can run up quite a big score. It took a while for it to shift, but that was to be expected. A similar scoring pattern occurred in the second half with Galway managing to go score for score with Ros’ and even extend their lead by a couple of points.

The momentum shifter was undoubtedly Enda Smith’s goal. Once he hit the onion bag, it was a matter of when, not if, we would reel Galway in. And so, like in the first half, the team with the wind at their backs eventually began to build their tally apace.

To be fair to them, Galway responded well and if they had elected to fist over the bar on their final attack, a draw would have been a fair result.

Momentum on the kickouts is a curious phenomenon of the new game. It doesn’t fully appear to be logical. Kieran McGeeney calls it piggery. I think there’s great skill in winning kickouts with a high fetch or getting in first on the break. Yet there’s no denying that we’re regularly seeing teams go long stretches of the game under pressure due to being unable to retain their own kickout.

For a big chunk of the game on Saturday evening, one could be forgiven for feeling that Roscommon have serious issues on our own kickout. By the end of the game though it was the Tribesman who were bemoaning their lack of ability to get their hands on ball in the middle third when it mattered.

Regarding kickouts, I think Aaron Brady did his chances of holding onto the number 1 jersey no harm. We obviously have an excellent ‘keeper waiting in the wings to return, but there is growing confidence in Brady holding onto that position. I thought he had a difficult time in the first half in Salthill, but that’s what made his improved second-half performance all the more impressive.

Another of the new guys who continues to impress is Caelim Keogh. Marking and tackling are clearly important skills for a defender, but positional sense is particularly key for the full-back position and this is where he really excels. His clearance off the line to deny a certain goal for Galway in the first half was superb. For good measure, he also made one in the second half.

Galway had good performers too, mainly from lads we know all too well already — like Dylan McHugh, Sean Kelly and their two midfielders. Liam Ó’Conghaile looked sharper than I’ve seen before and caused us a lot of difficulty at corner-forward.

Rob Finnerty, too, did well. He’s a classy footballer and kicked four points, although I think his marker, Paddy Gavin, had a very good game too. Gavin has been another one of the many big positives from this league campaign thus far. With the increased space for inside forwards, we’re having to get used to the possibility that corner-backs are playing well even if their man is getting a few scores.

For me, Gavin did well in always keeping Finnerty outside him, never letting him threaten a goal and limiting his chances at two pointers. He capped it off with a superb second-half block.

ON SONG

Ronan Daly had his best game so far in the number 6 position. It’s always a good sign when the opposition fans are giving out about you. The Galway supporters were unhappy with Daly being seemingly in the centre of every scuffle or schemozzle. He never over-stepped the line though. He was just leading the fight from a Roscommon point of view and always a niggling presence whenever they tried to cut through our defence.

Enda Smith and Diarmuid Murtagh both played very well once again, continuing their superb starts to the year. The Player of the Match decision was an easy one this time though, with Daire Cregg absolutely superb.

Galway’s two corner-backs are among the most highly-rated in the game but neither could get to grips with Cregg. His movement to create space for himself to win ball initially is top-drawer. The ability to then turn on a sixpence, in either direction, makes him seriously hard to deal with. Galway’s only success in handling him came when they managed to get a second defender over to double-team him.

Cregg’s over-zealous thirst for scores cost him a few times when he tried to squeeze through gaps that weren’t there, but overall, it was a superb performance. He’s on a run of strong performances now and there’s realistic hope that he can be one of the players to push on to a new level this year.

For now, while it’s just a league game in February, it’s always sweet to beat the neighbours, especially in a humdinger like that.

Is it too much to expect that we can go and beat Dublin in the Hyde now? Not at all. If we keep performing like we have been doing, we could even be billed as favourites.

Just beware of that off-day I mentioned earlier.