‘Big boys’ won’t beat us up anymore, says Stringer

THE DAYS of being intimidated by rugby’s “big boys” are over, according to Ireland Triple Crown hero Peter Stringer.

Stringer insisted that mental strength was decisive as Ireland hit back in the dying moments to take the spoils against the reigning world champions.

“The belief was there that we could win it right up to the end. Guys showed that a never-say-die attitude and refused to accept that we should lose this game by three points,” he said.

Defeats by New Zealand and Australia in the autumn helped Ireland to a second place finish in the Six Nations Championship, and to come within a whisker of winning the title, he said.

“We were hurting a bit after the autumn, because we knew we hadn’t done ourselves justice. We set out our stall amongst ourselves. Obviously, the first target was to win the three home games, but we also believed we could beat both France and England away. These were the two key games; the first one didn’t come off, but I think we proved ourselves by beating England.”

Stringer was criticised earlier in the campaign, but can bask in the glory of knowing he provided the pass for Shane Horgan’s winning try.

“I’m happy enough with my own form, but the forwards have been brilliant. They provide the quality ball to work with. Any scrum half will tell you that if the forwards play well, it gives you an extra second or two on the ball, a platform to work on. I have been playing behind a quality pack.”

Stringer accepted that the summer tour to New Zealand and Australia will be very difficult, but he is optimistic.

“After that slow and disappointing start in the autumn, I think we have gone from strength to strength with each game. If we can get close to a 70-80 minute performance, and not give teams a sniff of victory in the first quarter, then we are a long way towards competing against the best teams in the world.”

Stringer argued that Saturday’s late and very successful charge was no accident. “There was no panic even when we fell three points down. We just got down to the task of pulling their very big pack around the pitch.”

But he also accepted there was frustration in the ranks at times. “I think we worked very hard for our scores, particularly in the first half, but we made mistakes and gifted them a couple of penalties. I suppose we should have been further ahead at half-time, but we went in at the break in fairly upbeat mood.

Unfortunately, even though we had the benefit of a bit of a breeze in the second half, we didn’t get the amount of possession we wanted.”

Stringer hailed Horgan for his ability to squeeze in at the corner for that crucial late try. “Their defence was up in a flat line, so I took the opportunity to get a ball out to Shane over the top. He did extremely well to stay in the field of play and ground it as well. Only a guy of his size and strength could have done it. This is just the kind of result we needed; there is no bigger stage than the Twickenham one on which to win.”