O’Connell: We must bring same attitude to Six Nations
As the Irish players concluded their four-week national camp at Carton House last night following their heartbreaking, last-kick defeat to world champions New Zealand, the focus immediately returned to their provinces as the countdown to the next two rounds of Heineken Cup pool games in mid-December starts ticking.
Yet, having torn into the final Test of the Guinness Series at Aviva Stadium yesterday with the intensity and accuracy that unsettled the All Blacks and gave Ireland a 19-0 lead and took them to within seconds of a famous first victory, O’Connell spoke of the need to recapture that attitude and approach when the squad reconvenes ahead of the Six Nations and an opening game at home to Scotland on February 2.
“(It is) incredibly important,” O’Connell said. “There have been a few performances like that over the last two years, but then we don’t carry it forward. And that’s the huge challenge for us now. It’s really intense club period over Christmas now, so we’ve got to make sure we come back to Ireland for Christmas and the Six Nations ready to take things forward. The next few weeks can be a big distraction, there’s so many challenges with the clubs coming up. It’s important we keep today in the backs of our minds, we keep the Six Nations in the backs of our minds and the players stay ready to maintain these standards.”
Ireland head coach Joe Schmidt, coming off his first three Tests since succeeding Declan Kidney, endorsed his captain’s words as he considers a way to re-focus minds after his players’ Heineken Cup endeavours in the remaining four pool games.
“This four weeks (in camp) was about the Six Nations,” Schmidt said. “We play in a competition for the Six Nations and I think we would judge ourselves on the Six Nations, so we put some pressure on ourselves to try and be a good as we can be on the Six Nations. As Paul said, guys go away now for two months and play in their provinces. One of the reasons we tried to build a squad over this period was there will be an erosion of players because of the combative nature of the Heineken Cup which is a super competition that I massively endorse and I think it’s great that it looks like they’ve got some sort of resolution where it will continue its existence next year.
“But then we have to get everyone back together and it’s hard to pick up where you’ve left off because for me it’s still unknown territory.
“Plotting these four weeks was unknown territory as well, but I feel I know a little bit more about it now. I feel the players know a little bit more about where we’re looking to get to and I think we showed a little bit of structure attack-wise and defensively today and we certainly showed a lot of character.
“I would say (that) to push the best team in the world – the best team that’s been in the world probably for the last few years – as close as we did, while devastating is a small vote of confidence for us.
“But at the same time France did a great job in last year’s autumn series and then didn’t put that into the Six Nations. The challenge is to get everyone back together again and re-deliver what was probably a benchmark performance today.”
O’Connell cut a deeply disappointed figure after the 24-22 defeat to New Zealand, who scored the final try deep into stoppage time having regained possession in their own half with 34 seconds left on the clock after Ireland conceded a penalty at a ruck.
“Frustrated as well,” O’Connell said, “I think when we gave away that final penalty we were 60 metres or so away from our line.
“I would have been very confident the way we had been defending that we’d hold them at that stage. So it’s really disappointing.
“There was a very good feeling in the camp all week, we knew we under-performed by a long way last weekend. It’s a question of getting that balance right between accuracy and detail, and matching that with intensity and emotion, and we got that.”
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