Rugby: Flanker Shane Jennings is the latest to warn against complacency in the Ireland squad after Saturday's win over Australian in Auckland's Eden Park, and has insisted Ireland are in the competition for silverware not heroic one-offs.
The 15-6 Pool C win over the Wallabies was Ireland’s first against a southern hemisphere side at the World Cup and paved the way for a potentially less arduous route to the latter stages of the competition.
While Jennings maintains the squad always believed in the ability within the camp, he is all too aware it will count for nothing if they don’t kick on from here, starting with the game against Russia on Sunday morning.
"It's a pool game and that's all it was," said the Leinster openside when asked about the historic result today. "We want to win pool games and quarter-finals, but people have to understand that we're in this to win trophies.
"That's the beauty of this squad, there are a lot of players who have been successful at provincial and international level. I'm not playing it down, it was a brilliant and massive win for Ireland. But it was just a pool game.
"Most people in the world saw it as an upset against Australia, but in the squad we know when we're playing well or going all right. We weren't a million miles from getting things right in previous games.
"If we'd got one or two more tries against the USA it would have looked very different, so we knew we weren't too far off it. The senior players did a lot of talking during the build-up and they backed that up by playing well. Because of the quality of player in the squad we're always capable of producing results like that. But it's gone now and people have to get over that because there's no point getting two wins and then falling over your next two opponents."
Accounting for Australia has underlined Ireland's ability to deliver in big matches, even when form looks shaky. In March they thumped Grand Slam-chasing England in Dublin, the conclusion to a wildly inconsistent Six Nations that rarely saw the team reach top gear. And four successive defeats during the warm-up games and an unconvincing display against the USA proved no barrier to seeing off the Wallabies.
Securing a measure of consistency is now the key for Ireland and Jennings accepts they must not allow standards to slip having caused the upset of the World Cup to date.
"Nobody in the squad wants to be known as hit and miss, producing one good performance and then failing to follow it up," he said. "A lot of people were upset or disappointed with their performance against the United States. We did a lot of good things Australia and we must repeat that.
"We always felt we could compete with anyone in the world but this has definitely given us a bit of extra belief. It's an obvious comment but while everyone says you learn a lot from defeat, you learn a lot from wins as well. It gives you confidence and is reassuring that you're on the right track.
"We definitely have the ability to reproduce that performance. But if we talk about it, we'll have to back it up."
Jennings denies that overcoming Russia, who are ranked 21st in the world, at Rotorua International Stadium is a foregone conclusion.
"Russia are a physical side with a strong set piece and some dangerous runners," he said. "America were a very good side. People keep calling these sides minnows, but they're not that bad at all. They're dangerous and very difficult to play against.
"We've got to play Russia and then Italy, who we didn't deserve to beat in Rome in the Six Nations."
Keith Earls, however, says Ireland’s backline is set to cut loose when against the Russians. Having watched the forwards grind out wins over the USA and Australia the left wing says there will be “a lot more” from the men behind the scrum this weekend.
“It’s fair to say we haven’t seen the best of us and that’s down to conditions and playing the right territory on the pitch,” said the Limerick man. “Against America the weather wasn’t great and it wasn’t a day for flashing the ball around, so we kept it quite tight. Even then we managed to break out a couple of times.
“Against Australia there wasn’t a need to throw it around the backs because the forwards were playing so well. You’ll see a lot more from our backline, hopefully starting from this weekend. If we get good weather hopefully we’ll spread the ball around.”
Wing Tommy Bowe suffered a bump on his calf against Australia and will undergo a scan today, while Paul O'Connell and Gordon D'Arcy are continuing to receive treatment on their hamstring injuries. Stephen Ferris sat out training today in order to manage his workload.
