BRIAN O’DRISCOLL WAS able to empathise with Rory Best as he watched the Ireland captain going through a tough afternoon at Twickenham, where Joe Schmidt’s team took a hammering on Saturday.
While the former Ireland centre was usually a beacon of consistency in his own playing days, there was the odd occasion on which he felt he hadn’t delivered as a player, in turn making his job as captain more difficult.
“It’s a really tricky thing when you’re a leader and it’s not going well for you personally,” said O’Driscoll this morning in Dublin.
“I’ve had my moments. I remember when we got beaten 60-0 by the All Blacks in the third Test in 2012, I had one of my worst games in an Irish jersey and I never read a paper or anything after that – it was a nightmare game.
“I remember thinking, ‘What am I meant to say to the lads behind the posts to inspire some confidence when I’m having a really off day myself?’
“You have to try to get your game right to justify saying, ‘Sort that out’ to someone else. Leadership isn’t just about Rory either, he’s got to get some help too and Pete [O'Mahony] probably had one of his more disappointing games. I’ve never seen CJ Stander as quiet, he was anonymous for the first 35 minutes.
“Jack Conan has to get a chance now but if CJ gets another chance, you can be sure that he will get his game together and be running with a different level of intent.”
O’Driscoll expects Best and the other Ireland leaders to deliver a response the next time they feature in a green jersey, whether this weekend in Cardiff against Wales or for the return clash in Dublin on 7 September.
But the 133-times capped former Ireland international admits he is concerned about Ireland’s prospects at the World Cup after watching the 57-15 thrashing at the hands of England.
“I’m nervous,” said O’Driscoll. “I’m nervous because it was a stuttery game against Italy first and I know the England game was the first one for a lot of guys, but it was a drubbing.
“The lack of accuracy was something I haven’t seen in a Joe Schmidt team before. The turnovers, guys not looking after the ball in contact, guys running into touch, premeditated defensive decisions – that stuff will absolutely infuriate Joe.
“They looked inaccurate at the ruck and they didn’t look like they had the appetite. England looked as though they were up for the fight a little bit more.
“Not everyone – some guys tried really hard – but the knock-on effect of it not going your way is that it’s very hard to get yourself out of that slump sometimes, and that’s where big leadership comes in.”
O’Driscoll stressed that England had delivered a high-quality performance, praising how “canny” Eddie Jones’ team were in using 8-9 plays off scrums to sit down Ireland’s scrum-halves and back row players, therefore stressing their backline defence.
While he said Ireland made “poor individual defensive reads” all over the pitch, O’Driscoll is of the mind that Schmidt’s team can turn their fortunes around, even in a short space of time before the World Cup.
“Look, it all culminated in a horror performance that you have to be able to park.
“Rugby can be fickle, you saw with the All Blacks turning around to nil Australia and score 36 points after losing in Perth. There’s that mental aspect to the game and I anticipate that there’ll be a big reaction this weekend.
“Their confidence will be low, so the thing they have to do – and Joe uses this phrase a lot – is rather than focusing on an 80-minute performance, it’s focusing on 80 one-minute performances. It’s not being end-game focused, you have to live in the moment and win that moment.
“That has to be the focus for them every single time they have a role. You can’t win them all but if you win seven or eight out of 10, that has a positive knock-on effect on everything.”
O’Driscoll sees it as a good thing that Ireland will now be playing with “a fear factor” after their humbling at Twickenham.
He expects a strong response from Schmidt’s side over the next two weekends against Wales, with their defensive issues and lineout problems being remedied.
“It’s all fixable because they’ll simplify things and you’ll see that intent and that hard running, the bigger impacts and getting up off the ground quicker.
“Everything will improve by 10% or 15% from last weekend, and straightaway that gives you a much better shot at being in the game. That would be the most disappointing aspect – they didn’t quite roll over but we didn’t see the fight we’ve had in the past.
“That’s not something we associate with Joe teams and he must have gone through them for a shortcut, to use an Eddie O’Sullivan analogy.”
Land Rover is the official Worldwide Partner of Rugby World Cup 2019. With over 20 years of heritage supporting rugby at all levels, Land Rover is celebrating what makes rugby, rugby. #LandRoverRugby
