Defence key to Irish victory

IRELAND’S ability to keep their line intact was as big a psychological boost as the rare victory over Australia.

Goal-kicking hero Ronan O’Gara will be remembered as the man who booted the Wallabies out of the game, but he was more pleased with Ireland’s strength in defence than his own exploits.

“It was so important to us not to concede a try. That was the real pleasure about this game,” O’Gara said.

He said there was a sense of great relief in the camp after the victory. “It is the first time this particular side has got a win over one of the big three from the southern hemisphere.

“We have been knocking at the door for a while. We should have beaten South Africa and could well have beaten New Zealand in the first Test this summer as well.

“From that point of view, it was marvellous and it will make us stronger mentally. When you come close and don’t quite do it, you wonder about yourself. This was a huge psychological boost.

“This time we did manage to finish off the job and I’m not being arrogant when I say I figure we did it quite comfortably.

“The fact that we were more than one score ahead of them going into the closing stages helped us believe in ourselves.

“Going into the last ten minutes, I felt we were going to win, although we could have done without all the injury-time ... they got frustrated by the strength of our tackling.

“They turned over a lot of ball in the tackle and I suppose they were pushing it a bit too much.

O’Gara was surprised by the Aussies’ predictability in attack. “Their attacks were easy enough to read and the main thing we needed to do was concentrate on our first-up tackles.

“Over the 80 or so minutes, I think we were the better side and we could tell by their reaction afterwards that they had no real complaints.

“It was a question of us winning the game rather than them losing it.

“We had a fairly simple game plan going into the match and it made it easier when they stuck rigidly to theirs. We knew the game they would play and the channels they would run. Credit is due to the management for the way they prepared us for the match and I’m sure defensive coach Mike Ford will be pretty chuffed that we managed to keep the world champions scoreless from open play.”

On a personal note, O’Gara revealed that he had worked harder on his goal-kicking than at any stage of his career.

“I was disappointed with my kicking in the first Test in New Zealand, but my return has been much better since then. It’s up to an average of over 80% and I would have to be happy with my 100% return on Saturday.

“I have been striking the ball well for a while now, and on Saturday, I felt very confident standing up. The conditions were difficult enough, but happily, it seemed as if I couldn’t do anything wrong in that area.”

Meanwhile Brian O’Driscoll could be pressed back in to service against Fiji at Lansdowne Road next week following the withdrawal through injury yesterday of John Kelly.

Originally, it had been planned that the man charged with the successful captaincy for the match against Australia would be rested but Irish coach Eddie O’Sullivan is running out of back-line options.

Kelly, a second half replacement for Denis Hickie on Saturday, damaged a medial ligament in his knee and will be out for up to three weeks.

Given the injury problems elsewhere in the back line, it is likely that the coach will call upon O’Driscoll to fill the vacancy, even if he has to sit on the bench.

Reggie Corrigan might also be recalled to the squad to replace Paul Wallace who has also been ruled out. The decisions on both those vacancies will not be finalised until today.

Leinster wing Gordon D’Arcy has been added to the Ireland squad for next Sunday’s international.

O’Sullivan will also be without 12 players through injury, including regular skipper Keith Wood, when the team to face the Fijians is named tomorrow.

In the meantime, the draw for the venues of the semi-finals for the Celtic League was made in Dublin last night.

The winners of the Munster/Connacht quarter-final will have home advantage over the winner from the Ulster-Glasgow Rugby game.

The winners of the Pontypridd-Neath quarter-final will have home advantage over the winner of the Eninburgh Rugby-Cardiff game.

The games will take place on January 3/4.