Sean Cronin: Ireland have to 'adapt to whatever referee’ is in charge

By Grainne McGuinness and Shaun Cronin

Sean Cronin acknowledged there was plenty of room for improvement after yesterday’s victory against Italy in Ireland’s third World Cup pool game.

Ireland have booked a quarter-final spot, but need to beat France next week to top the table and avoid a meeting with the All Blacks.

“We’ll be disappointed by certain aspects of how the game went,” Cronin said afterwards.

“We got bossed at times at the breakdown specifically, and coughed up a bit of ball there.”

The focus will be on improvement before the France game next Sunday.

“It’s something we’ll have to look at for next week,” he admitted. “But we weren’t under any illusions about how tough it was gonna be.

“It was make-or-break for them and we knew they were going to throw everything at us; it was very close towards the end.”

He was asked were there any particular areas he felt Ireland needed to focus on.

“Yeah, he’ll probably have to target the breakdown,” Cronin answered. “Our body heights and out angles coming in there, we coughed up a bit of ball.

“There and turnovers as well. There’s two key areas there and if we can hold on to the ball a bit longer we can put teams under pressure.”

The Ireland hooker also felt Ireland would have to be a bit smarter about playing to suit the official involved.

“We were probably a bit disappointed with the scrum,” Cronin said of the Italy game. “The interpretation of some stuff was a bit up in the air when it came to the scrum, but, again, we have to adapt to that.

“And adapt to whatever referee is doing the game, that’s probably another area we’re going to have to focus on again.”

The Irish Examiner's Rugby Correspondent Simon Lewis gives his views on Ireland after their RWC clash with Italy at the Olympic Stadium.

Video by Dan Linehan.