Ireland to ring the changes for stadium finale
Successive wins over South Africa and Australia have presented O’Sullivan with the chance to test out those players on the fringe of the first team who have a chance of making the World Cup squad. O’Sullivan names his side tomorrow and has left little doubt they will be expected to complete a clean sweep from the autumn series to honour Lansdowne Road.
The venue will be hosting its final rugby international before beginning a massive redevelopment in January.
“There will be some changes. Other than Marcus Horan we have a clean bill of health. We’ll pick the 22 from the 32 that we have at the moment,” said O’Sullivan.
“There is a good bit of elbow room now after winning the first two games and we’ll look at doing things differently against the Islanders.
“But I still want to win. I don’t want to throw away the last Test at Lansdowne Road before the wrecking crew move in, so we want to leave on a good note.
“We have a lot of good stuff in the bank from the last two weeks and we have to analyse it and move.
“I’m happy we’ve produced two very good performances against different teams in different conditions. We have set a standard for ourselves.
“It’s the chicken-and-egg scenario — winning gives you confidence and confidence helps you win.
“It’s working well for us at the moment so we need to take it and move onto next week.”
Ireland thumped South Africa by a record margin and also matched their previous highest victory over the Wallabies, results which have lifted them to third in the world rankings.
John Connolly, the Australia coach, rated them as the best team in Europe and they will be red-hot favourites to win next year’s RBS 6 Nations.
But while O’Sullivan has attempted to play down their stunning progress, he admits this month’s success will stand them in good stead when they renew battle with the rest of Europe.
“What you sow in the autumn you reap in the spring. This time last yearthings weren’t going well for us,” he said.
The Islanders, who are made up of players from Fiji, Samoa and Tonga, have lost both matches on tour to Wales and Scotland but remain dangerous opponents. It’s been an intense if hugely satisfying two weeks for Eddie O’Sullivan’s Ireland, but none of the coach’s recognised first-choicers are looking to be handed any rest & on Sunday.
The Islanders, who have already lost to Wales and Scotland on tour, may lack the kudos of South Africa or Australia but Gordon D’Arcy and Denis Leamy spoke yesterday about their desire to feature in a hat-trick of victories against southern hemisphere sides.
“When you’re part of a winning team you want to be on that team week in, week out regardless,” said D’Arcy who has been in superb form in the Ireland midfield. “It’s a sign of a maturing team as well and guys really want to get on the field.
“I’ve played against Tonga and Samoa before and I know they won’t be giving any quarter. They play a really hard, physical game so we need to be as well prepared as we have been for the last two weeks.”
The Islanders have enjoyed a Jekyll and Hyde visit to Europe, with diabolical first halves being followed by impressive second period recoveries and the Leinster centre believes Ireland can’t approach the game like some sort of a Barbarians exhibition however much the crowd might want them to.
“They like to move the ball around. They can do some damage. The secret to playing a team like that is not to get drawn into a loose game with them. If we start throwing out loose passes that we normally wouldn’t do, they will react quickly to that and punish us. They have the ability to score tries.”
They have a reputation for punishing tackling and D’Arcy is bracing himself for a bruising encounter.
“These guys are big hitters. They do exactly what they say on the tin. They’re going to try and hurt you in the tackle so you just have to be ready for that, mentally and physically.
“Some people will make the argument that their tackles aren’t legal, that they are not using their arms or whatever but that’s how these guys have grown up playing rugby. We’ve just got to get on with it.”
Denis Leamy is confident complacency won’t be factor.
“Hopefully those days are behind us, of putting in one-off or two-off big performances and then turning around against a so-called weaker side.
“We’re up against a very physical and strong running team and we just want to keep our heads down and go out with a big performance.”
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