Quinlan: ‘no panic’ after poor Italian job

ALAN QUINLAN stresses the mood in the Irish camp is positive ahead of next month’s Rugby World Cup despite their poor showing against Italy at Ravenhill on Friday night.

Eddie O’Sullivan’s side limped to a disappointing 23-20 victory over the Azzurri courtesy of a controversial late Ronan O’Gara side.

But Quinlan confesses there is ‘no panic or confusion within the camp’ as the continue to countdown to the sport’s showpiece tournament.

“Everyone was disappointed with the performance, there’s no hiding that,” he said.

“We just have to work hard to put it right and find out why we didn’t play well as a team. As a group we had been working hard. We know there was criticism over the performance, and rightly so. We’re all around long enough to know it’s pretty early days yet. Granted it was a pretty poor performance, but it was a good result for us. We were lucky to get it, but the mood is pretty positive.”

The Heineken Cup winner warns against wholesale changes in tactics and strategy in the wake of Friday night’s game.

He explained: “I don’t think we need to change much. We have trained very well and have steadily improved. As a group we all thought that we were going to put in a better performance and to see progress because we were starting to gel well and people were looking sharp.

“There was a big emphasis on fitness and weights over the summer and it took a while to get back into the rugby side of things.

“We were all hopeful that Friday night was going to be a much better performance. But there’s no panic or confusion within the camp. We’re happy with what we’re trying to do, with the way we want to play — but not with the way we played on Friday night.

“Italy are definitely improving, you have to give them that. They came to Ravenhill very pumped up, they are a physical, aggressive team with pride in the jersey.

“But we should beat Italy every day of the week, realistically — and with respect to those guys. We should have played better — I’m not trying to hide that fact.

“But as a group we are not hitting the panic button, we have been around each other practically all summer and we’re happy with the way things are going.”

And he credited Italy for their performance last week.

Said Quinlan: “Italy looked to upset the ruck situation and put pressure on O’Gara and Stringer in the half-backs to try to stop Ireland, effectively, from playing — and force us into a kicking game.

“Maybe we forced it a bit much, trying to run it too much, and maybe we could have gone back to the basics and kicked for the corners. But it’s a test match before the World Cup and fellas wanted to throw the ball around a bit to try to get a good performance. I’m sure we’ll learn from it. The mood is still very positive.”

Meanwhile, Ireland’s narrow World Cup warm-up win over Italy on Friday night has seen them retake fifth place in the latest IRB World Rankings.

The victory over the Azzurri gained Ireland 0.46 rating points as they leapfrogged their World Cup Pool D rivals Argentina into fifth. The Pumas took part in a non-ranking match on Saturday, beating a Belgium team reinforced by French players by 36-8 in Brussels.

Another of Ireland’s World Cup opponents, France gained ground on second-placed Australia with their 34-7 victory over Wales in Cardiff yesterday. Thanks to their four-try triumph, Les Bleus moved from 86.35 to 86.90 rating points. Having lost out at Ravenhill, Italy have dropped from 75.53 to 75.07 rating points but remain in ninth place, behind Wales. South Africa’s comfortable 27-3 success over Scotland on Saturday steadies their position in fourth (85.40). The Scots drop out of the world’s top 10, swapping places with Samoa.

IRB World Rankings: (1) New Zealand 93.38 rating points; (2) Australia 87.03; (3) France 86.90; (4) South Africa 85.40; (5) IRELAND 81.42; (6) Argentina 81.05; (7) England 78.89; (8) Wales 76.45; (9) Italy 75.07; (10) Samoa 74.97.