IRELAND’S FIRST WORLD Cup warm-up game may be less than four weeks away, but captain Paul O’Connell says the thought of playing matches, competitive or otherwise, are still at the back of their minds.
Joe Schmidt’s side open their warm-up campaign on August 8 against Wales in Cardiff, before further games against Scotland, home to Wales and finally against England before the competition kicks off in September.
Ireland have been in Galway this week for a mini-camp, taking part in an open training session at Connacht’s Sportsground as they continue their pre-season preparations.
O’Connell is gearing up for his fourth and final World Cup campaign for Ireland before he retires from test rugby, and he says Joe Schmidt’s preparations have been quite different to those of his previous coaches Eddie O’Sullivan and Declan Kidney.
“It’s been very different (to other World Cups). I’ve been in very, very intense build-ups to World Cups. I think the last World Cup we struck a good balance, we worked hard but we had fun as well. It’s probably somewhere in between (this time).
“You know Joe, he outs players under a lot of pressure to perform, he puts your skillset under a lot of pressure in training so it’s not new to you when you play,” he said.
Given the back-to-back Six Nations titles and an unbeaten run in the autumn internationals in 2014, O’Connell says that they’re sticking to the formula that has served them well since Schmidt took charge at the end of 2013.
O’Connell says that Schmidt’s focus is to prepare his side physically in the pre-season, before focusing in on match preparation after the opening weeks.
“The way we prepare is we don’t look too far ahead, we try improve each campaign, we try and improve all the little things we do. At the moment the focus is just on this five week spell before we go into a series in the summer.
“There’s been very little mentioned about the Six Nations, very little mentioned about the World Cup. That’s the mantra we’re in at the moment, it’s worked really well for us in a few campaigns, not just the Six Nations, but the autumn internationals as well.
The captain earlier confirmed that the World Cup would be his final outings in a green shirt before he completes his move to Toulon.
With France lined up to face Ireland in the pool stages, O’Connell will be hoping to cause his future fans in Toulon some pain, by denting their World Cup hopes, but the captain says the thought of upsetting French fans on October 11 hadn’t crossed his mind, as great a thought as that would be.
“Jeez, I hadn’t thought of it. It would be great if we did do it but as I said I haven’t given it much thought.
“I know this sounds like a mantra with us but Joe has been very pointed about it. We literally haven’t spoken about our opposition in the group stages. We haven’t even spoken about our opposition in the Test series in the summer. We’re just flat out training now, trying to get fitter, stronger and that’s it.”
