DESPITE THE SETBACKS, and despite the questions surrounding the team, Ireland find themselves exactly where they wanted to be. The goal at this Rugby World Cup was to win a quarter-final for the first time, and that opportunity arrives on Saturday.
Sure, it would help to have Bundee Aki available, and yes, there are more desirable opponents out there than the All Blacks, but in truth Joe Schmidt’s squad will be relishing the challenge that lies ahead.
That much is clear when you listen to Cian Healy talk.
“[It's a] Do or die game. I think everyone understands that and knows the position we are in and the opportunity of what we have to do,” Healy says.
“It is not a case of looking to get people to buy-in. Everyone wants in. Everyone is trying to get in. That’s going to cause big challenges for the coaches, to pick that team, because everyone has put their hand up. Everyone wants to be involved.”
It’s been a strange few weeks for Healy, whose own performances have very much reflected Ireland’s health throughout the pool stages. Dominant against Scotland, below par against Japan, kept out of harm’s way against Russia and solid against Samoa, the Leinster loosehead says that while Ireland can take confidence from their recent record against the All Blacks – winning two of their last three – doing it in a knock-out game is a completely different proposition.
In total he’s lined up against New Zealand nine times, losing on seven occasions, and Healy says his perception of playing the All Blacks has changed over the years.
“Every test you’re learning about yourself and I suppose a couple of the earlier ones you’d probably understand how good they are at finishing a game for the final 20 minutes,” he says.
“That’s probably what sets them apart a lot from teams. You need a longer performance than a 60 minutes – it has to be a complete game performance, screwed on for the whole thing. They are so dangerous – if you have a blip for a period of the match they’ll take their shots.
“[They have a] Strong pack. Their lineout is very dangerous and they’re very quick with it, so we’re drilling hard on that – how to defend that and then how to go at it ourselves. Scrum-wise, I think you just have to be smart about it, because they’re quite a tactical, clever scrum. So it’s hard to drill for, but you have to be ready for everything.”
For those of us who struggle with the more intricate details of what goes on in the scrum, Healy expands on what he means by ‘tactical’.
“Just different ways of hitting or absorbing a hit or angles, or anything. There are so many different tactics. Even the first scrum at the weekend there (against Samoa) you will see not a lot of weight came on my side and it was a scrum penalty. That was a bit naive from us to go that hard early out. We need to be a bit smarter as a scrum to get full use of the strength we have in our pack.”
If Ireland are to knock-out the back-to-back World Cup champions, Healy acknowledges that the pack will have to deliver a near perfect performance.
“We have such talent outside of us it would be a sin not to give them a good platform to play off,” he says.
“That’s where we get most of our pressure from, from nine and ten barking at us if we don’t get our scrum and lineout right. We want to do that and put the team on the best platform. If it means keeping the ball in the scrum and get a penalty, do it that way, or have a solid scrum, and get the ball out and let them play we’ll do it that way.”
While Ireland have looked somewhat conservative during the pool stages, the hope is that it is all part of a Joe Schmidt masterplan as he keeps some magic in reserve for this weekend.
“Yeah, we’ve got some new stuff that we haven’t done before and it’s up to them to figure it out,” Healy adds.
Win or lose, it will certainly be a game to remember.
