PAUL O’CONNELL ADMITTED to a sense of frustration after Ireland’s 18-11 win over France, despite his obvious underlying pleasure at winning against les Blues for only the third time in his career.
The Ireland captain was particularly aggrieved by his side’s inability to turn their clearest try-scoring chance into points in the second half, or at least pile further pressure on the French.
“It was frustrating,” said O’Connell. “I think there were times when we put them under pressure and we didn’t follow up that pressure, we released it.
“I think there was one stage where we had a really good maul, drive them really well, the boys picked a good time to take it out of the maul and we almost scored.
“But we knocked it on, so it was a scrum to them. You’d love to put them under pressure on their exit and have another crack at them with a lineout, but unfortunately we gave away a penalty at the scrum.
That was a little bit of the story of the day. We didn’t back up the pressure we put them under, we released it and they were then able to put us under pressure.
“There were a lot of things in the game that frustrated me in terms of things we wanted to do well, things we’d done well in training during the week that we didn’t execute out there.
“From my point of view, it’s not all that often where I’m on teams that beat France, so you can’t complain too much when you’re on the right side of the result against them.”
At yesterday’s captain’s run in the Aviva, O’Connell stated that he still felt some annoyance over the closing stages of Ireland’s win in Paris last season, given that the French almost scored in the right-hand corner in the dying minutes.
Pascal Papé’s forward pass let Ireland off the hook on that occasion, but there were echoes of that endgame in Dublin this evening as Philippe Saint-André’s side built momentum and finished the game on the attack.
Will O’Connell be annoyed about this one for months to come?
“I think unfortunately in some ways it wasn’t too dissimilar,” said the second row. “I think we’d love to be defending with the ball, having the ball and going at them.
I think when you give teams of the quality of France, with the size and the power they have and also the individuals they have, when you give them the balls for long periods, inevitably something happens.
“Unfortunately, we conceded one try [to Romain Taofifenua]. I think it probably was better than what it has been in that game last year and in the New Zealand game last year [2013], and probably the South Africa game last year, but it’s still something yo’d love to do – finish those games in their half going at them.”
O’Connell insisted that he was “not downbeat” and expressed his delight at the result, saying Ireland will enjoy the victory before going back to work tomorrow and building towards the clash with England in two weekends’ time.
“When you come off a pitch, you immediately start analysing a game, and that’s only natural, but Joe said it straight after the game,” stressed O’Connell. “We’re really happy with the victory, delighted with it.”
