PAUL O’CONNELL SEES little consolation in France’s rusty performance last weekend. If anything, a team that doesn’t play particularly well and still grinds out a six-point win away to a good Scotland side deserves more respect, not less.
This weekend O’Connell and Ireland travel to the Stade de France, the coldest place on earth three Saturdays ago, to do it all again.
Declan Kidney has stuck to his guns and named the same starting XV that he felt was good enough to do a job the first time around, aided no doubt by the team’s handsome victory against Italy. But one important thing has changed — the mood.
Then, Ireland were staring down the barrel of back-to-back defeats and a dead rubber tournament. Now, Saturday’s five-try win against the Italians and France’s unconvincing display against the Scots have breathed life, however fleetingly, back into the Irish campaign.
The statistics are still the same — two wins in Paris soil since 1972; 12 years since our last win — but the tails are up. Prudent as always, O’Connell sees a timely warning in last weekend’s results.
“It’s always a very tough game as our record has shown,” O’Connell said at today’s squad announcement in Maynooth.
“Obviously France are a top class side. We saw at the weekend, Scotland had them under pressure at times but when you give them a half-opportunity, they’re deadly.
When we went there the first time, it’s something we were wary of , that fact that we conceded momentum and conceded pressure at times too easily to Wales. If we do the same against France, it will be a very tough day.That’s something that we’re trying to do. You just can’t turn over easy ball to them because they’re very dangerous.
Strength in numbers
Aside from the late withdrawal of Keith Earls on opening weekend, Kidney has now named the same starting XV for the first three games of the tournament. He’s made it clear that every team-sheet is a carefully considered process, and that those players who have impressed from the bench in recent weeks are being nudged into the replacements column by fine margins.
For O’Connell, the strength of the Irish bench is as important in training as it is on the pitch.
“I suppose we’re in a good place. I thought we played well at the weekend, particularly in the second half. We’ve trained well.
As Declan said, we’ve an excellent bench as well that’s been working hard, and a hungry bench as well I suppose that has done well when they’ve come on and trained really well. There’s been a great intensity to training as well.It’ll be a very tough challenge but we’re looking forward to it.
The extra time together because of the postponed game can only be seen as a positive, he adds.
“The more time you have together, the better. I don’t think there’s any doubting the talent we have in the side and I think those extra few weeks together will have been good for us and the extra game as well will have been good for us.
“We’ve trained well, we’ve prepared well. We still have a little bit to go this week, but certainly I think we’re in a better place.”
There’s a lot of experience in the side of going away from home and winning games, going to France and winning games. Maybe not international games at the moment, but certainly we’ve all been to hostile environments and performed. It’s just a question of bringing that experience into the green shirt as well.
