Minds, bodies and movement

1 The mental challenge

From a psychological perspective, there were times when Ireland had this fixture lost before the plane left Dublin airport. Thankfully those days are long gone. There were other occasions, such as 1998, when predictions of a record defeat induced such a fear factor that the Irish side responded magnificently and went desperately close to an historic win before losing 18-16. That performance set the ground rules for the win in 2000. Gordon D'Arcy was quick to set the tone in the aftermath of the Welsh defeat when he declared “our senior players have all come back stronger from adversity and shown people what we are made of. The one thing you couldn't say about this team is that we're mentally weak”.

The timing of this game could not be worse with a minimum six day turnaround from that demoralising loss on Sunday. The challenge for the Irish management this week was to make sure that the demons associated with that loss were banished as quickly as possible. It is vital that memories of Munster and Leinster victories on French soil against many of today’s opponents are at the forefront of players' minds.