IRELAND BACK ROW Peter O’Mahony says there will always be fear ahead of a meeting with France, given their unpredictable nature and the attacking quality in les Blues‘ ranks.
The Munster captain starts on the blindside flank of what is a strong-looking Ireland team bolstered by the returns of Johnny Sexton, Jamie Heaslip and Sean O’Brien, as well as the recovery from concussion of Rory Best.
Joe Schmidt’s side are on a run of eight wins as they prepare to welcome France to Dublin, but O’Mahony is taking nothing for granted.
“There’s always a fear factor with France,” admitted O’Mahony at Carton House today.
I think they’re always unpredictable. I don’t think they quite showed their hand last week [against Scotland]; I think they’re a more dangerous side than they showed last week.
“Guys in their backline like [Mathieu] Bastareaud, their back row, they’re a dangerous side and [even when] you knock them back two or three phases in defence, they go down a short side third or fourth phase.
“They’re a very dangerous side, so the fear is certainly always there with France.”
Philippe Saint-André’s team will have a strong focus on improving on the performance against Scotland a week ago, with the reaction to that display having been highly negative in France.
Equally, Schmidt and his men will have ambitions of turning in a far better performance on home soil, having done enough to beat Italy in an effective outing at Stadio Olimpico.
“We need to improve on our showing last week, certainly,” said O’Mahony. “I think we were off the pace physically at times, ball carrying needs to come up, so there’s loads of areas for us to work on.”
There must be confidence taken from the fact that three of Ireland’s best rugby players are again included in the starting team, but O’Mahony said this week feels no different to any other during his time as an international player
“The 15 that takes the field on any given weekend is the strongest Ireland team you’re going to get. Injury-wise, it doesn’t matter.
“It’s good to have guys back obviously, some big figures back, but from a personal point of view and preparing, it’s the same as any other week.”
Spot on.
I share the undercooked concern. Choose close to full team, rest anyone with a niggle or still jaded from last weeks heat. Warm ups are over, time to build momentum.
Murray; first of all, I have really enjoyed the podcasts so far from France, so thank you for that.
My amateur opinion is that they should go full strength and treat the SA game like a final. Even if it’s a narrow loss, they’ll know that they’re close to the standard required to win the competition. If they win, then the belief will become huge. You have to bear in mind that Ireland have had some less good performances last Autumn and in the 6N, but they’re kept winning and so surely they have that winning mindset. This is pretty rare and the winning run is worth fighting for.
One question for you would be about training. I’d be happy if they were having a few savage full contact sessions, as these may be tougher than a match against a tier 2 nation, but the squad size is restricted so this may not be possible. Would this be another argument for going full strength against Tonga? I’d really like to see the line out attack come back and to deny Tonga from scoring a try.
Maybe the answer to this in 4 years is to line up top opposition in friendlies leading into the world cup. I get they need to get the A team up to 100% preperation firing for the SA game but at the expense of picking up injuries again the minnows before then is a risky plan…
@Stuart: You are probably right… but I think the IRFU found it difficult to line up a game against other tier 1 nations. The England game was probably lined up from 4 years ago. Maybe they left it too late to arrange the others and it wouldn’t be extraordinary to think that they were disorganised or complacent.
@Stuart: apparently other top tier nations turned down playing against Ireland in the summer internationals. Not sure if they left it too late or if other teams felt it would show their hand too much.
In all likelihood yourself and the others on media duties are aware of the team (as normal) but cannot spell it out BUT you’re trying to slowly row your way back from the, way off, potential team you posted a few days ago…. Nice try. It’ll be about 12 from first 15 and Big Joe may be on his way to being first 15 with anyone carrying minor niggle sitting it out. Murray knew a few weeks ago Big Joe would get his shot
Are we not finding excuses to talk ourselves into the very same situation that killed us in previous world cups – ie no trust in the wider squad and thereby overloading the core group? What you are saying, Murray, is that should Ireland win the WC, they would play basically the same team for 6 matches in a row (with only minor alterations from the remaining 7th game). That’s a tough message to the squad and it does not fit the McCloskey inclusion.
@John Morris: nah, I dont think so. We played a weakened team vs Japan 4 yrs ago and look what happened. Plus we play our best team in 6 nations each game for most part with slight adjustments for Italy. Look at what southern hemisphere do – play their strongest team pretty much for rugby championship and some warm ups. And they win every world cup except 1. I think Murray’s article is very well put together and I would agree full strength is required. Its not equal game time for all, go games style. These are fully grown men playing professional sport so get on with it. They;; be called upon if injury strikes. Thats the idea of a squad of grown men
Gonna be an interesting call, they can probably win with a 2nd string side but agree we should put out close to our strongest . Only player I would definitely look to leave out from the 23 is Porter and keep him fresh for SA. We can bring in the likes of Baird , Henderson, Henshaw , McCloskey and Byrne (sub) and steam roll Tonga
@Owen ODonoghue: Spot on about Porter. He is the one player we cannot afford to lose to injury. Playing against SA without him would be scary.
@Owen ODonoghue: Getting hard to see Byrne in the mix, no doubt he’ll be thereabouts for this game tho.
We’re at risk of Eddie O’Sullivan 2007 territory here by playing the same team every weekend. Given the likely hard slog against Scotland and every weekend thereafter they need to rotate this weekend