O'Sullivan makes case for the defence
Eddie O’Sullivan has saluted the defensive mastermind who has put the steel into an Irish side on course to win their first championship title in 20 years.
Ireland’s 19-13 win over England at Lansdowne Road made it three victories in a row in this year’s RBS 6 Nations and set up the possibility of a grand slam decider against Wales at the Millennium stadium if both countries can win their next fixtures in a fortnight.
But it was Mike Ford, the Saracens’ defence coach who will be working with the Lions in the summer, who took the plaudits.
“Mike Ford must get a big mention for delivering a defensive performance like that,” said O’Sullivan, who saw Brian O’Driscoll score a brilliant second-half try to add to 14 points from the boot of man-of-the-match Ronan O’Gara.
“Everybody’s really believing what we are doing now and to go back two or three years we would not have won that game. We would have leaked a try or two at some juncture and the game would have slipped away from us.”
Against England, despite the lead changing six times the discipline instilled by Ford saw Ireland cling on even when they were put under severe pressure in the last 20 minutes.
“There were periods of the game when England were very dominant,” admitted O’Sullivan. “They played great rugby and were stretching the ball from touchline to touchline and very aggressively.
“We had to defend, not just heroically. We needed to throw our bodies on the line and know when and how to throw our bodies on the line. We showed great discipline and that is why they had very few kicks at goal.”
England number eight Martin Corry scored the first try, converted by Charlie Hodgson and a further drop goal and a penalty from the Sale fly-half were all the white shirts could muster.
“I have to take my hat off to the men,” said O’Sullivan. “The forwards played well. The line-out is as good as any in the world and we delivered some good quality possession for the backs. It is all the pieces of the jigsaw coming together against the top teams in the world.”
Ireland can now enjoy a welcome free weekend before they take on France in Dublin with the confidence of a side who have beaten the world champions, albeit an Andy Robinson team going through a period of transition.
Paul O’Connell led the Irish pack brilliantly, scrum-half Peter Stringer was a constant menace, O’Gara’s kicking was sublime and captain O’Driscoll ran in a magnificent try after great work from Denis Hickie and Geordan Murphy.
“Our try was very well worked,” said O’Sullivan. “We had worked on that set-up over the week and it worked a gem. It was as good a try as we have scored in a while.
“We gave a great platform to Ronan, who struck the ball very well and kept England outside the strike zone. We put a fair bit of pressure on their line-out. A lot of good stuff, not perfect, it never is, but a very good performance. I think we lost only one line-out in the whole game.”
O’Sullivan also praised 25-year-old Wasps flanker John O’Connor, playing only his second Six Nations match. “He was able to dog it out for 80 minutes in what is a war zone,” said O’Sullivan. “Johnny is not the biggest guy in the pack, but he certainly punches above his weight.
“We watched him closely with 15 to go and he was still doing the business, still knocking people down, still making a nuisance of himself at the breakdown and he was right on the pace of the game. He is growing into being an international very quickly.”
Meanwhile, O’Driscoll pledged there would be no complacency when Ireland take on France and insisted the men in green are quickly becoming used to raised expectations.
“We are becoming that bit more accustomed to being favourites even it is only really this season that we have been able to play with that favourite’s tag,” he said. “Hopefully now we have proved that point to others as well as ourselves.”
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