Brian wants to get good times rolling

IT was that hapless England soccer manager Graham Taylor who, on the eve of the 1992 European Championships, urged his country’s armchair supporters to “put your feet up and enjoy the football”.

England promptly crashed out of the tournament at the first opportunity.

No coach would be foolish enough to follow suit and there have been no such encouragements to Irish fans ahead of this Rugby World Cup campaign, which begins tomorrow with a Pool C game against the United States.

Yet despite the four defeats during August’s warm-up Tests, casting aside the tournament-ending injuries to Felix Jones and David Wallace, and given the miserable exit from the competition four years ago, there are promising signs that even if the supporters back home do not anticipate enjoyable rugby from Ireland, the players are determined to have fun trying to give it to them and, at the very least, win.

Irish tails are up and have been from the moment Declan Kidney’s squad touched down in New Zealand nine days ago. Training, by all accounts, has been going well and the team being sent out at Stadium Taranaki to face the world’s number 17-ranked side appears capable of delivering a strong performance as a statement of intent to the waiting, Tri Nation champions Australia, Ireland’s second opponents a week from today in Auckland.

There should be no repeat of the Georgia debacle of 2007, when a desperately bad performance eked out an Irish win but set the tone for the rest of the pool campaign. Those mistakes have been learned and instead of being cooped up in an isolated team hotel, as they were in Bordeaux, Kidney cut his players a little slack to enjoy the delights of Queenstown as they acclimatised following an arduous journey.

Now, though, it is time for the serious stuff. With a bit of fun along the way.

“I’ve done different things for different World Cups in trying to find the right formula,” said captain Brian O’Driscoll, set to embark on his fourth such campaign.

“This time I was adamant I was going to have fun at this World Cup.

“It’s hugely important. They are inter-linked, the winning and the fun. Which comes first? We had a great week down in Queenstown, we got some great work done, and now it’s business time for the next 48 hours to start focusing and get our work nailed down.

“If we can win that game and enjoy it, it has a snowball effect and can give us momentum going forward.”

As Georgia and Namibia taught O’Driscoll and his teammates four years ago, no opposition, however lowly ranked, can be taken for granted. Particularly an American side playing on the 10th anniversary of the 9/11 terrorist attacks.

It is though, ironic that Eddie O’Sullivan, the coach at the Irish helm in 2007, should be the man in charge of the opposition in this opening battle of big fish versus small fry, rugby style.

Aside from his personal ambition to catch out his former employers, O’Sullivan will ensure the Americans are aggressive in the set-piece and tackle area and primed to spring into attack through a very pacy back three that includes Biarritz flyer Takudzwa Ngwenya.

Ireland should have the ascendancy in every facet of the game with Kidney fielding his strongest possible team given the enforced absences of full-back Rob Kearney, prop Cian Healy and back-rower Sean O’Brien.

The robust and exciting scrum-half Conor Murray makes his first start for Ireland in just his third appearance and if he displays the composure he did when stepping up to the plate for Munster last season, this should be an important marker being laid for Ireland.

The half-back partnership with fellow young gun Jonny Sexton is ambitious and potentially exciting but Kidney and his players have quoted from the book of pragmatism since arriving in New Zealand and getting a result is the first order of business.

New Zealand showed on Friday night in routing Tonga that you do not need the majority of territory or possession to win big, you simply have to seize the opportunities presented to you.

That’s cup rugby as well and if the Americans cough up turnover after turnover as they have done throughout their three-Test warm-up campaign, then the Irish may even make hay themselves.

Hence O’Sullivan’s plea yesterday for his side to stick to the fundamentals.

“We need to win our own share of possession. Our set-piece will be under pressure, as it would be against any tier-one nation. At this level, if you turn ball over the punishment is harsh. There is no magic to it, you just have to do the basics well.”

Expect Eddie’s Eagles to stick around for a while before Ireland cut loose, kick back and have a little fun.