O’Sullivan is happy with solid start

Ireland 45 Romania 17

Nobody was foolish enough to proclaim the five-try, 28-point win as an Irish statement of intent for the remainder of the tournament, but for an opening game, it hit enough high notes for everyone to remain positive.

Eddie O’Sullivan had been talking-up Romania all week long in the build-up to the game and to be fair to the coach, he was spot-on. The Eastern Europeans were competitive, hugely physical and showed a level of maturity in their game that few could have expected beforehand.

The signs of the physical battle were plain to see at the end of the game. David Humphreys, Brian O’Driscoll, Keith Wood and Anthony Foley all limped from the field with slight knocks, although it does appear that all were substituted as a precautionary measure.

“The injury situation is pretty good,” said O’Sullivan yesterday. “There are quite a few bumps and bruises as you could imagine, it was very physical out there. We were getting guys off because they were getting knocks out there at that stage, but at this moment the injury situation is pretty much a clear bill of health.”

Ireland had planned to play a wide game before the match but Saturday’s conditions, the swirling wind in particular, dictated that they would have to slug it out up-front with the Romanians.

The Irish backs appeared to be in good form.

Brian O’Driscoll and Shane Horgan ran impressive lines in the opening 10 minutes to breach the Romanian defence, with Horgan’s opening try on 22 minutes, brilliantly conceived by Girvan Dempsey and Kevin Maggs.

The impressive Dempsey was again instrumental in Denis Hickie’s first try on 54 minutes, while the Leinster winger’s speed in injury-time rounded off an impressive series of forays by the Irish backline.

Perhaps it was Ireland’s defensive performance that impressed most. At one point in the second-half, just after Romania had been awarded a penalty try, out-half Ionut Tofan crashed a 40-yard drop-goal off the right upright, Dempsey first, and then Keith Gleeson, both made try-saving tackles.

Indeed, Dempsey’s effort was particularly mind-blowing, as Romanian centre Valentin Mafeti appeared odds on to crash over the line from 10 yards after collecting the rebound.

“I was backing the centre at that moment in time, he was coming through at 100 miles per hour,” said O’Sullivan.

“To be fair the tackles had to be made and we made them. We showed a lot of resilience when we were under pressure and I think that was as good a defensive performance as we’ve had in a long time.”

The coach admitted he wouldn’t be taking too much out of Friday’s clash between Ireland’s Pool A rivals, Argentina and Australia.

“The occasion was quite tense, it was very physical and there were a lot of mistakes. I’d imagine that both sides will up their performance before we meet them.”

Ireland face Namibia at Sydney’s Aussie Stadium next Sunday.

IRELAND: G Dempsey; S Horgan, B O’Driscoll, K Maggs, D Hickie; D Humphreys, P Stringer; M Horan, K Wood, R Corrigan; M O’Kelly, P O’Connell; V Costello, A Foley, K Gleeson. Subs: J Hayes for Horan, 57mins; A Quinlan for Foley, 57mins; S Byrne for Wood, 64mins; R O’Gara for Humphreys, 70mins; G Easterby for P Stringer, 76mins; J Kelly for O’Driscoll, 80mins; D O’Callaghan for O’Kelly, 80mins.

ROMANIA: D Dumbrava; C Sauan, V Maftei, R Gontineac, G Brezoinanu; I Tofan, L Sirbu; P Balan, R Mavrodin, M Socaciu; S Socol, A Petrichei; G Chirac, C Petre, F Tatu. Subs: P Toderasc for Socaciu, ht; M Niculai for Petre, ht; C Popescu for Balan, 57mins; M Vioreanu for Sauan, 57mins; I Teodorescu for Dumbrave, 64mins; M Tudori for Chiriac, 70mins; I Andrei for Sirbu, 80mins.