Striking the right balance the key for O’Connell

Paul O’Connell believes a successful Irish World Cup campaign depends on achieving the right balance between playing open, exciting rugby and grinding out difficult victories.

The 2009 Lions captain predicts some tense encounters in New Zealand and insists these hard-fought games will shape Ireland’s progress.

"You have to dog it out sometimes," he told RTE.

"If you look at Munster, we may have gotten away from that at times but we got back to it towards the end of the season.

"Leinster have certainly been very dogged in a lot of what they have been doing for the last few years. It's not going to be scintillating rugby for the whole of the World Cup.

"At times we are just going to have to work hard and be mentally strong, pull through and get a result.

"As well as playing the good running rugby and putting teams away, it's the times when we are not playing well and we dig in that will probably define a lot of our tournament.

"For us it's important to realise being dogged is a big part of winning competitions. It's about winning games when you are sometimes not playing well and then, when you are playing well, putting teams away.

"Hopefully we can strike that right balance."

Four years ago Ireland paid the price for insufficient preparation, but O’Connell is confident Ireland’s intensive warm-up schedule this time around will prevent a repeat of 2007’s collapse.

"Warm-up games are absolutely vital. They're excellent for us. No matter what you do off the pitch it just can't replicate match-fitness. You have to play hard to get yourself up to that intensity.

"If you don't, you may as well not travel to the World Cup because you are not going to be physically right."