Time for Woody to talk the talk as well

For years now, it’s been one of the mantras of this column that there’s more in the Irish international rugby sides than they’ve been producing.

For years now, it’s been one of the mantras of this column that there’s more in the Irish international rugby sides than they’ve been producing. Their courage wasn’t questioned, nor their effort, not even in the bad years.

What was criticised, time and again, was the lack of belief, and on more than one occasion, the Irish captain was challenged here on the grounds of statements he was making before big games. Caution, he was preaching, always caution, temperance in our ambitions. I know where he’s coming from, I understand all those deeply ingrained Irish fears. But I’ve never agreed with it.

Last Saturday, after Ireland had done unto the French what they had been doing to us for all those years, Keith came into the press conference and stated that early last week, they had targeted this game as a game they could, and should, win. They believed. Then he went on to speak almost apologetically of the growing confidence in the squad." I realise confidence, call it arrogance even, doesn’t sit well with Ireland, but that’s the challenge facing us now."

Pardon me Keith, but that was always the challenge. To be honest, I’ve found it very hard to get my head around Keith Wood. Sport is littered with those brash vacuum-heads who talk the talk, but don’t have the bottle or the talent to walk the walk. But Wood is an enigma. Over the last few years, even after warning everyone against high expectation, he would then go out on the field and play like a dervish, a man possessed. He would walk the walk, stampede the walk even. But he wouldn’t talk the talk. And he was wrong, because in an odd way, one is as important as the other. You gotta believe. Against France three years ago, we didn’t believe; against France two years ago, we didn’t believe; against South Africa a few months ago, we didn’t believe. In all those games, we lost, when we could have won, and that lack of conviction was a definite factor.

Ireland held out last Sunday because they believed.

We were never going to dominate a side as resilient as the French for the whole game. But we held on, and comfortably in the end, because the belief gave rise to a steely resolve.

"Players are believing in themselves, in their own physical development and fitness, and believing in the sort of game we’re trying to develop," coach Warren Gatland said afterwards." If we can keep moving on, keep improving, we’re going to keep getting results. And that’s what’s happening for us at the moment."

Backs coach Eddie O’Sullivan: "They came back at us, had a long period with the ball in their hands, scored two good tries. That was the real test, whether we were going to weather the storm or cave in. I think the last ten minutes, which was mostly injury time, we kept the ball, played at them, and still had the confidence to run at them at that stage. That’s going to be the building of the team for the future, those are the foundations."

We have to keep going, keep growing. I have the utmost admiration for Keith Wood as a player. Apart from some of his basic duties as hooker, in scrum and line-out (Ireland didn’t lose a single line-out ball of their own to the French), even a cursory glance through the video of last Saturday’s game shows again the boundless energy, the aggression, the total commitment on both sides of the ball that marks him out as one of the world’s greatest players (forget the attempted drop-goal - it’s these aberrations that make us what we are). But as captain, as spiritual leader, Keith has to start talking the talk, and without any apology.

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