O’Connell: I’ll learn from ref row

By Ruaidhri O’Connor

Tuesday, February 02, 2010

THE exasperated look on Paul O’Connell’s face summed the moment up.

Munster’s talismanic captain was being told to pipe down in the heat of Heineken Cup battle against Northampton at Thomond Park and he wasn’t a bit impressed.

He clearly felt within his rights to question referee Romain Poite’s somewhat erratic decisions on a night of high drama, but the French official had had enough.

"But I’m allowed to talk to you," O’Connell pleaded. "Not that much," came the curt reply and the second row was in the sin-bin within a few minutes for handling the ball in a ruck.

The short conversation assumes relevance this week because O’Connell will get to say "bonjour" to Poite again as he takes charge of the visit of Italy to Croke Park on Saturday.

And having experienced the 34-year-old’s interpretations at first hand just 10 days ago, the lock is ready to play the referee more cleverly this weekend as he admits he was surprised to be told he was talking too much.

"Ah, I was a little bit," he said yesterday.

"But I probably needed to react to that then and stay away from him. I suppose he’s a new referee, I mean he’s a referee I hadn’t played a match under before, and you get used to different referees and how they do things.

"That was a learning curve for me in terms of how Romain handles things. I don’t think it’s necessarily how you play him, it’s just that certain referees do things certain ways and you certainly don’t want to be annoying them.

"If he doesn’t like being asked things or to clarify things now and again, well that’s the way it has to be. Every team now looks at referees in terms of the way they referee the game in every aspect, particularly the set-pieces – scrum and line-out – and particularly breakdown.

"The same as any referee we’ll look to do things a certain way and make sure we’re sticking to the rules that he applies."

When asked what the differences are between the Irish squad now and this time last year, O’Connell points to the confidence that has come from their Grand Slam success and autumn performances.

"There’s probably not a lot different; maybe confidence is a lot different now and there’s probably a bit of, maybe a relaxed confidence, about the team now.

"This time a year ago we’d worked hard in the autumn but really had a poor autumn coming into the Six Nations and we really needed to produce something special and that’s what we did last time around.

"So I think we’ve a lot of confidence and a lot of knowledge of what we’re doing now under our belt.

"We’ve come a long way I think, in terms of how we’re going to play and things we’re going to do. We’re a lot more used to the coaches we have and the way they expect to have things done, so I suppose it leaves us in a position maybe where we haven’t as much to do as we did this time last year."

Meanwhile Nick Mallett has sensationally claimed the future of Italian rugby may depend on improving his team’s results in the Six Nations. Acknowledging the disappointment of last year’s results, when his team lost all five games and conceded 170 points in the process, the charismatic South African is looking for a huge turnaround this season.

"There is a lot of interest in Italian rugby at the moment," he explained. "People would not be interested in rugby if it was not for the Six Nations. But we are at a very delicate stage. If we start getting smashed by 70 points it won’t grow at all and that will be the end of rugby. If we can keep being competitive then kids are going to play the game and that is how you generate a growth."

This story appeared in the printed version of the Irish Examiner Tuesday, February 02, 2010