Eddie happy with Croker surface

IT WAS the morning after a very difficult day before, but the Irish management team and players were all bright-eyed and bushy-tailed as they departed Cardiff yesterday for their Six Nations base in Killiney.

Relief that an onerous assignment had been negotiated was the tangible reaction among all concerned but as quickly, it will be time to move on to Croke Park. Coach Eddie O’Sullivan has not only carefully studied the video of Sunday’s 19-9 victory over Wales but is already focusing on the next challenge.

“We’ve had a couple of runs at Croke Park and are very happy with the surface and the stadium,” said O’Sullivan. “What it will be like in terms of atmosphere we don’t know because we’ve never been out there when the stadium was full. Strangely enough, one of the problems we encountered in the Millennium Stadium was the noise levels.

“We were wondering what the problem was with the line-out calls initially because we were up high and could talk away but when you got on the ground level, you couldn’t hear yourself think. Croke Park may be like that and we won’t know until we’re on the pitch. It could be an issue with the line-out calls.”

It must have been less than reassuring for O’Sullivan over the past few weeks and months to read and listen to the adverse comments of many GAA officials and players about the suitability of the pitch for gaelic games but in fact the coach is extremely happy in that respect.

“It’s a very firm surface but it takes a stud and we had no difficulty with it on our two training spins there,” he declared. “It’s a top-of-the-ground pitch. The Cardiff stadium is great but the pitch is heavy and you never come off a game there without feeling exhausted. Next Sunday could be exhausting as well but for a different reason.

“That might sound like it will favour France given their style of play but it will favour us as well. I don’t think we’ll want to slug things out any more. We’ll train again at Croker on Friday, with the captain’s run on Saturday, the same routine as at Lansdowne Road. Ronan O’Gara will also have ample time to work on his goal kicking.”

The criticism about the French squad and the direction in which it was being led by the much criticised coach Bernard Laporte were more than a little muted after their crushing defeat of Italy in Rome.

“France will be very happy with the result against Italy and the way they controlled the game after the first 15 minutes,” said O’Sullivan. “Our concern now is twofold. One is to see where we are with injuries. We have a seven day turn around, they have an extra day. The ball was in play a lot on Sunday and a lot of ground was covered so we’re a tired bunch. It’s now all about getting the balance right and forming a different game plan to take on the French. If we’re not more accurate in aspects of our game, then we’ll create an environment for them to run at us which is something we don’t want.”

O’Sullivan spoke of how loose the game became and how “we weren’t tight enough in the first half in terms of kicking. A lot of our kicks weren’t on target and allowed them room to run back at us.

“Our discipline was a bit scrappy to start with and gave them quick taps which brought them into the game.”

One of the big positives from Cardiff was how well the Irish scrum coped with the challenge presented by the Welsh: “We were never in trouble in the set pieces. We lost two line-outs out of 10 and took three of theirs out of 20. The scrums were rock solid and we won 14 out of 14. We knew the scrum would be a target for them and it didn’t work out and that certainly took a lot of the wind out of their sails.

“Had we not been as loose as we were in the first half, we’d have been a lot more comfortable but we more than tightened up in the second half.”

lA peak audience of 621,000 watched the final minutes of RTÉ’s coverage of Sunday’s game. An average of 493,000 viewers tuned in compared to 396,000 viewers for Ireland’s opening match against Italy in 2006.