Pride at stake for O'Sullivan's men

Ireland coach Eddie O’Sullivan today demanded that his players salvage their battered pride when they meet France in the opening match of the 2004 RBS 6 Nations championship.

They have a score to settle following their humiliating World Cup exit last November when France did a spectacular number on their European rivals, running out emphatic 43-21 winners.

But the scoreline fails to tell the full story – Les Bleus dominated the first 50 minutes and had amassed an unassailable 37-0 lead before Ireland restored some respectability with three late tries.

Memories of that night in Melbourne still haunt the 11 survivors who will be running out at the Stade de France tomorrow, and O’Sullivan believes it is time for his players to redeem themselves.

“We were pretty disappointed with our performance in the World Cup, particularly in the first half, and tomorrow is the perfect opportunity to put that right,” he said.

“We don’t often play 6 Nations teams back to back, it’s just the way the schedule has worked out. Starting tomorrow, we must address the events of the Telstra Dome in Melbourne.

“We have talked about it. We didn’t do ourselves justice in that match and the thought in everyone’s mind is to go out and give a good account of ourselves against a very strong French side.”

Against top teams, Ireland are plagued by inconsistency – they have registered victories over Australia and France in the past two years but have also been on the receiving end of heavy beatings from the same opponents.

It is an aspect of their game that O’Sullivan has been working hard to address and he admits tomorrow will indicate whether he has managed to erase the problem from the Irish psyche.

“Over the years Ireland teams have gone into matches against big opposition and received a good tonking. Paris is a good example of where we’ve lost like that, as are Murrayfield and Twickenham,” he said.

“Things go wrong on the day for various reasons but there is an underlying current there that we have been looking at. We’ve talked about the first 40 minutes at the Telstra Dome.

“We have some ideas why it happened and have addressed them and tried to make sure they won’t happen again.

“Our consistency was a concern that was reinforced in Melbourne. Have we eradicated it yet? I’m not really sure, although I’d like to think that we have. We’ll get a better idea tomorrow.”

Ireland and France were hit by the retirement of two inspirational leaders after the World Cup with both Keith Wood and Fabien Galthie bringing down the curtain on their international careers.

Tomorrow will see how they have adapted without their talismanic captains, but even minus the masterful Galthie O’Sullivan is expecting a mighty challenge from Les Bleus and has pinpointed the need to make a good start.

“They are strong in the midfield and have plenty of pace out wide, while they have a half-back combination in Jean-Baptiste Elissalde and Frederic Michalak who are used to playing together,” he said.

“It will be interesting to see how the team functions without Galthie at the helm. But people will want to see how we perform without Keith Wood as skipper.

“If their half-backs play well then we’ll see a good performance from them. Their pack will be the usual French set of forwards – very physical, very strong and difficult to pin down if they build any momentum.

“Starting the game well will be important. If the French start well then they usually become incredibly good on the day. But if they don’t start well then they will begin to have doubts like any other team.”