Sport

Last summer 'has ignited a bit of hunger in them in some way'

AUTUMN SERIES: GERRY THORNLEY talks to the Irish coaching trio before two big Tests

Wed Sept 26 2012 - 01:00

AUTUMN SERIES: GERRY THORNLEYtalks to the Irish coaching trio before two big Tests

DECLAN KIDNEY

Sluggish ticket sales for the upcoming Guinness Series perhaps reflect a greater disconnect between the Irish team and the home rugby public, what with the heightened tribalism among supporters, although it wasn’t so long ago that the Blarney Army had invaded New Zealand and hitched itself to the team’s wagon.

“We live in different times in the amount of money people have, that’s bound to have an effect on everything,” noted Kidney. “The only thing we can do is play to the best of our ability, I know if we do that then we’ll get the support wherever it comes from.

READ MORE

“I do believe the support for the national team is every bit as it was before. If it didn’t matter to people people wouldn’t worry about the results as much as they do and when we won matches last year there was a lot of excitement around them, so it’s our job to get the team to play to the best of our ability.

“That’s what we’ll aim to do because it matters just as much to everybody, because I think you can say it comes down to your own perception but maybe it matters more to people in these times than it did in other times because now this is who we are.”

LES KISS

On Monday, Brian O’Driscoll admitted Ireland were under heightened pressure to perform because of the events of last summer. “It would be unusual,” according to Kiss, “if the players didn’t feel some sense of wanting to get back on the horse, to make a difference again, approach it not with a sense of revenge but to do themselves justice in their preparation and for the cause and I think there will be an edge in that area.

“We have got to get to a point where we are consistently excellent in our preparation and New Zealand was an eye-opener for a lot of them in terms of what is required at the highest level of Test rugby.

“The silver lining to it, along with the second Test which when we go there we know we can be great, was that we had three Tests against them in a row which not many people have done and that gives us a real good base line. We know where we need to get to.

“Sometimes you think you know where you need to get to but these guys have had it right in their face and from the most experienced guys in the team like Brian to the youngest they said they had never experienced anything like that before. You saw the progression of the Test series and the disappointment at the end but there is going to be something in them to get back at it and I think it has ignited a bit of hunger in them in some way.”

“At Test level you don’t have the breadth of error rate or the margin of error in terms of your accuracy. You can’t just be off the boil a little bit, particularly against the highest ranking nations. That’s probably the key thing from it. I think the plan was fine, but we just didn’t execute it well. The players accept that, they’ve done their work. They understand that they have to hone their skills a lot more to a level of accuracy, and a clinical execution, so that we can apply the plans that we need. “

GERT SMAL

Ireland’s forwards coach, who helped South Africa win the 2007 World Cup, has taken a particular interest in the latter’s evolution under a new coaching ticket in the current Rugby Championship, as well as new entrants Argentina.

“I think if you look at South Africa they are very rigid in the way that they play the game at the moment. It’s kick and chase, mauling, physicality. The bigger the players, the better for them. Those are going to be the challenges for us.

“If you look at Argentina they also play a kick-chase game and that’s what we worked on this week as well, and you have to have your strategies in place, so when you want to take pressure away from you, that you are well organised and when you want to put pressure on to them, that you know what you want to do.

“Physically, it’s going to be a massive battle for the whole team because, especially South Africa, have got big forwards and big backs, and they want to get over that advantage line and get quick ball as much as they can. But both are going to be very big challenges.”