O'Connor talks tactics but stays quiet on move

JOHNNY O'CONNOR is not the most comfortable in the interview chair. Quiet and unassuming, it's a complete contrast to his explosive action on the pitch.

That's the reason Warren Gatland signed him for Wasps two seasons ago.

Gatland goes back to New Zealand at the end of the season, but he did teach O'Connor some tricks along the way.

"From my perspective, he was a fantastic coach, gave me the opportunity to move to a great club and it all paid dividends," O'Connor admits.

O'Connor will probably stay on in London after Gatland's departure, despite the midweek rumblings in Connacht and Dublin 4. Yesterday, Wasps and O'Connor were staying silent.

Stuck in a ruck in the closing minutes of last week's game against France, O'Connor was furious to see the visitors steal away for a late try: "I still don't know how that score came about but I do know that we had possession. When you lose the ball against good teams like France you pay the price.

"The way I saw it we conceded two tries directly as a result of our mistakes. Game over in a sense."

That try could prove costly in terms of Ireland's Six Nations Championship ambitions.

Ireland need to win by at least 13 points to have a hope of being crowned champions.

Is that a worry? "No," said O'Connor, "I haven't given the points difference thing a second thought. My aim and the aim of the team is to ensure we beat Wales, get ourselves back on track and at least get the same return of four wins from five as in the last couple of seasons.

He cites Wasps' Heineken Cup game against Biarritz as an example of how it can go wrong. "We went over there chasing four tries and we lost the match. Had we approached it differently, played a more clever tactical game, we could actually have won that match. As it transpired, had we won by the narrowest of margins we would have gone through to the quarter-finals. There's a huge lesson to be learned from that."

Tactics, then, would appear to be the key for Ireland today. "No doubt about that, we have to play clever. Wales have proved they are very dangerous from broken play. It's up to us to deny them the opportunity and rely on our defence from set pieces. The important thing is that we don't make the same type of silly mistakes we did last weekend. If we can cut them out, we're certainly in with a shout."

Second row Paul O'Connell also believes Ireland will bounce back.

"We are confident that we are mature enough to learn from the French defeat. We lost twice to South Africa last summer and learned from that to the point that we beat them in the autumn.

"France ruined our hopes of a Grand Slam last week but if we don't learn from it we won't get anything from the bitter experience.

"We played poorly against France and I would be the first to admit that.

"What I can't accept is some of the criticism. We lost by seven points playing badly and suddenly people are talking about the team breaking up, people retiring and all that. It gives us even more motivation to come out fighting."