Pacific Islanders ready to produce magic, says Lam

THE past few weeks have been a steep learning curve for the Pacific Islanders but coach Pat Lam is confident his amalgamated team can produce it’s best performance of their European tour against Ireland on Sunday.

Wales and Scotland have had comfortable victories over the tourists, with the home nations streaking to unassailable first-half leads before allowing their opponents the freedom to display their undoubted running talents in the second periods.

Lam is hoping that the last three weeks spent together will pay dividends and prevent the Irish from putting the contest to rest before the first half hour.

“Rugby at this level is about combinations,” said Lam who played in three World Cups for Samoa. “It’s about knowing each other. We have guys from different countries, different hemispheres and different systems so it’s been a huge challenge just getting them together as one team.

Lam spoke in glowing terms of the ease with which Ireland accounted for South Africa and Australia,

“What we are seeing is an Irish team that is really maturing. A lot of the players have been there for a while now under Eddie. They are evolving. They are playing a fantastic game with a solid set-piece. They have some world-class players.”

He added: “They play it wide and they mix it up very well, like we saw against the Aussies in the rain. They are certainly the second best team after New Zealand on form at the moment.”

While O’Sullivan operates amid a much-envied system and structure, Lam’s task is far more complicated. Many players have never met before this trip, some would not be released from their clubs, others have returned to theirs.

Staying competitive has been an achievement in itself and, though most of their positives have come in garbage time in both games to date, Lam has been able to identify nuggets of encouragement.

“We’ve had some good spells of possession and scored some good tries. We’ve scored seven so far and it’s more a case of being able to get the ball. Our scrum has been very good too so we’ve just got to work on our line-out, secure enough ball so that we can play with it.”

Whatever the outcome in Lansdowne Road, the feeling is that the tour has been a success.

Next year, the three nations will participate in the World Cup in France as individual entities and Lam is hopeful that the experience of this tour will benefit all.

“I think this concept can continue for another three or four years and we would have to see after that. It’s important for Pacific Island rugby because a youngster in the islands knows that there is another step up for them even beyond the national team that they can aspire to. It’s just like an Irish or British player with the Lions.”