‘HOW DO WE perceive ourselves?’ went the team-shaping question from Joe Schmidt in the earliest days of his tenure as Ireland head coach in 2013.
The resounding answer came back from a room full of Lions, European Cup winners and Grand Slam veterans just a few months removed from finishing joint bottom of the Six Nations after defeat to Italy.
“The big word that came from all the groups was ‘inconsistent’”, says Rory Best, “so he asked, ‘right, how do we become more consistent?’”
“The big thing he said was, ‘no matter how we play, we have got to prepare the same way. That’s been the hallmark of Joe’”.
As he sits in Carton House preparing for his fourth World Cup, with Ireland a world away from preparation levels for his first tournament, Best feels a tinge of regret that the squad unwittingly veered away from those formative principles on the way to a third-place finish in this year’s Six Nations.
“Probably subconsciously, in the Six Nations in 2019 we maybe did. I don’t think it was anything conscious, but when you look back now we probably believed that we had the ability to turn up and beat anyone. That we were this all-conquering force having won the Grand Slam, tour wins in Australia, beaten the All Blacks and Argentina.
“It’s funny how those little things go through your head. Maybe, at this level, it’s: ‘I’ll not bother doing that extra couple of minutes on the computer tonight. I’ll look at training, but skip a bit at the end…’
“It sometimes takes a reality check. Finishing third, to us, was bitterly disappointing.
“When the boys came in at the start of pre-season everyone was as hungry as I’ve seen when a group of players come together.
“You always get a pocket who are hungry, a pocket ready to go and another pocket who are just coming in because it is at the start of pre-season and they have to be here. But by and large we have a couple of players who want to prove that ‘19 was the blip, not ‘18.”
Best adds: “It’s important we realise what made us successful in the past. It’s about preparation. It’s not about worrying about, ‘we need to peak on the 2nd of November’.
“It’s needing to take one game at a time. I know to all you guys, that’s really boring. But it’s what we’ve based ourselves on, right from day one.”
Not quite as fresh in the mind, but no less of a sting in the memory banks is Ireland’s last World Cup experience when a spate of injuries and absentees left them short on experience for the quarter-final clash with Argentina.
“Learnings are reasonably obvious, we need to expose the group to more games,” said Best, speaking as he was unveiled as a FloGas ambassador.
“There’ll be injuries through the World Cup, Scotland, six days before Japan, five days before Russia. A lot of rugby short space of time.
“Four years ago, we had maybe been lucky in the two (Six Nations) Championships before that (almost) the same team, same 23 was put out most weeks…
“All of sudden, against France bang: we lost a captain, a line-out caller (O’Connell), lost our main line-out threat in Peter O’Mahony, Sean O’Brien (the main) ball-carrier, Johnny runs the team and Jared was a defensive leader.
“Losing that spine of team is tough to take. And if you’re bringing in quality players, who maybe are not experienced and maybe some of them are back-ups for their province who haven’t started big European games.
“In those environments it’s about talent, but also about how you cope with the pressure.”
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