O’Sullivan: four hurdles to jump to stay at races

GIVEN our penchant for horse racing, coach Eddie O’Sullivan’s warning yesterday that Ireland has four major hurdles to jump if they still want to be in Australia for Melbourne Cup week was a fitting analogy to begin a World Cup adventure.

Ireland are pooled with defending champions Australia and dangerous wild cards Argentina in the World Cup’s toughest group.

All three teams are in the world’s top seven, but one will miss out on a prized quarter-final berth.

Ireland’s fate could well come down to the final Pool A clash against the Wallabies in Melbourne four days before the world-famous horse race where Irish trainer Dermot Weld will go for a record third victory.

But O’Sullivan stressed the danger of concentrating too hard on the decisive encounters against Argentina and the Wallabies and overlooking the potential “banana-skin” clashes with minnows Namibia and first up, Romania.

“I have always believed we have got four hurdles to cross before we get into the quarter-finals and if we are thinking of the third hurdle before we get to the first we will fall flat on our face,” he said.

“There is no point trying to play Argentina before the game, we have got Namibia and Romania to play and they are still important.

“You can still get four or five points from those wins and it’s important to try and get those and start the tournament well.”

The squad will not attend the International Rules Test between Ireland and Australia at the MCG because it is the night before their clash with the Wallabies, but what odds a visit to Flemington?

“That depends if we are still in Melbourne,” O’Sullivan said with a smile.

“I’m sure Dermot Weld would like to see us there.”

To give his side the best chance possible, O’Sullivan and his back-room staff have already worked out how they will negotiate the early games.

Ireland have recent history with Romania, beating them in Limerick last year, and O’Sullivan has been doing his homework on the Namibians.

Perhaps mindful that Ireland have lost both their encounters with Namibia, on a trip to Windhoek just before the 1991 World Cup, he has acquired video tapes of their games against Samoa and South Africa A.

“Every game is a Test game and you give it the same meticulous preparation you give any Test game,” he said,

“To do other than that is unprofessional and you are creating a banana skin for yourself no matter who you are playing.”

Despite that, O’Sullivan plans to give his entire squad a run during the opening two matches as the Irish build through the pool stages.

“We have talked about selection and training,” he said. “From a selection point of view we will be playing what we think is pretty much our best XV for every game and building up through the pool.

“Everybody has been without a game for a while because of the cut-off point for the World Cup, so we want to get everybody on the field as soon as we can.”

After flying into a fan club welcome at the airport, which stunned the players as it was pre-dawn in Sydney, the squad drove north to Terrigal, near Gosford to begin acclimatising.

After a sleep on Wednesday, the squad enjoyed a light training session and a dip in the sea.

O’Sullivan said that jet-lag still lingered amongst a few of the squad, but yesterday’s more intense training session had gone a long way to brushing off the cobwebs.

Ireland start their campaign on October 11 against the Romanians at the Central Coast Stadium in Gosford.

O’Sullivan reckons centre Brian O’Driscoll will confirm his status as the best centre in rugby when the World Cup kicks off.

O’Driscoll has his admirers, none more so than O’Sullivan, who rates him as a “pretty special” player in world rugby.

“Everyone around the world respects Brian as an incredible game-breaker with ball in hand, but in recent times his game has rounded out as well and he’s also putting other people into space.

“He’s proving the perfect foil, if people close him down, he can put other people into space and that’s part of the game he’s been working on. He’s still very young, he’s 24, and he’s captained his country and he’s had a Lions tour here.

“He’s very mature in terms of rugby but he’s still young and he’s got a phenomenal career in front of him.

“All of that makes him a very interesting player to look at and watch and the attraction is for everyone to see Brian O’Driscoll in action and people will remember his performance with the Lions here (in 2001) which made a huge impression.

“He’s a pressure player, he does deliver under pressure which makes him pretty special,” he said.