Irish will ‘stand up and fight’ to prove mettle in Cardiff

IRISH second row Malcolm O’Kelly promised team manager Brian O’Brien that everyone will “stand up and fight” in Cardiff next weekend.

O’Kelly, like others in the vanquished Irish pack, is on a recovery mission to persuade Clive Woodward he is worthy of inclusion in the Lions party to tour New Zealand, but that’s not the motivation at the Millennium Stadium.

Aware that Ireland could now lose everything, the big second row admitted: “this defeat was gut-wrenching. The feeling in the dressing room afterwards was awful. When Brian (O’Driscoll) scored the try it was ‘game on’ but we probably panicked when the opportunity to win the game presented itself.