Flannery: We need to raise intensity of our game
16/11/2009 - 12:57:59Ireland hooker Jerry Flannery feels that his team didn’t beat Australia in their international Test yesterday because they “lacked intensity”.
The Munster man was disappointed at yesterday’s 20-20 draw with the southern hemisphere giants and felt Ireland still have to do some work to mount a challenge against the World champions South Africa in two week’s time.
Flannery said: “I felt we could have got more from the game. There were times when we had possession but we didn’t have enough cutting edge, we didn’t play with enough intensity.”
But he refused to make excuses for their performance and emphasised the need to work on their performance for the Springboks game.
“We were delighted to get the score at the end. Even if we had won, there were still areas of the game where we could have been a bit more intense.”
However, he did feel that Ireland’s front row, especially Cian Healy, performed well considering the lack of preparation.
He said: “I thought Cian played very well, he is a very powerful player and he is mentally strong as well.
“He never seemed fazed. I thought he put himself about, he didn’t go into his shell or wait for someone else to do things, he took it upon himself. I think there is a lot more to come from us.”
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