O'Sullivan wants Ireland to forget opener

Eddie O’Sullivan has demanded an end to the post mortem into Ireland’s abysmal World Cup opener on the eve of another potentially hazardous contest.

O’Sullivan has voiced his frustration that the morale-sapping 32-17 victory over Namibia is still being picked apart a day before Ireland are due to face Georgia.

Just a week ago the Ireland coach was urging his side to put the Namibians to the sword in case a group that also contains France and Argentina is settled by points difference.

But Namibia were not so accommodating and given Georgia’s stubborn resistance against Argentina on Tuesday – they only conceded the bonus point in the dyeing seconds – another gruelling night at the Stade Chaban-Delmas looks possible.

Pool D, the tournament’s most challenging group, has proved even more punishing than first feared and O’Sullivan insists improvement will only be seen if last Sunday’s horror show is put to bed.

“It’s time to forget about Namibia,” he said.

“We have a match against Georgia and if we go into that with the Namibia performance on our backs then we’re not going to play well.

“It defies all logic of sports psychology to keep talking about that game. We have to stop dwelling on the past and what went wrong.

“We know what went wrong and now it’s time to fix those mistakes.

“Five days later it’s time to park Namibia and concentrate on Georgia.

“We can’t go into tomorrow talking about what happened six days ago, nobody does that in sport.

“I was up front about Namibia and didn’t dodge any hard questions. But now we have to move on.”

Ireland must reproduce the standard set in the second half of the Six Nations against Georgia or else risk seeing their confidence deteriorate further ahead of the pivotal clash against France next Friday.

An impressive display would also spell the end of any suggestions discontent is setting in and O’Sullivan today bristled at claims some players are not enjoying the World Cup experience.

“I haven’t heard from any players that they’re not enjoying it,” he said.

“They wouldn’t have enjoyed playing like that against Namibia. Overall the mood in the camp is very good. The hotel has been brilliant.

“I’m shocked anyone would have said they hadn’t enjoyed the World Cup, although I understand why they wouldn’t have enjoyed the game against Namibia.”

Ireland will be fielding their most capped line-up of all time, containing a combined total of 796 appearances, against Georgia and O’Sullivan takes comfort in their experience.

“We’re a very seasoned team and that comes into play tomorrow,” he said.

“If you look throughout the squad we’re carrying a huge number of caps and the knowledge that we’re a better team than last weekend is important.

“We have to stay focused and be sensible. We can’t make the mistake of thinking we’ll win this game in the first quarter.

“We have to battle away and set the foundations for maybe the last quarter. To be fair to Argentina, they did that against Georgia.

“They fought a really hard battle for 50 minutes before breaking the Georgians. Once they’d done that they went on to get the bonus points.

“You can say they did that by the skin of their teeth, but they still put themselves in a position to do it.

“Sometimes you have to do that – you take what’s thrown at you.”

Georgia will be playing their second match against one of the world’s top six ranked teams in five days and have rung the changes accordingly.

There are 11 new faces following the 33-3 defeat by Argentina, producing a marginally weaker side.

Amazingly, however, all but one of the team are still professional players contracted to French clubs.

O’Sullivan added: “There are quite a few changes. I suppose it could see it as their weaker team.

“We saw them in the European Nations Cup and there isn’t a huge difference between their first and second choice squad.

“Most of them play in France here. I expect them to be fresh and firing against us. I don’t think it will be an easy ride.”