Rory Keane reports from the Olympic Stadium
PAUL O’CONNELL CUT a relieved figure in this evening’s post-match press conference.
Ireland emerged from an almighty dogfight at the Olympic Stadium to secure a 16 – 9 victory and book their place in the World Cup quarter-finals.
Joe Schmidt’s side face France in a top-of-the-table clash at the Millennium Stadium next Sunday to decide the winners of Pool D with O’Connell fully aware of the improvements needed in Ireland’s game.
“It was a probably a timely reminder of where we needed to be,” said the Ireland skipper.
“There’s so much quality now for the rest of the competition. When we play France, if we turn over the ball to them, with the forward carriers that they have, and the backs they have, we’ll be in big trouble.
“That’s not something we have done when we’ve won big games. When we performed well in the autumn internationals and the Six Nations, we’ve been very good at denying teams access by our good set-piece and our accuracy with the ball.
“We need to do that again next weekend.”
Ireland simply must improve against les Bleus with their defensive line speed, rucking efficiency and attacking shape all stuttering against the Azzurri.
Against the might of the French, those mistakes simply cannot be repeated.
“I haven’t got a fantastic record against France,” O’Connell admitted.
“To me they’re an incredible side with incredible talent. They have size, physicality and, obviously, great skill and talent. They play with a lot of passion and emotion as well.
“Any Irish team that goes up against a French team, it’s always a massive challenge for us. In recent years, we’ve done well but the games have been really, really tight.
“For us, we’ve had to produce massive performances to make those games tight. I think we’ve had two draws in the last four years. We’ve managed to win two but they’ve been short, one score games.
“It’s a mountain of challenge. We knew how tough this game was going to be all the time. We were hoping it was going to come down to last round of the pool stages. Hopefully, we can produce the performance that is needed.”
O’Connell and his team-mates delivered an uncharacteristically flat performance against the Italians.
A crackling atmosphere, superb playing surface and a solid build-up looked to have set the scene for Ireland to unleash havoc in east London but what transpired was a nervy and disjointed performance punctuated by unforced errors and sloppy play.
“I think when you make mistakes and give away penalties, it kind of flattens the performance because you can’t get into any rhythm,” O’Connell added.
“You’re back waiting for a kick at goal or you’re retreating to defend a line-out from a kick.
“I think there was considerable excitement about some of the things we wanted to do with the ball. When we got that turnover line-out that we scored off, or that line-out when Johnny made a break, I think we were excited about what we could do with the ball and then just to turn it over, it takes the edge off.
“That’s something we have to deal with as well. If you look at a lot of teams now, the pressure that defences are putting on teams, when there is turnover ball, you have to be able to react and win that ball on the ground and turn it into something you can play with again.
“We probably didn’t do that much today and, because of that, we kind of looked flat at times.”
Mike Ditka is an idiot. His response was entirely predictable.
Unsure where this protest is going. Aside from anything else, it’s been fun to see the likes of Ditka, Jerry Jones etc. get their knickers in a twist.
It really is quite scary how jingoistic some old people in America are. It’s a feckin national anthem lads, get over yourselves. There are things bigger than you or it.
Kapernick is fast turning into an absolute hero. There’s nothing wrong with being proud of your country and it’s military, but putting a flag and some quaint old song ahead of people’s lives has no place in today’s society.
Think the whole thing a class issue rather than a racial issue. The entire protest is a load of codswallop.
@ET PHONE HOME: Class and race go hand in hand in America
Facts please Stephen.
Not your opinion!
It’s marked as an opinion piece…
Hi Eddie,
A) It’s an opinion piece as Redzone has been for five years now.
B) It’s clearly marked as opinion piece.
C) As for facts, Keith Lamont Scott was shot dead by a Charlotte-Mecklenburg police officer, Mike Ditka is an idiot and Colin Kaepernick has right on his side. Not sure what more ‘facts’ you need.
D) Have a nice evening.
Oooooo, that’s a deep burn Eddie….
Are those Eddie’s options? I would go with E. Read the piece first before commenting! I ain’t no journalist writer type person but it’s always best to leave out such things as calling someone ‘an idiot’, regardless of how true it may be, it just stoops to a level it doesn’t need to go. ‘The moral high ground to which you aspire could turn into into a slippery slope.’ As for my option… I’m gonna pick D.
Another fact might be that he had a gun and disobeyed both the police officer and his relative who were shouting at him to stop multiple times. Another fact might be that 5 white men were also shot dead by police the same day. Another fact might be that not one of those shootings resulted in race riots where black people were getting attacked by vicious mobs of whites, looting stores, destroying public and private property. A reactive opinion on those facts might be that were such riots were to take place the people perpetrating them would not be mollycoddled by the media and referred to as “protesters”. There are 2 sides to every story. I respect your opinions and thank you for writing the article but my personal assessment of the facts leads me to a conclusion different to yours. Which I am sure you will respect also.
What the some of the cops have been doing is totally wrong but there are 30 shootings plus a week in Chicago black/black crime and there has never been any protests about it.
They are all on the bandwagon at this stage. CK tryna be relevant because he hasn’t been that on a football field in almost 3 years
Colin Keapernick is performing a peace civil protest designed to engage. It’s worked, it seems blacks aren’t allowed to protest peacefully or with violence without criticism. Fyi, there have been many many protests about crime in Chicago and beyond. You just don’t hear about it, why? Because their black and Noone gives a chit….. until those protests are about the white establishment.
I think one thing everyone can probably agree on is that the race issue and trouble at the moment in the US is one hell of a complex , emotive and deeply polarising subject. Rights , wrongs , double standards and hypocrisy on both sides.
YouTube Shannon Sharpe he’s brilliant at explaining. You will understand it after.