Sunday 16th September 2007
Ireland coach Eddie O'Sullivan admits his side is doomed to an early World Cup exit unless they address the slump that has left supporters angry and frustrated.
A week ago O'Sullivan remarked on his side's deflating 32-17 victory over Namibia that it was impossible to imagine the team's malaise could deteriorate any further.
But he was proved emphatically wrong on Saturday as Georgia, playing their second game in five days, went within inches of producing probably the greatest upset in rugby history.
Only late intervention by Denis Leamy, who denied prop David Khinchagashvili over the line two minutes from time, denied the magnificent Georgians.
To put another abysmal Ireland evening into context, Georgia are ranked 17th in the world, have never won a World Cup match and were branded minnows by O'Sullivan himself.
Last Tuesday feared Pool D rivals Argentina toppled a stronger 'Lelos' line-up 33-3 with a flurry of points in the final 10 minutes doing the damage.
In contrast, Ireland spent the final throes of a gripping and tense contest desperately trying to prevent one of the nation's most humiliating defeats in any sport.
France will be relishing the chance to put one foot into the quarter-finals when they meet the Irish on Friday and O'Sullivan knows Les Bleus will be ready to punish any further blips.
"The way we're playing our job is just to get out of the pool," he said.
"We weren't the people who said we were going to win the tournament. Everyone else said that and we happened to agree.
"We agreed with them on the basis that we continued playing the type of rugby we did in the Six Nations.
"We all know if we can get back to that standard we can trouble anybody.
"But we're not there by a long shot and as long as we're not there we should not think about anything other than getting out of the pool.
"Our current form suggests we'll find it very hard to get out of the pool.
"I wish I could tell you exactly why we're not firing on all cylinders because it's very frustrating for everyone, I appreciate that.
"It's frustrating for the supporters and I can appreciate that too. But it's equally frustrating for the players.
"It's not like we haven't been trying here. We have been working on it but it just hasn't been coming together for us.
"The form line has been fairly stagnant. Turnovers have been the bane of our lives for the past couple of weeks.
"There's no question about it, if we play like that again on Friday we'll be in for a right hiding."
After the refreshing honesty used to dissect the Namibian "horror movie", O'Sullivan greeted Saturday night's shambles a little more bullishly.
His comment in the post-match press conference that it was an improvement on Namibia was met with raised eyebrows given the remarkable events at the Stade Chaban-Delmas.
Girvan Dempsey's 55th-minute try, converted by the misfiring Ronan O'Gara, proved the decisive score but Ireland had to survive a fearful battering in the final quarter.
Tremendous defending and errors at key moments by Georgia, who had edged 10-7 ahead when Giorgi Shkinin intercepted a loose Ronan O'Gara pass, kept the Eastern Europeans at bay.
Ireland name their team to face France at lunchtime on Monday and O'Sullivan may have little option but to set aside any lingering loyalty by making several changes.
What will not be altered is the expansive game he blames for his side's catalogue of mistakes since the World Cup began.
"It's much easier to sit back in the pocket and kick the ball up into the air or whack it into the corners and wait for the opposition to make mistakes," he said.
"But we're trying to play a style of rugby which, when it works, is very successful and has served us well.
"We felt coming out of the Six Nations that we got the style right.
"But we've come into the World Cup and for some inexplicable reason we've tried to play that game but we've been making a bad job of it.
"It's a style of rugby that's important if you're to succeed at a higher level.
"But we haven't executed it well up to now and it's caused us a lot of problems."
www.planetrugby.com
No comments:
Post a Comment