WITH THE GAME having a ball-in-play time of just under 30 minutes, relatively low in Test rugby, there weren’t a particularly huge number of carries and tackles to be made during Ireland’s win over South Africa on Saturday night.
But anyone who watched it could tell that every single one of those collisions was of the most intense standard. Some of the hits were colossal.
The Springboks made an astounding 31 dominant tackles against Ireland, that stat underlining the impression that Andy Farrell’s players had to take a fair bit of punishment in response to the physicality they were dishing out themselves.
So it’s certain that many of them woke with sorer bodies than usual yesterday morning, even if Ireland’s injury luck somehow continued. Though they lost Cian Healy just before the World Cup, Ireland haven’t picked up any new injuries of note during the tournament. They’ll be touching wood that the run continues, given that virtually every World Cup-winning side has been lucky on the injury front.
Nonetheless, the fact that Ireland’s titanic clash with the Boks is followed by their break weekend is timely. There will be another eight World Cup games this week, but Ireland won’t be involved. This is the first tournament in which World Rugby has built in these rest windows for every team and the schedule has worked out well for Ireland.
Farrell’s squad broke up yesterday in Paris, with players and staff alike all getting three days of holidays before they reconvene at their base in Tours on Wednesday and return to the training pitch on Thursday.
World Cup rules mean that everyone, staff included, has to remain on French soil for as long as they’re still in the tournament. If fairness, it’s not the worst country in which to take a few days off.
Many of the Ireland players opted to stay in Paris with family and friends, taking the chance to actually explore the city, something they couldn’t do at all last weekend due to their team hotel being an hour east of the city.
A big group of the players and coaches have returned to Tours, where Ireland have had their team base throughout this World Cup. The break from training means they can get in to truly see the vibrant university city and relax with their families for a few days. Before now, the visits into town – sometimes via a backer from Peter O’Mahony – had been fairly fleeting and with training or recovery always at the back of the mind.
Really, players could have gone anywhere in France and while others are dotted around the place, it’s not the longest holiday and the main mission will never completely leave their thoughts.
Ireland could have just kept training early this week, but Farrell always pushes the importance of not overdoing it, as well as the importance of family. A breather from the intensity of it all is good for everyone and the time apart can sometimes make a group even stronger, but there’s never been doubt about the strength of the connection within Farrell’s set-up. It has only grown in France.
As we wrote last week, Ireland’s first two World Cup matches were akin to home games and the same was true last weekend in Paris. There were a huge number of Springboks fans at Stade de France as well, but Ireland’s horde of more than 40,000 greatly outnumbered them.
Paris is so big that during Six Nations weekends, it can be hard for rugby to really make a dent in the wider consciousness, but you simply could not miss the green jerseys and t-shirts everywhere over the past weekend. It was an Irish takeover.
It was telling that the hugely experienced Johnny Sexton was genuinely taken aback by the atmosphere in the stadium on Saturday, echoing how the rest of the squad is feeling. The Ireland squad came to France believing they’re going to win the World Cup and that sense has only been solidified by the special scenes at their games so far.
RTÉ’s confirmation of a TV audience of 1.2 million people back home adds to the impression that Farrell’s team has really captured the public imagination. There continue to be plenty of sad begrudgers, but Ireland can feel that wave of support adding to their momentum.
Things couldn’t have gone much better in the opening three weekends. Bonus-point wins over Romania and Tonga were followed by that gripping victory against the Springboks, whose remarkable defence meant tries were also likely to be scant.
Physiologically, it was a successful but taxing weekend for Ireland in Paris, another reason why this refresh period is so timely.
You can imagine that Farrell’s players will bounce back into camp on Wednesday ready to launch into four games that they plan on ending with the World Cup trophy.
They’ll give Scotland plenty of respect for the final pool game and if that goes well, Ireland are set to face New Zealand in the quarter-finals. Win that and it could be a semi-final versus Wales, England, or Fiji. If Ireland advance, it might be France or South Africa in the final. All of these games would take place at Stade de France in Paris.
So while the players are probably enjoying the downtime right now, there’s also likely to be plenty of excitement about getting things rolling again.
