AS THE SHOCK and disappointment begins to subside for Ireland, a sense of frustration will take root.
We have blown good chances to beat the All Blacks before, but there has never been anything like this. Ireland earned their lead, defended marvelously for most of the game, and won the collisions against the best team in the world.
However, when it came down to it, they missed their chance. That will be the cause of the frustration gnawing at the players tomorrow when they wake. The All Blacks showed their deep-rooted belief to score with the last play of the game, but Ireland captain Paul O’Connell says his team never stopped believing either.
We’re obviously very, very disappointed. Frustrated as well. When we gave away that final penalty, we were 60 metres away from our line. I would have been very confident, with the way that we had been defending, that we would hold them out at that stage. It’s really disappointing.
“We knew we underperformed by a long way last weekend [against Australia]. It’s just about getting that balance right between being accurate and detailed, that side of things, then matching that with intensity, attitude and emotion. I think we got that, I would have been confident of defending that try.
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“You have to give credit to them as well. They stayed calm, they stayed cool.”
There is also a nagging feeling of frustration based around the manner in which Ireland performed. They were superb; aggressive, confrontational and incisive. As O’Connell admitted, there were inaccuracies in some of what they did, but the sheer passion the players showed excused those errors.
Why does it take being backed into a corner for Ireland to produce these special performances? Why do they need to come under criticism to be so mentally up for big games? If Ireland could turn up for each of their 2014 Six Nations games with the attitude and aggression shown today, they would power to the title.
Finding that consistency is the next challenge for O’Connell and Ireland.
“When you look at us on paper, we’re an excellent side. Over the last few years, we just haven’t produced it consistently. We haven’t combined the accuracy and the detail with the intensity and the attitude. And we did that today.
“Games of this intensity will help us a lot more as well. They’re a lot further down the track than us, and that’s something we need to build. It’s incredibly important. There has been a few performances like this over the last few years and we haven’t really built on it.
That’s the challenge to us as a team, that’s the big challenge. We go away now into a fairly intense period with our provinces, where you’re fighting for every point in the Heineken Cup. You go into the local derbies and it’s an intense period.”
The international squad breaks up after this weekend, returning to the daily grind with their provinces. But O’Connell insists that there must be a longer-term focus from the players involved today, an agreement that their performance is just another one-off.
“We’ve done it before in the last two or three years. We’ve produced these big performances, full of the accuracy and full of the intensity we’ve talked about, and we haven’t followed it up. I think the onus falls on players now to maintain that standard.
“We need to keep that performance in the back of our minds and make sure the players are ready to maintain these standards.”
Paul O’Connell: We have the talent to beat the All Blacks
Who’d have thunk it ………….unbelievable
Sunday 24th November
Today Sunday after watching Ireland play the All Blacks, I must address my earlier comments I made on Friday:
To Ireland Captain, Paul O’Connell and the Irish Rugby Team, I was wrong, you were right. On watching this game, my belief and pride was restored in the Ireland Rugby Team, it’s trainer Joe Schmidt and his backroom staff.
Sexton needs to improve. His job is to kick the ball over the bar and between the posts. If someone else let the pressure of their work get to them and they messed up that bad and on other occassions they would be let go by their company.
If the kick had been from a difficult angle I wouldn’t mind too much but it was a relatively straight forward kick that I see U16 players convert every weekend. Yes they are not under as much pressure as Sexton was but that’s why he’s getting paid a huge amount of money. The conditions were perfect too so absolutely no excuses, awful stuff!!
I fail to see what’s “pleasing” everyone! We had that game won. Sexton did his usual trick of missing an important kick under pressure. We then gave away a stupid penalty with time almost up to give them the ball, proceeded from there to leave them score from 80 yards and to top it off threw away the draw by an unbelievable act of stupidity to have the conversion retaken. Fair play to Joe Schmit, he seem to be genuinely fuming…..that’s the attitude that has the All Blacks where they are whereas we are thrilled to have put on an entertaining show for everyone.
You have to hand it to them, that was a super score under that amount of pressure…..Mr Sexton, take note!!
Yea that’s fair point,but I’m pissed at Ireland I.e. Murray kicking two stupid “box-kicks” which gave possession back to all-blacks & subsequently scored two tries from it,
I get using box kick maybe 5metres from your own try line to relieve pressure but two teams you never give possession back cheaply is all-blacks & France due to there counter attacking ability!!
