Updated at 10.23
THERE WAS DISAPPOINTMENT for Ireland’s Seamus O’Connor at the Winter Olympics today, as he found himself within touching distance after round one but ultimately failed to secure qualification for the half-pipe final in Pyeongchang today.
At the halfway point of the competition, O’Connor was 13th, just 1.25 points off a top-12 spot, which would have been enough to reach the final.
However, a disappointing second round saw the Irish athlete fall back to 18th out of 29 competitors, as the 20-year-old slipped slightly when landing while performing his toughest trick, failing to improve on his first-round score of 65.50 in the process.
O’Connor, who was born in California but qualifies for Ireland through his paternal grandparents, previously represented the country at the 2014 Winter Olympics in Sochi and was flag bearer in the opening ceremony recently.
Four years ago, he finished 15th in the half-pipe in Sochi, in addition to placing 17th in the slopestyle event.
Despite the unfortunate outcome today, there were plenty of positives to take from the experience, particularly considering O’Connor tore all of the ligaments in his knee during a fall in competition just 16 months ago.
“Obviously I would like things to have gone a little better but I’m down here at the bottom of the pipe in one piece with a smile on my face in my second Olympics so I can’t complain,” he said afterwards.
“I knew I had to go for absolutely everything in that second run. Unfortunately, just on that last landing, I kind of slipped out a little bit.
It’s the biggest trick of my run, a front-side 1260 which is three and a half rotations and here in PyeongChang was the first time I’d done it in over two years. It was really close but that’s how snowboarding half-pipe is. You’re either on it or really close but not quite there.”
Meanwhile, another Irish athlete, skier Pat McMillan placed 61st overall on his Olympics debut in the Combined Downhill this morning, with a time of one minute and 25.77 seconds.
“It was great to finally get into my first race and get that under my belt. I had a fairly smooth run,” he said. “I had a few line errors towards the bottom and got a little bit pushed back in my seat but otherwise it was better than my training runs and great training for my main event, which is the downhill.”
The 26-year-old did not complete the second slalom as he is focusing on tomorrow’s downhill.
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Excellent analysis of all the pieces of the jigsaw of moves leading to great tries
Great analysis as always. What an atmosphere yesterday. Delighted for Sexton and Healy!!! What a Six Nations send off
@Kenneth O Connor: Healy not getting a run was disappointing and strange
@Noel Lynn: He did… only about 4 minutes but he did play.
Yesterday(and last week) should put to bed any doubt about Conan’s value. Every bit as effective as Doris imo.
@Gary Donlan: doris level ahead
@Gary Donlan: I’m a big, big fan of Conan – he’s an outstanding player – but I’d have to acknowledge that Doris is at the very top of the global tree. And he has so much more to grow, being so young. Arguably a future World Player of the Year nominee, if not winner.
I see lots of people saying how England really used line speed yesterday to get in Irelands face, that’s not what happened at all. England played a soft drift defence, not putting too much pressure on the first carrier / passer, and not committing too many men to the breakdown, opting to be more disruptive and messy rather than look for turnovers. It was an interesting tactic and one that threw a lot of the Irish players off, particularly Furlong who takes the first pivot option quite often. Ireland will need to learn how to adapt to it by World Cup, I can’t imagine South Africa or France would try it, they would trust their line speed, but I wouldn’t be surprised at all if Scotland or even New Zealand thought about using it.
Great analysis there. It shows really how intelligent this group are. Dorris, JVF,, Aki, Sexton, Hansen running subplots and dummies lines and how they build a try 3 phases out. To have so many on the same page is extraordinary and as Farrell said, they will get a lot better over the next few months with more time collectively in camp.
Roll on the WC
It was squeaky bum time for much of the game. England gave it everything. Ireland found a way to win. Work done with decoy runners is magnificent. Enjoy, upwards and onwards to France
That was some offload by Conan for sheehans try.
Sheehan is a pure speed merchant
@Gary Galligan: He’s a 4×4 at full speed.
On the strike plays which Ireland use we have seen a few of these in this 6 nations I believe they have only used a small number of these in this 6 nations and there are many more which they had no need to use and they are been reserved for the later stages of the world Cup.
I would imagine when Farrell and his team review this game they will be a little concerned. Obviously the short term gain here, winning a grand slam, is brilliant. But there was a lot of pressure going into the game and we did not handle it well. Ultimately a red card may have won it for Ireland and whether you agree or disagree with the card the nature of it shows it can how easily happen under current rules. (There was at least 1 red card possibility for us that was missed by the ref and TMO). This team will ultimately be judged on how it performs in the World Cup. When they meet Scotland on the 7th of October it will more than likely be a knock out game. The pressure on them will easily be as intense as yesterday, probably more so. They will need to be a lot better. If we don’t make it out of the group, this Grand Slam will lose a lot of it’s shine. Of course hopefully by the time we meet Scotland SA will have 2 losses so it won’t matter :)
@Pud: OTOH, the experience of yesterday, a real pressure cooker, will stand to them. Plus, those guys played a lot of intense rugby over a short period of time. Some were definitely not at their best, following injuries (Furlong, for example, looked rusty; Henshaw wasn’t fully up to speed; Ringrose in and out). Farrell took some risks, playing guys like Porter, VDF, Keenan, Hansen and others to their limits (Keenan looked tired yesterday, as did others). The player management plan for the RWC needs to cater for the interactive effects of physical endurance and how it affects mental/emotional resilience. I’m pretty confident they’re on top of that. And again, all the players will be better for the experience of this 6N.
@Pud: South Africa then Scotland…followed by France or New Zealand…three massive banana skins….I don’t think if we are stopped before semi final, yesterday’s outstanding achievement will be diminished….cruel world cup draw.
Herring sealed victory over the All Blacks with a similar try in the third test .. hooker is definitely a position we don’t need to worry about… bench again made the difference yesterday
Murray Kinsella, single handedly helping other teams work out Ireland!!