Shanklin wants Wales repeat
Tom Shanklin has called on his Wales team-mates to reproduce the fire and brimstone effort they showed against England for Saturday’s tough RBS 6 Nations Championship appointment with Ireland.
The Saracens centre will win his 11th cap in a much-changed Wales team that sees experienced forwards Jonathan Humphreys, Colin Charvis and Gareth Llewellyn all return, in addition to call-ups for Llanelli wing Mark Jones and Pontypridd prop Gethin Jenkins.
Humphreys, who came through a stringent fitness test before Wales left their training camp in Tenby yesterday, missed the 30-22 defeat in Scotland 11 days ago, but he reclaims leadership duties from Cardiff flanker Martyn Williams.
Wales have not defeated Ireland on home soil for 20 years and are facing their first championship whitewash since 1995 unless they beat either the Irish or France in Paris on Saturday week.
But Shanklin is far from downbeat about Wales’ prospects, even though the bookmakers rate Ireland as red-hot favourites.
“We’ve got to come out firing against them, like we did against England, and test them early on,” he said. “We’ve got to hit them hard as they come at us.
“It was very disappointing against Scotland after we stepped up a gear against England. We lost the Scotland game in the first-half, but we’ve got to move on from that.
“We are nearly there. We are not playing for 80 minutes, but we need to do that against Ireland to stand a chance of winning.”
Shanklin is also relishing the chance to pit himself against Ireland’s genial captain Brian O’Driscoll, a player described earlier this week by Wales skipper Humphreys as the best player in the world.
“He’s world-class,” Shanklin added. “He has made a name not just for Ireland, but also the Lions – he’s done everything.
“I would like to play against him just for the experience.”
Humphreys’ return provides Wales with a big boost in a game that no-one seriously expects them to win.
Recalled from the Test wilderness by coach Steve Hansen before the England game, he led Wales superbly, albeit in defeat, then missed out because of shoulder trouble against Scotland.
“I was gutted about the Scotland game – it was really disappointing,” said the 34-year-old Bath hooker.
“I thought we lost that game in the first 20 minutes,” he added, referring to Scotland’s sizeable early lead.
“We had to chase the game and we panicked a bit, but Scotland did their homework and Scott Murray was outstanding in the second-row.
“Now, we’ve got a massive challenge ahead of us on Saturday – a bigger challenge, in my opinion, than playing against England.”
And Hansen added: “Ireland have been through a stage of being criticised, but they have grown stronger together and just got better and better.
“Ireland are a complete team. They work so hard and they want to be one of the best sides around.”
