Former Blue Rocky knows old friends can pack punch
Elsom lifted the Heineken Cup for Leinster in 2009 before returning to Australia to resume his Wallabies career and will face Ireland in a gold jersey for the second time when the countries meet in a pivotal Pool C showdown.
Former teammates Jamie Heaslip and Sean O’Brien will pack down against the Australians tomorrow alongside Ulster’s Stephen Ferris and Elsom said: “Looking at their back row, they’ve got a lot of ball-carrying options. With their six, seven, eight combination they’ve got a lot of leg drive. They’re big blokes and they’re probably one of the more underrated back rows in Test rugby.
“So we’ve got to be on our game and that’s what we’ll be aiming for.”
Asked whether facing Ireland would represent a special occasion, Elsom replied: “It will only special if we win. If we don’t I’m going to want to forget it.”
Many observers felt the same way about yesterday’s press conference. You can quickly tell how important a team is to its country by the number of non-game related questions its players get asked.
Judging by yesterday’s big attendance and the quality of questions directed at the top table, the Wallabies are a pretty big deal back across the ditch. And this side of it too.
It took a while but once the Australian media had tried, and failed, to get a decent reaction out of recalled bad boy James O’Connor, the New Zealand media tried, and failed, to get Quade Cooper to live up to his reputation as the Kiwis’ public enemy number one.
And once they had finished, the Wallabies finally got around to talking about tomorrow’s pivotal game against Ireland.
After all, there are only so many times flying young back O’Connor could say he was “stoked” to be back. And New Zealand-born fly-half Cooper can only express his desire to “talk about the positives” and his happiness at the warm welcome he was receiving on the streets of Auckland in so many different ways.
For that matter, there are only so many minutes Australia’s head coach and former All Black Robbie Deans can dead-bat inquiries on either subject and thankfully, sanity was introduced.
Was Deans surprised that his opposite number Declan Kidney had selected Jonny Sexton over Ronan O’Gara at fly-half?
“A little bit, but not hugely,” said Deans. “They’re both good players and they’ve obviously chosen Sexton for a good reason. We know both players well and I’ve no doubt we’ll see both players.”
Was he irked by the 20-20 draw at Croke Park in November 2009?
“No, no. We had the opportunity, we came up short. That’s the game, you’ve got to deal with it on the day.”
Regardless of form, was Deans wary of Ireland’s capacity for a big, one-off performance?
“Every time you step on the pitch there’s the potential to fail. The players live with that, we all live with that but we also choose to live with that. We love what we do and we’ve got an opportunity to succeed as well, more importantly.”
But then the restraint evaporated and we were back onto Quade Cooper’s popularity, or lack of it, in New Zealand. And back in Oz, where former captain Nick Farr-Jones had called him a “boofhead” for baiting Richie McCaw. Yes, Cooper was still looking at things in a positive matter.
Oh, for a change of tack and yes, a question for Kurtley Beale. Did he think Quade Cooper was a boofhead? Enough’s enough, at least for Deans, who pleaded to the assembled media hordes, “anyone want to talk about Ireland?”
“There’s no doubt that there’s a lot of interest in this game. There’s a lot of history, a lot of tradition between these two nations , particularly at the World Cup.”
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