Wood reflects on time well spent

Inspirational captain Keith Wood has admitted he would never have made Ireland’s World Cup party if he had not been on this summer’s southern hemisphere tour.

Though the quietly-spoken hooker was restricted to little more than a watching brief as the Irish took on Australia, Tonga and Samoa last June, he was able to maintain contact with the squad and ensure he was fully conversant with all their game plans.

It meant that when the 31-year-old Lions star finally managed to overcome the shoulder and neck problems which virtually ruled him out of the game for an entire year, he was quickly able to get back into the old routine.

Wood’s return during the autumn warm-up games came faster than most people had predicted, and coach Eddie O’Sullivan had no hesitation in immediately reinstalling him as captain.

“Without doubt, the most important part of the last 12 months for me was going on the summer tour,” said Wood, who will become only the third Irishman to play in three World Cups when he leads his team into action against Romania at Gosford on Saturday.

“If I hadn’t done that, I wouldn’t be in Australia now.

“Even though I didn’t play, I was able to come to the group sessions and grasp the tactical changes that were taking place and now I can’t wait to get started.

“There is a certain nervousness there because of the time I spent out injured but this moment has been a long time coming and I just want to get stuck in.”

If the injury situation was not bad enough, Wood has also been forced to overcome the trauma of the death of his brother and the birth of his first child.

The former Harlequins player was actually travelling home from his brother’s funeral when he heard he had become a father for the first time, which should at least put Ireland’s World Cup campaign into some sort of perspective.

Though Wood is intelligent enough to realise the relative importance of career and family in his life, he is also professional enough to wholeheartedly accept the challenge of leading a vastly-improved Irish side now ranked number three in the world.

That lofty status might be scoffed at by Pool A rivals Australia, who emerged 45-16 victors from the teams’ most recent meeting in Perth, but it means there is intense pressure on Ireland to finish in the top two of a group which also includes fellow tournament dark horses Argentina.

It was the Pumas who sent Wood and his team-mates tumbling out of the last tournament four years ago when they won a pulsating quarter-final play-off in Lens, a result which forced Ireland to qualify for this year’s event.

However, their Limerick-born skipper is confident an early exit can be avoided this time given the added quality and improved preparation Ireland are now benefiting from.

“The contrast between now and 1991 is like night and day,” he said.

“We used to be very amateur in the way we built up to tournaments like these, but the work that goes on behind the scenes now is incredible.

“I also think we have a much better squad now. Even during the time I was out we seem to have improved and we have more players capable of leading the team now than we had before.

“People can take control of situations rather than waiting for someone else to do it and if there are any injuries or loss of form, we can cover it.”