Too close for comfort

IRELAND’S joy at qualifying for the quarter-final of the World Cup was a little subdued in Adelaide last night as Alan Quinlan made the greatest sacrifice when scoring a crucial try in their one-point victory over Argentina.

The dislocated shoulder he sustained when grounding the ball, ended his tournament in a very painful manner as he scored Ireland’s try in their 16-15 defeat of Argentina in Adelaide yesterday.

It’s a tragedy for the 29-year-old Tipperary man who was fully justifying his inclusion when injury intervened.

There was huge sympathy in Adelaide last night for Quinlan who was one of the few to shine in the shaky opening stages.

“He played a crucial role,” said coach Eddie O’Sullivan: “He’s very disappointed although if you’re to go out on an injury, that was the one to go out on, scoring the winning try.”

Ireland are through to the quarter- finals no matter what happens at the Telstra Stadium against Australia and some of yesterday’s heroes could be held back.

Inspirational captain Keith Wood is an obvious case to be rested. He missed the press conference because he was “dehydrated and feeling nauseous” according to O’Sullivan.

However, the management insisted Wood hadn’t suffered any serious injury following a knock late in the match when he was seen holding the shoulder that has given him so many problems in the past.

“There was a lot of pressure in the game because the stakes were so high,” O’Sullivan pointed out. “If we didn’t win this one, we’d have a mountain to climb going to Sydney.”

He immediately corrected himself: “sorry, Melbourne. Freudian slip”. The semi-finals and final, of course, take place in Sydney! “There is a great sense of relief that we are in the quarter-finals,” he added.

“We struggled in the first half to damage their line-out. We rejigged the defensive line-out system at half time and it paid dividends.

"We poached a few crucial line-outs. I thought our pack was a little fitter and we tried to move it further away from them. The ground was hard and the ball was bouncing around and you paid a pretty high price for turnovers.

“There are a lot of bruised bodies. That was as physical a game as we have ever played.

“We must review everybody tomorrow: It’s not so much injuries as a lot of guys beaten up. Turning around against Australia in six days is a tight one. I’m not saying we’re resting anybody but we’ll have to see how things pan out.”

The long-running David Humphreys versus Ronan O’Gara saga took another twist yesterday.

You have to think the edge is now with O’Gara with O’Sullivan understandably pleased that his decision to bring him into the fray in the 55th minute worked out so well.

“I felt we were playing too much in our own half in the early part of the second half,” he explained.

“The wind had died down and wasn’t really a major issue. We needed to take Argentina through a couple of phases and pin them back in the corners. David had been caught in possession a few times, fellas were running at him from all angles, so I thought we’d get Ronan on.

“The danger of that is putting a player into a test game that’s going at a 100 miles an hour. He can take five or 10 minutes to bed in and make mistakes as well.

O’Sullivan clearly believes that the ghost of 99 has now been laid and went so far as to demand: “In future we don’t mention the two words Argentina and Lens in the same sentence at an Irish press conference.”

Keith Wood has no greater admirer than the coach who waxed eloquent on his contribution: “It was the performance of a great player and captain.

"I thought he was outstanding, not just his work around the field, but his leadership. Keeping your head out there in crucial situations was crucial. One mistake was going to cost us the game.

“He’s been there before in tight situations and having somebody like that on the pitch was a huge advantage,” he said.

Assistant coach Declan Kidney was as practical as ever in summing up the game. Pointing out that “when fellas knew that things weren’t flowing as well as they wanted, they still kept their composure.

"They stayed calm and came out well at the end of it. It’s difficult to stay calm when things are flying all around you and if you do that, I think you deserve your win,” he said.

There was a suggestion of gouging by an Argentine player but Reggie Corrigan would only say: “It was exceptionally tough out there which was just what we expected. I was quite happy with the pack’s performance and the performance in the scrum because that was Argentina’s biggest weapon.

“Our line-out was a bit ropey in the first half but we got there in the second and all in all the forwards deserve huge credit. I definitely think we can now go on to another level.

“There was a lot of pressure on a few guys who are quite young and playing in their first World Cup. That may have got to them a little but now that we’re in the quarter-finals, they will be able to relax and hopefully you will see a different brand of rugby from now on,” he said.

Winger Denis Hickie was once again one of the success stories.

Like everybody else, he found it a nerve shattering experience the longer the game went on.

“All the players felt anxious with 20 minutes to go,” he said. “But I think that’s when we picked up the pace a fair bit. You could feel the crowd were getting behind us,” he said.