Trimble blocks out negativity

IT might be a little too soon to be circling the wagons but Andrew Trimble says Ireland’s World Cup squad are determined to stay positive.

The Ulster wing, who will enjoy some of the better reviews following Saturday’s loss to England, said the squad that flies out to New Zealand tomorrow had to block out the negativity circling around them. And that was vital if Ireland was to raise its game once the tournament starts.

“The negativity doesn’t come from us,” Trimble said. “The negativity isn’t around the camp, it’s in the press, newspapers and TV, people and supporters and stuff. But the guys who are going to remain positive are us, the guys who are going to take the pitch in New Zealand and that’s really crucial and important for us.

“It’s tough because there’s going to be a lot of negativity in the press. But it’s us that go on the pitch so as long as we stay confident and stay positive and just have confidence in the guys around us.

“You know we’ve been here before, we’ve dug in and produced big performances so we’re very comfortable that we’ll be able to do that again.”

Trimble spoke of the frustration at the large number of individual errors that have crept back into Ireland’s performances during the four warm-up Tests this month, a trend which echoed the start of this year’s Six Nations.

“We’re knocking balls on, we’re getting turned over, perhaps lacking concentration, I don’t know.

“It’s not a team thing I don’t think, because collectively we’re putting together phases, we’re getting teams on the run, that’s why it’s so frustrating because we’re so close to a big performance.

“I’m 100% confident that we’re capable of making it happen. Everything that has happened now won’t matter. If we win the World Cup, we’ll look back and say ‘who cares?’

“I think the way we remain positive is to look back and say ‘listen, we produced this in the past and we’re getting very close to producing it now’.

“There’s no reason when we get to New Zealand that we can’t produce the same kind of rugby and just bring it that bit further. I think that’s the method to staying positive.

“The World Cup starts in a couple of weeks’ time. There’s a massive buzz about that and there’ll be a massive amount of enthusiasm and positivity around that and we have to feed from it.”

Meanwhile the words of English captain Mike Tindall may help Ireland to put ragged form behind them.

Tindall recalled how a Six Nations defeat earlier this year had inspired this altogether more impressive performance.

“We sat down before the game and talked of the stuff that happened last time and remembered how we felt after the last game; that helped us focus on what was required,” he said.

“It’s a massive win here. We were disappointed with how the Six Nations finished and how the Wales game finished and so had lots to prove to ourselves.”A delighted Martin Johnson paid tribute to his charges for snuffing out the Irish challenge: “There was a little bit of a blip for about ten minutes when we lost control but I was very pleased with the overall performance. We stuck to our plan even when we had a few errors and when there was a high penalty count. We didn’t panic or get frustrated.”