It’s so frustrating to watch it time & time again!!
I believe his job is to organization of the attack and to kick his points his salary proves that but the pressure he was under was something we who post on here will probably never feel ireland were beyond the team we have seen before 1st half but second half we gave away silly penaltys and hadn’t the same intensity as the 1st half and looked in times as trying to just hold on we need to score more than twice to win we had 1 shoot at goal in the 70minute as a group going forward that level will be hard to recreated but its possible
Outside of sport big salaries normally come with big responsibilities and big pressure same as Sexton. People are expected to do the job they are being handsomely paid to do.
How Schmidt and O’Connell learn from and leverage this game could be the making of the team when it comes to the 6N. I just cannot imagine how the players feel after that defeat – let’s hope they wrap that up, put it away, and take that back out when the 6N starts and respond accordingly.
Must agree with Paul’s comments. Consistency is our weak spot. But the fact that we lived with the best rugby team in the world and pushed then to the edge, shows how close we are to quality achievements . Keep the spirit & get stuck in!
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johnhindepost Fri 8:59 PM #
Paul O’Connell: We have the talent to beat the All Blacks
Who’d have thunk it ………….unbelievable
Sunday 24th November
Today Sunday after watching Ireland play the All Blacks, I must address my earlier comments I made on Friday:
To Ireland Captain, Paul O’Connell and the Irish Rugby Team, I was wrong, you were right. On watching this game, my belief and pride was restored in the Ireland Rugby Team, it’s trainer Joe Schmidt and his backroom staff.
Fair play!
Sexton needs to improve. His job is to kick the ball over the bar and between the posts. If someone else let the pressure of their work get to them and they messed up that bad and on other occassions they would be let go by their company.
That comment shows a huge amount of ignorance with regards what the job of the outhalf is.
Well is it not his job to take the kicks?
If the kick had been from a difficult angle I wouldn’t mind too much but it was a relatively straight forward kick that I see U16 players convert every weekend. Yes they are not under as much pressure as Sexton was but that’s why he’s getting paid a huge amount of money. The conditions were perfect too so absolutely no excuses, awful stuff!!
Absolute warrior
I fail to see what’s “pleasing” everyone! We had that game won. Sexton did his usual trick of missing an important kick under pressure. We then gave away a stupid penalty with time almost up to give them the ball, proceeded from there to leave them score from 80 yards and to top it off threw away the draw by an unbelievable act of stupidity to have the conversion retaken. Fair play to Joe Schmit, he seem to be genuinely fuming…..that’s the attitude that has the All Blacks where they are whereas we are thrilled to have put on an entertaining show for everyone.
You have to hand it to them, that was a super score under that amount of pressure…..Mr Sexton, take note!!
Read I don’t ILM sexton bring back ROG
And you think Rog would have defended like Sexton ? Take off the Munster Blinkers!
He still brings more to his “company” than anyone else in that position….
I’m immensely disappointed for, and pleased with the whole team because that was the best game of rugby I’ve ever seen.
Was there today so proud, gutted but immensely proud.
Yea that’s fair point,but I’m pissed at Ireland I.e. Murray kicking two stupid “box-kicks” which gave possession back to all-blacks & subsequently scored two tries from it,
I get using box kick maybe 5metres from your own try line to relieve pressure but two teams you never give possession back cheaply is all-blacks & France due to there counter attacking ability!!
It’s so frustrating to watch it time & time again!!
I believe his job is to organization of the attack and to kick his points his salary proves that but the pressure he was under was something we who post on here will probably never feel ireland were beyond the team we have seen before 1st half but second half we gave away silly penaltys and hadn’t the same intensity as the 1st half and looked in times as trying to just hold on we need to score more than twice to win we had 1 shoot at goal in the 70minute as a group going forward that level will be hard to recreated but its possible
Outside of sport big salaries normally come with big responsibilities and big pressure same as Sexton. People are expected to do the job they are being handsomely paid to do.
How Schmidt and O’Connell learn from and leverage this game could be the making of the team when it comes to the 6N. I just cannot imagine how the players feel after that defeat – let’s hope they wrap that up, put it away, and take that back out when the 6N starts and respond accordingly.
Must agree with Paul’s comments. Consistency is our weak spot. But the fact that we lived with the best rugby team in the world and pushed then to the edge, shows how close we are to quality achievements . Keep the spirit & get stuck in!