McGeechan Praises All-Irish Back Three

Mid-week coach Ian McGeechan praised the performances of Ireland backs Geordan Murphy, Shane Horgan and Denis Hickie in the aftermath of their second British and Irish Lions caps.

All three hit the heights on Wednesday in attack and defence, but particularly on the offence in the second half, as wing Horgan (66 minutes) and full-back Murphy (72, 75) netted three of the Lions’ four tries against Taranaki.

Hickie proved himself to be a menacing prospect on the counter in New Plymouth and the Leinster flyer took it up a notch from his below-par performance in the warm-up clash with Argentina last month.

Of the other Irish involved, Munster lock Donncha O’Callaghan stood out in the physical stakes, yet his provincial colleague John Hayes, along with England hooker Andy Titterrell, seemed off-the-boil up front and badly in need of assistance at scrum time.

McGeechan said of the all-Irish back three in the aftermath of the 36-14 victory: “It’s what you want, players playing well and challenging so the next team up knows it has got to perform.

“When every group of players goes on the field and is challenged, that is what makes a successful Lions group.

“I though the back three had a good game and it came from the control we had in the halfbacks.

“It will have given them a lot of confidence. Geordan saw the chances well and that is what you want from back three players.”

Captain-for-the-day Martin Corry, who was pumped up so much before kick-off that he forgot to take the famed furry Lions mascot onto the Yarrow Stadium pitch, as is tradition, insisted: “We’re starting to generate a lot of confidence and confidence not to panic, and if we keep going forward then scores will come.

“These tours are all about generating momentum and I think we’re starting to do that, hopefully we’ll carry it into Saturday (against New Zealand Maori).
“We’re really delighted with the performance particularly in the second half.

“We’re trying to play at a certain pace and I think we achieved that in the second half.

“We tried to get quick ball and get the ball out quickly, and we stuck to our task and wore them down as the game went on.”