O’Connell: Belief is the key

THE ULTIMATE challenge. That’s the way Paul O’Connell reads the major task awaiting Ireland when the All Blacks come to Croke Park on Saturday for the second of the three Guinness November internationals.

He knows only too well that Ireland have never beaten New Zealand and that they’re not expected to end the long losing run on this occasion either. But, he also insists, that doesn’t mean it won’t happen.

“Historically, the All Blacks are the best team in the world with the best players in the world,” he acknowledges. “It’s a big challenge for any Irish player to go out there and beat them. Sometimes on their day, they may look unstoppable but that’s not always the case. You have to do your homework, you have to work hard, you have to respect them but not fear them and that’s what we’ll be doing at the week-end.

“Whenever we’ve played against the All Blacks, generally any team I’ve been on has done okay against them. We’ve always competed very well, been there or thereabouts at the end of the game and all we’ve needed was that extra little bit of something to get us over the line. It will be a big regret for a lot of us if we don’t beat them at some stage of our careers, whether it is this week or in the future.

“They’re a great side and that’s the reason why they have such a great record. They have a fantastic tradition, a great attitude to winning, a great mental attitude to games. When they’re in trouble, they’re able to pull it out of the fire and that’s probably one good reason why we have such a bad record against them.”

However, there’s a good buzz in the Irish camp at the moment. Obviously, nothing stirs the competitive juices more than the prospect of a first ever victory over the All Blacks. O’Connell is personally enthusing at being completely free of injury although anxious about the relative lack of practice going into it given Saturday’s cakewalk.

“It was what it was, we were scheduled to play Canada, we played Canada,” he says. “We’d like if they had a strong team. They didn’t. We would have liked if the conditions were better. They weren’t. You just have to make do with what’s in front of you.

“Like the All Blacks, we have a lot of belief as well in our team, a lot of guys playing in form. Historically, the fitness of Irish teams against these guys would have been poor but I think we’ve bridged that gap now as well. I don’t think we’ve ever competed against them as successfully as we have done over the past few years.”

He ponders questions as to why the New Zealanders are so good. His best explanation is that “rugby is their national game and everybody plays it from an early age”. Nor is he entirely clear as to why Ireland haven’t been able to beat them in any of the four internationals he has played against them. Not just that, but he also figured on the losing side in the three Tests during the Lions Tour to the land of the long white cloud in 2005.

So if ever a sportsman as committed and as dedicated as Paul O’Connell wanted to set the record straight, there could hardly be a better chance than Croke Park on Saturday next.

O’Connell’s reference to needing “that little extra bit of something to get us over the line” inevitably raised the doubt as to whether this or indeed any Irish team has or has had the deep inner belief to actually go out and finish the job off. Could it be that Declan Kidney’s psychology will provide the vital spark this time round?

“Maybe that’s it,” mused O’Connell. “You know, by the time I came into the Munster team, I expected to win every game I played. But there was a time when Anthony, Gaillimh, Claw, Quinny and these guys played for Munster and they didn’t expect that to happen. They had a season around 1999/2000 when the whole psyche of the team changed.

“Now we’ve got to the stage where a guy like Keith Earls comes in not just expecting to win a game but to win the Heineken Cup. And that’s where we need to get to with Ireland and that’s a very hard thing. To change the mindset, the attitude, the psyche of people is tough but it’s where we need to get to.”

For the past few years, the Munster scene has been gradually more and more absorbed by players of the stature of Lifeimi Mafi, Rua Tipoki and Doug Howlett, and that’s another good reason for O’Connell to believe the inner belief will be there on Saturday.

“As a youngster, you only use it as a cliché but as you get older, you realise how important it is to take each game as it comes and to prepare for it to the best of your ability and to be as mentally and physically as right as you can be,” he said. “If that’s there, you should be able to go out and do it no matter who you’re playing against.

“We’ll be trying to prepare the same as any other week — to the best of our ability — and not prepare differently mentally or physically because it’s New Zealand we’re playing.”