IRELAND CAPTAIN RORY Best has insisted that his team have learned from their shock defeat to Japan and that they will not peter out as the Irish side at the 2007 World Cup did.
Eddie O’Sullivan’s Ireland lost to Argentina and France 12 years ago, failing to progress from the pool stages, with Best part of that squad.
In Japan this year, Ireland followed up an impressive opening win over Scotland by losing to the hosts in a major upset and then securing an error-strewn bonus-point win over Russia.
However, Ireland remain on track to reach the quarter-finals of this World Cup if they can beat Samoa next weekend in Fukuoka, meaning that Best sees no resemblance to what happened back in 2007.
“I think the big one we’re focusing on is the one where it’s alright saying that you’re building, but ultimately, we went into quarter-finals at the last two World Cups in a really, really good place,” said Best yesterday, as Ireland faced into a weekend off.
“We beat Australia in 2011, topped a group that nobody expected us to top and everyone was saying, ‘Who have we got in the semis?’ because we only had Wales in the quarters and then we got absolutely hammered.
“It was the same with Argentina in 2015: everyone thought the same thing and booked the flights for the semi-finals. But sport doesn’t work like that, a bit like we found out against Japan.
“We’re drawing on the positivity of having a lesson to learn in a World Cup.
“Every team has one at some point, we had ours in the second game. We need to make sure we’re better than that.
“Everyone really, really wants to reference back to 2007. But this is a completely different group of players, a completely different management, and I see absolutely no similarities to 2007, if ultimately that’s what you’re asking me.”
The 2007 campaign hadn’t been mentioned in any question to Best, but there have been comparisons made in some of the analysis of Ireland’s performances in Japan.
Their defeat to the hosts last weekend followed on from losses to England [twice] and Wales in 2019, with some concern that Joe Schmidt’s team have lost form at exactly the wrong time.
After a tough year so far in 2019, Best underlined that Ireland need to be at their very peak to beat the best sides in the world.
The hooker believes the win over Scotland “wasn’t far away” from being a memorably high watermark for this squad at the World Cup, but he knows that they need to be collectively excellent to compete in Japan.
“On 65 minutes [against Japan], we had that lineout, we were on their line and had we scored there and narrowly won the game, does it change the way you feel about the game? It shouldn’t, but it does.
“Are we more susceptible? I think that we possibly are. We’re under no illusions that genetically as a country we don’t have that many freaks. We have a lot of very, very talented rugby players but ultimately whenever we’re not quite right, I think there’s no point in us talking about our strength as a collective and doing our basics well and working for each other.
“Whenever you don’t quite get that and you’re relying on individual talent, we have a lot of individual talent but at the same time, we also know our strength is our collective and when that doesn’t function and you fall off by a couple of per cent, you’re going to be susceptible.
“I think we were under no illusions as to how good Japan were but also how frustrated we are to have lost that game.”
The Ireland captain stressed that Schmidt’s team had done their best to play in difficult conditions against Russia on Thursday night in Kobe, and he also noted that it’s important for himself and his team-mates not to let any negativity in the coverage of Schmidt’s squad seep into their environment.
“It’s very important that we stay positive and we keep going forward,” said Best.
“For us, we’ve got to try and take the positives. The great thing about this group is that we also look at the negatives. We looked at that against Japan and we said ‘look at the mistakes we made and look at the discipline’.
“Discipline is something that we really pride ourselves on and we just allowed Japan after that 20 minutes when we felt we were going well, we just allowed them to release the pressure a little bit.
“Then we allowed them access into the game and we allowed their confidence to grow, their crowd became a factor and then the more we did that, the more we started to play within ourselves.
“That’s disappointing and then you want to get out and have another go at it.
“I think with all the pressure surrounding it, the boys did well [against Russia]. We’re under no illusions that we’re not quite where we want to be but it’s not even two weeks ago that we felt we were in a really, really good space after the Scotland game.
“So we’re never as good as everyone thinks we are after games like that but we also know we’re never as bad as everyone says we are after the game with Japan.”
Full confidence in the team to perform very well for the rest of the tournament!
@Jasper Conroy: Really???
2007 comparisons are lazy. We hammered Scotland in our first match. People seem to have completely forgotten that.
11 points from a possible 15 after 3 games. Not a bad return at all. Time to get behind the team and stop the moaning. #COYBIG
Some load of negative tosspots in the media. Same goons who downplayed the grand slams, dismissed wins over NZ/SA and cheered for Racing over Leinster are now delighted. It’s like they are in competition to be the new Tom Humphries.
The social media campaigns from the sponsors are grating, but they always are no matter the sport or team.
It never ceases to amaze me how the commentators/pundits swing, we beat a poor Scotland and we are set for a quater final against SA no account taken of Japan who should be tier one nation and who accounted for SA in 2015, who are also hosting. We then put 35 points on Russia get the bonus point and Eddie is not satisfied, the same Eddie who presided over the debacle of 2007 in FRANCE. Give this squad a break and get behind then nothing is to be gained from negativity. Bestie and the Boys Abú
Just 22 points and one try conceded in 3 games is a very healthy stat .
@Limón Madrugada:
“Just 22 points and one try conceded in 3 games”
And we scored 11 tries to 1 conceded :: if we stated that before the WC we would have been happy :: but in that, there was 1 loss !!!!!!
Yeah the negativity is getting to me also. Can we do a bit of analysis on the positives? Also aside from Samoa game we probably won’t go into another game as favourites no matter how far we go in the tournament and that is just fine by me. That’s where the Irish pysche is more comfortable and more dangerous. I hope we play well against Samoa and get the result needed to put pressure on Japan and then we put the fear of God into our opponents in the quarters!
@Brian O’Driscoll: have to agree, finally watched the Russia game. There was a lot of good variation in attack which ended with a poor handling error or a Russian infringement (often not penalised – for Henderson’s knock on over the line, it was actually good Russian D but the 7 knocked on in the preceding ruck). The evidence is there that Ireland are about to kick on. Everyone would take a loss in the group if it meant peaking at QF stage and you can see Ireland are starting to ramp it up.
Hugh Cahill’s and Donal Lenihan’s rugby commentary is also very poor and schizophrenic. The keyboard warriors and Ed O Sullivan’s of this world will be the biggest fans when we put Samoa to the sword by at least 30 points. COYBIG
@Brian O’Driscoll:
@Brian O’Driscoll: have to agree. I finally watched the Russia game and the evidence is there that they are beginning to vary their attacking play which often ended with an error or Russian infringement. They played good ball. Russia was not the game to correct the Japan loss. What good would it be to go out and put 70 on Russia. It’s better they tried to evolve the game. No one wants 4 pool wins if it means a QF loss. I can see Ireland ramping up their game plan ahead of a QF showdown and surprised others who are professionals in the game don’t see it.
People like Ed O Sullivan and the keyboard warriors who think the Russian game was the game to correct the woes of the Japan loss are fools. The time to do it is at the QF.
We’ll put 30 on Samoa.
I’m sick to the back teeth of all the negativity. The final straw for me was Sean Farrell on the42′s rugby podcast yesterday moaning that Ireland’s first try against Russia was an old Joe Schmidt strike move. Some people will always find something negative to say.
Completely down to the players themselves, their mind set, body language, which to date hasn’t been great.
They’ve done it before so they can up it again.
Ah Martin you should know more than anyone that negativity does nothing for any teak.
Team that is