Irish right to be bullish, says Brian O’Driscoll

Brian O’Driscoll believes Ireland are right to live up to their current bullishness as Joe Schmidt’s side prepares for two mighty Guinness Series clashes with Argentina and the All Blacks.

Six Nations Grand Slam champions Ireland, ranked second in the world, meet the Rugby Championship pair in successive weeks at the Aviva Stadium, starting tonight against Mario Ledesma’s resurgent Pumas before world champions New Zealand visit Dublin next Saturday.

Today’s starting full-back Jordan Larmour makes just the second start of his Test career this evening having scored a hat-trick in his first against Italy in Chicago last week, when he said the sky was the limit for this Ireland side and that the All Blacks were not to be feared.

Former captain O’Driscoll, talking yesterday as part of Guinness’ #AnswerIrelandsCall campaign, said he was happy the squad was talking up rather than downplaying its credentials as serious players on the world stage.

“I think previous Ireland teams have gone to third and fourth best team in the world, dipped their toe in and then came back out to fifth and sixth again but to consistently stray at second in the world rankings for quite a while now, beating good sides, winning a series down in Australia for the first time since 1979, that automatically builds confidence,” O’Driscoll said.

“I see they are not trying to shy away from what they are trying to achieve next year. Irish mentality in the past has been about downplaying our chances, shying away, but you cannot pull the wool over the public’s eyes and say, ‘ah, you know’.

“You can’t have huge success in one quarter and then talk your chances down in another. I think they are trying to live what they have experienced. They have a great record in the Aviva as well, they are very confident at home, so there is no reason why they should not be a little bit bullish.

“They are wary of good opposition but I think they are confident they can match any chat that does come out. And they will respect Argentina and will obviously respect New Zealand but this is all with one eye on the World Cup and wanting to be world champions, not to get to a semi-final or a final, but actually win it.”

Big talk often breeds high expectations outside the camp, though, and O’Driscoll believes Argentina will provide a perfect stress test for the potential weaknesses of Schmidt’s squad.

“You look at the Rugby Championship and how (Argentina) have conversely been very good in attack, but very poor in defence. What I really like about tomorrow’s fixture is, how will they stretch us in the wide channels. That’s been our Achilles’ heel.

“Any time that we’ve struggled over the past two years, we’ve gotten narrow. We got narrow at the weekend against a lesser team (Italy). This is a better-quality team, definitely a considerably better back three that can beat players one-on-one.

“With 11 months to go to the World Cup, if they can shore up that defence, they will be a tough team to beat.

“It’s a great test for us in advance of the All Blacks game because our perceived frailties will be tested.”

Meanwhile the Irish Rugby Football Union (IRFU) has agreed a series of development fixtures for the four provincial A teams after announcing a partnership with US Major League Rugby franchise the New England Free Jacks.

All four A teams will travel to Boston in March and April next year, where the New England Free Jacks will host them ahead of their US Major League Rugby debut in 2020. Each provincial squad will play two games, one against the New England Free Jacks and another against a fellow provincial side.

Connacht are first to play the Free Jacks on March 16, before playing Ulster on the 20th, who in turn will play the Free Jacks on March 24.

Munster meet the Free Jacks on April 6 and then play Leinster four days later, after which the Celtic Cup champions will face the hosts on April 10.

“We are delighted to be partnering with the New England Free Jacks for this development opportunity which follows on from the success of the Celtic Cup earlier in the season,” IRFU Performance Director David Nucifora said.