In-form Ireland squad not getting ahead of themselves, says Paul O’Connell
Despite being on the cusp of producing something special in this year’s Six Nations, forwards coach Paul O’Connell is adamant the Ireland squad aren’t getting too far ahead of themselves.
Heading into Sunday week’s clash with Scotland at Murrayfield Stadium in Edinburgh, Andy Farrell’s men are still in the hunt for the Triple Crown, a Championship title and the ultimate prize of a Grand Slam. Following three bonus-point triumphs to date over Wales, France and Italy, Ireland are in pole position at the summit of the tournament table.
Speaking as someone who was a three-time Six Nations winner during his own playing days, O’Connell perfectly understands the ambition that the current Irish group holds. Yet there is also an acknowledgement that there is a long road left to travel in their 2023 campaign.
“We want to win the competition and we’d like to win the last two games. We have said that plenty of times, but I don’t think we have put it up there in shining lights or anything. Favouritism is something the boys are well aware that we have in most games now,” the former Munster lock remarked from yesterday’s open training session at the Aviva Stadium.
“We talk about it a little bit, but we don’t pay a whole lot of attention to it. We pay attention to getting better. It’s funny, Andy said about the France game. If you watch the France game on TV and you just sit down and you just watch it, it’s amazing. It’s great to watch and you feel great about Ireland.
“When you’re a coach and you watch it ten times, you see 400 things you need to fix. You get really excited about how much better we can be. That’s the good thing about our group, we review a lot and the players take a lot of ownership in terms of reviewing. They see how much more we need to do.”
Next week’s game will be a case of deja vu for Limerick native O’Connell as he was part of an Irish side that faced a fourth round trip to Scotland in the Grand Slam-winning season of 2009. They didn’t have it all their own way in that contest, though a converted try from Jamie Heaslip was ultimately enough to propel them towards a 22-15 win.
Although defeat to France last weekend brought their Grand Slam hopes to an end, a victory for the Scots in nine days’ time will keep them in the hunt for the Six Nations title move into the final round of the tournament. Gregor Townsend’s charges are also guaranteed to pick up the Triple Crown if they get the better of Ireland.
This is widely regarded as one of the best Scotland teams in a number of years and O’Connell is well aware of the danger they are capable of posing on current form.
“It’s a massive game. If we come out of there with a one-point win, it will be brilliant for us. These are the games we want. It’s why we played the roof closed in the Millennium Stadium [against Wales]. It’s why we were trying to get the Maori games and took on that five-game tour [to New Zealand last year]. You want it hard. The harder it is, the better,” O’Connell added.
“It’s one of the reasons I was happy [Uini] Atonio wasn’t sent off in the French game, because you want it to be as hard as possible. So that we learn as much as we can about ourselves. Murrayfield is a really tough place to go and more so now with the confidence that the Scottish players have.
“Their best players are playing really well. They’ve real belief in what they’re doing. It’s going to be incredibly tough for us, but it’s the challenge that you want.”
In advance of their visit to the Scottish capital, the Ireland coaching team have been bolstered by the return to fitness of Robbie Henshaw, Jonathan Sexton, Jamison Gibson-Park and Tadhg Furlong. Garry Ringrose, Stuart McCloskey, James Lowe and Cian Healy all saw out yesterday’s session in Dublin, but O’Connell anticipated a quick recovery for this quartet.