O'Sullivan concentrates on next game
Ireland coach Eddie O’Sullivan has shelved ambitions of winning the RBS 6 Nations title and told his players to concentrate on defending their Triple Crown instead.
The 2005 Six Nations promises to reach a thrilling climax on Saturday when Ireland meet Wales at the Millennium Stadium in a potentially epic encounter where several different outcomes are possible.
Victory for Mike Ruddock’s side would hand Wales first Grand Slam in 27 years while should the Irish win by at least 13 points – and France beat Italy by a minimum of 42 – they will be crowned champions.
But O’Sullivan believes his team must concentrate only on triumphing in Cardiff so they retain their Triple Crown – and consider anything else a bonus.
“You have to be careful about trying to win games by a certain total – the most important thing is to win the match first. That would give us a Triple Crown. Then we’ll see what happens after that,” he said.
“It’s important to close the deal first – it would be foolish to approach it any other way. I’m sure this game will go down to the wire so we must prepare for it with the right mindset, and that means just trying to win.
“It’s been a funny championship this year and predictions that it would be close have proved correct. There are so many different ways it could finish on Saturday. Three teams could win it and there is also a Grand Slam and Triple Crown to be won.”
O’Sullivan has not seen any need to alter his line-up following the dramatic 26-19 defeat by France at Lansdowne Road on Saturday, selecting the same 22 to face Wales.
The only question marks lingered over the possible return of Gordon D’Arcy and Shane Horgan, but both players are still at least two weeks away from overcoming their respective hamstring and thumb injuries.
With the Leinster duo ruled out, O’Sullivan has been forced to persist with Kevin Maggs and Girvan Dempsey – two players who hardly covered themselves in glory when Ireland’s Grand Slam dream was extinguished at the weekend.
“There were no hard calls to make. We’ve won three of our last four matches so there isn’t a problem with confidence,” said O’Sullivan.
“There was no reason to drop anyone from the team at this juncture – they played well against France. With Gordon and Shane injured there weren’t any areas of consideration. It wasn’t a hard selection meeting.”
Ireland went into mourning in the aftermath of their heartbreaking Grand Slam failure with the players’ reaction to defeat speaking volumes for their genuine belief they could complete the clean sweep.
The result was a shattering blow given this is widely considered the best Ireland squad to emerge for decades and skipper Brian O’Driscoll had spoken of the determination to turn that potential into silverware.
But O’Sullivan insists Saturday’s misery has already been consigned to history and revealed a lesson had been learnt from the way England’s World Cup-winning side overcame major setbacks.
“The lads have bounced back already. They were very down on Sunday morning but training went really well today. The great challenge for any competitive athlete is how you deal with failure,” he said.
“It didn’t come off against France and there are two ways of dealing with that. You learn from it or suffer from it. I like to look at what England did in this situation. They lost four Grand Slam games in a row.
“They said they’d get better because of it and they did – they went on to win a Grand Slam and the World Cup.
“You can go backwards or forwards in this situation – you can’t stand still.
“This Ireland squad is in the business of getting better. A good French side beat us by a score.
“We’re all disappointed about it but there’s no reason to be too down on ourselves, especially given what’s left to play for on Saturday.”
