O’Driscoll faces up to French farce fears

BRIAN O’DRISCOLL’S face told the story of a thousand concerns: on this form, Ireland could be destroyed by France in Paris on Saturday.

He readily admitted that Saturday’s 26-16 victory over Italy was unacceptable.

“If we go to Stade des France and play like that, we will get obliterated,” said the Ireland captain. “We will have to play next week with a fear factor and show 30 or 40% improvement.”

O’Driscoll should have little difficulty refocusing his colleagues; it’s a lot easier to look ahead than reflect on a botched Italian job.

“We have to improve in every area of our game to survive against France,” he said. “We expected a tough challenge from the Italians but we have to be conscious that we didn’t do ourselves justice either.

“It was frustrating at times, when we didn’t have the ball in the early stages, and particularly when we made mistakes when in possession. A few little things went wrong, but we also created problems for ourselves.”

O’Driscoll’s own performance was subdued too: “There wasn’t a lot of room in midfield. The Italians closed us down very well and have clearly been working on improving their line speeds. Maybe there’s something there for us to take out of their game.

“This was probably the best Italian side I have played against in terms of their structure. They knew exactly what they were doing. They were competitive in all the key areas and Ramiro Pez kept them going forward. They took their try extremely well and really made it very hard for us.”

Meanwhile, the Italians remain unhappy with the performance of referee Dave Pearson on Saturday.

Italian Rugby Federation president Giancarlo Dondi said Italy could feel “justifiably bitter” while coach Pierre Berbizier had mixed emotions.

“At the end of the match I thanked each one of the players for the way they responded to the challenge,” said Berbizier.

“But I’m dissatisfied by the way this defeat came about. In international rugby today we have a great help in the form of the TV match officer and I simply can’t understand why he wasn’t used for the second Irish try. The first try was also dubious. I think it’s too much to concede two tries of this sort.”

Mirco Bergamasco, scorer of Italy’s try, said: “We showed we didn’t fear Ireland. We deserved more.”

Italy captain Marco Bortolami said: “We’ve shown that we can play at a similar level to the other countries: the performance from the three-quarters was amazing. Now we’re looking forward to the England game.”

Reaction in the Italian press mirrored that of their players.

Gazzetta dello Sport’s headline read: ITALY MAKES DUBLIN TREMBLE, and the description of the second Irish try was unambiguous: “It was not an easy one to judge, but the ball was never grounded. However Pearson did not seem to be in the slightest doubt: it was all OK. Despite the Italian protests he didn’t call for a TV replay, and the replay showed that it was not a valid score. It was a shame ... Italy, which had never played its first 6 Nations game away from home, deserved better.”