Dempsey unfazed by dismal Paris record
Ireland’s record in either Parisian venue does not make for impressive reading: no win in 12 visits to the Parc des Princes from 1974 to 1996 and one triumph in the Stade in 2000 courtesy of a hat-trick of tries from Brian O’Driscoll.
At least Munster and Leinster players can take solace in the knowledge that they have conquered cash-rich French clubs in the Heineken Cup in grounds ranging from Stade Chaban Delmas (Munster v Toulouse, Bordeaux 2000) and Stade Municipal (Leinster v Toulouse, 2006).
“I don’t think the Paris factor is an issue,” says Dempsey. “This current squad is very experienced and have played in numerous big grounds and won – we’ve gone to Twickenham and other places and done the business. Paris isn’t any different. You approach the game on the day, devise your game-plan and go out and try and play. I don’t think Paris is going to be a factor in our heads at all going into the tournament.”
Dempsey acknowledges the strength of Ireland’s pool where the focus and interest appears to be on one game only – the showdown with arch enemies, Argentina.
He reasons: “I suppose people have looked at the fact that Argentina have been in our group for the last three World Cups and the games against them are always very, very tense. The game in Adelaide (2003), for example, was very tight, and wasn’t over until the last few minutes in a period when we were fighting at the death, trying to keep them out.”
The Argentineans, too, are focused on the Ireland game, but Dempsey’s opposite number Juan Martin Hernandez fancies taking down the hosts and making the semi-final.
Dempsey realises more than anyone how motivated the Pumas will be and why it’s not unreasonable to assume that the host nation will back the South Americans given that 15 of the Argentine World Cup squad play professionally in France.
“I’ve watched him (Hernandez) numerous times – he’s an extremely good footballer, very talented, very astute, reads the game very well and certainly doesn’t seem to have any fear. It’s going to be a task if selected against him.”
Dempsey is currently in camp at Limerick along with the 14 who started against England in the Six Nations, the 31 who travelled to Argentina in the summer tour along with Jonny O’Connor and Ryan Caldwell, who played in the Churchill Cup. And already the Leinster and Ireland fullback notices an edge developing at training.
“If you talk to any of the players over the last six to eight weeks of running up hills, and lifting weights it’s all completely different – you’re trying to get yourself as strong, as fit and as fast as possible.”
One man who is back in the thick of action after a minor injury scare at their conditioning camp in Spala, Poland earlier this summer is Jerry Flannery. When the Munster hooker returned from Poland, he was spotted in crutches, and his swollen knee was subject to the rumour mill in Limerick. It was feared he’d done his cruciate and his World Cup dream was over. “When I came back training this summer with Munster, I pinched the cartilage in my right knee, and it was just niggling me for a couple of weeks,’’ Flannery revealed.
‘‘Then when I went over to Poland on the first day I was holding a bag and I got hit and there was a little tear on the cartilage. I flew home that week, got an operation but somehow it (rumour) started in Limerick that I tore my cruciate ligament, and that I was out for the next six months. The knee is fine now, I’ve been back running for the last week now.”
Flannery was hitting the form that made him the star of the 2006 Six Nations when he lined out for Ireland against Argentina in Santa Fe in May, and like many of the more senior members in the squad he, too, has set a high target for the World Cup. “Your ambition has to be to win it. We’ve got a good enough squad of players to win a World Cup. It’ll be a long enough trip, but having a bit of luck and staying clear of injuries, our progress won’t be for lack of trying nor for lack of ambition. We’re not going out there thinking ‘we’ve got to get to a semi-final and be happy’. The ambition is to win it.”
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