O'Sullivan relieved at narrow win

Eddie O’Sullivan admitted he was hugely relieved to have achieved his goal of reaching the World Cup quarter-finals after the team’s nail-biting 16-15 win over Argentina in Adelaide.

“There was a lot of pressure in today’s game because the stakes were so high,” said O’Sullivan.

“We knew going into it that a victory would put us into the quarter-finals and if we didn’t we would have a mountain to climb going into Melbourne,” he added.

“There was a lot of tension and a lot of pressure out there on both teams, so there’s a great sense of relief now that we’ve won our three games and we’re into the quarter-finals.”

Winger Denis Hickie, who had an impressive game on the left wing, admitted the tension in the final quarter of the match had been intense.

“I think all the players would certainly have been very anxious with 20 minutes to go, but in all honesty I felt that that was when we picked up our game,” said Hickie.

“We got into their half, which we hadn’t done for the early part of the second half and that kind of turned the game a little bit for us.”

The pack had always been under immense pressure to perform against the vaunted Argentinian scrum and prop Reggie Corrigan believed he and his fellow forwards had done exactly what was required.

“It was just as tough out there in the forwards and was exactly what we expected,” said Corrigan.

“I was quite happy personally with the performance because that was Argentina’s biggest weapon,” he said.

“The line-outs were a bit rough in the first half but we got there in the second half.”

Argentinian captain Agustin Pichot took a swipe at a playing schedule which required the Pumas to play their fourth pool match just four days after their third.

“I think it goes a little bit higher than the organisation and it goes to the whole concept of rugby at the moment,” said Pichot.

“I do strongly believe that if the conditions are not equal the World Cup will continue like this.

“You will have 80 point scores and you will have, by the end of the second week, teams already qualified for the last eight,” he said.

“With this World Cup there haven’t been any upsets at all, so I think for the betterment of the game in the next three or four years at the French World Cup I hope things are improved.”

“It is not the IRB, I think it goes more towards the unions themselves.”

Coach Marcelo Loffreda could only reflect on what might have been after his team failed to finish off their chances when they had the Irish stretched in the closing moments of the first half.

“I think if you look at the statistics they tell the story basically. There were no big differences there,” said Loffreda.

“We had some domination in the first half but we couldn’t turn that into points and in the end that was costly.”