Dempsey had no doubts Madigan would thrive in the cauldron
Daire Walsh
Leinster backs coach Girvan Dempsey yesterday heaped praise on Ian Madigan for his role in Ireland’s sensational World Cup victory over France in Millennium Stadium.
Madigan was sprung from the bench after 25 minutes to replace the injured Jonathan Sexton and the young out-half gave a nerveless performance in the Cardiff cauldron.
And Dempsey insisted he had no fears for Madigan when he entered the fray.
“I thought he [Madigan] was super. We’ve known Mads is capable of that. He is not fazed by big occasions in coming off the bench and delivering. He did it again. You could see afterwards how much it meant to him.
“If you were a coach and you saw three of your key players go down and have to leave the field injured, you would start to worry. But to see the players come off the bench and see how much they added and continued the effort, and actually ended up going on to put up a score against France, was superb. It was a joy to watch.”
Victory sets up another trip to the Welsh capital on Sunday and a fourth World Cup clash with Argentina.
Dempsey featured at full-back when Ireland secured a narrow 16-15 pool victory over the South Americans 12 years ago, but was absent when they suffered reversals to the Pumas at the 1999 and 2007 finals.
Speaking yesterday at Leinster HQ, Dempsey revealed he has been impressed with the way Argentina have developed their game in recent years.
“You look at Argentina over the last number of years, they have been growing their game. The experience they’ve had through The Rugby Championship has been brilliant for them. They are not fearful of any side.”
“They’ve always traditionally had a very physical pack, very strong set-piece and very physical, combative defence across the field and a lot of pressure at the ball at ruck time. You can see they’ve grown their game.”