Sexton and Co can make history in Paris

D-DAY: Dan Sheehan, Iain Henderson and Bundee Aki. Pic: ©INPHO/Dan Sheridan

BAGGAGE? What baggage?

Ireland will block out the noise swirling around the French capital about past World Cup quarter-final failures and instead focus on a collective thirst for further improvement when they bid to reach the last four at Stade de France tonight.

And there could hardly be a more appropriate opponent to consign that sorry history at this tournament to the bin than New Zealand, the team that heaped more knockout pain on the Irish rugby psyche four years ago in Japan.

The sense those stresses have long been left behind by Andy Farrell’s squad have never felt stronger than in the build-up to this potentially titanic collision but it has been a process of incremental advances on the field and in Irish minds that has brought the national team to this point and no Ireland side has ever seemed more primed to make a breakthrough that would set them apart from all who went before.

Of course, a resurgent All Blacks will have their say in a game too close to call as they seek to avenge their series defeat to Farrell’s men on home soil in July 2022. Yet everything the head coach and his assistants have implemented since that horrible 46-14 defeat in Tokyo has been for this moment.

Four years is a long time in sport and while 10 players in that 2019 matchday squad will be in action this evening, it is very much a group moulded in Farrell’s image, and one that has brought Ireland to the brink of a men’s tier-one Test rugby record of 18 consecutive wins if they prevail tonight.

Captain Johnny Sexton, Peter O’Mahony and all the other veterans of past, ill-fated campaigns have been reborn in Ireland jerseys under the new regime while Caelan Doris and Dan Sheehan are members of the Farrell intake, handed their Test debuts after Joe Schmidt’s defence coach assumed the top job. 

They have ownership of the current culture in the Irish camp just as much as its more seasoned members and both No. 8 and hooker outlined the mindset that has been forged with the assistance of performance coach Gary Keegan since the last World Cup.

“It feels like it is a different group,” Doris said yesterday. “It feels like quite a long time since the last one. Neither of us were obviously there the last time. There has been a lot of experience over the last three of four years with this group. We have built a lot of confidence through some pretty big wins — New Zealand last year, New Zealand at home, South Africa.

“It has been quite a big journey with this group and along that through the coaches, through our plan, through the players’ ability and our want to get better, there is a lot of belief that has been built in this last period.

“So, we are drawing on that and not looking back too much further. I’m sure some of the more experienced older guys might take some things as well going back even longer.

“But the last three or four years have been an unbelievable journey for us, and there is a lot of belief and confidence that have come from that.”

Sheehan, sitting alongside his team-mate, picked up the baton, reducing the issue to brass tacks.

“As Caelan said, it’s a completely new squad. Our mindset is different.

“I obviously have no experience of earlier squads but obviously the more experienced lads have shared their thoughts on it. I think you just treat it like another game.

“It’s knockout rugby, I think you can build these games up as much as you want but it can end up affecting you if you give it too much attention. We need to stick to our preparation, we’ve been doing that for the last three years pretty consistently at a good level. I think in my head and in most of the squad’s heads it’s going to be pretty much same old Test rugby, you’re in an Irish jersey and you go out and perform.”

There is enough experience banked from past performances to give credence to the belief coursing through the veins of this Ireland squad, and Sheehan also cited a less stellar display to underline how every day has been an education during Farrell’s tenure.

Referring to last season’s Six Nations-clinching victory at home to England on March 18, when Ireland overcame a nervy start to get the desired result and win a Grand Slam on home soil for the first time, Sheehan agreed that experience will count as much as any of the three wins from four meetings with All Blacks in the last four years.

“I think those sort of games where it’s win or die are extremely valuable. You’ve got to go and perform and that probably wasn’t our best game at all.

“We took a good review from that game and we saw a lot of areas we could have improved on. When it comes down to it you just have to figure out how to win the game and if tomorrow goes to the end or if we have extra time or anything we’ve got to just make sure we win the game and there’s obviously a few plans in place to make sure we don’t get to that point and we hope we are in a position that we don’t have to scramble.

“But I think looking back on those sort of hard times where we didn’t perform and came out on top is valuable.”

Ireland will need every morsel of that impressive muscle memory of the past two years of success to reach their objective tonight, and deploy it against side themselves brimming with confidence and with revenge in their hearts.

Yet if the bodies hold up and their strong discipline of recent times holds, then Irish minds are strong enough to make history.

IRELAND: H Keenan (Leinster); M Hansen (Connacht), G Ringrose (Leinster), B Aki (Connacht), J Lowe (Leinster); J Sexton – captain (Leinster), J Gibson-Park (Leinster); A Porter (Leinster), D Sheehan (Leinster), T Furlong (Leinster), T Beirne (Munster), I Henderson (Ulster); P O’Mahony (Munster), J van der Flier (Leinster), C Doris (Leinster).

Replacements: R Kelleher (Leinster), D Kilcoyne (Munster), F Bealham (Connacht), J McCarthy (Leinster), J Conan (Leinster), C Murray (Munster), J Crowley (Munster), J O’Brien (Leinster).

NEW ZEALAND: B Barrett (Blues); W Jordan (Crusaders), R Ioane (Blues), J Barrett (Hurricanes), L Fainga'anuku (Crusaders); R Mo'unga (Crusaders), A Smith (Highlanders); E de Groot (Highlanders), C Taylor (Crusaders), T Lomax (Hurricanes); B Retallick (Chiefs), S Barrett (Crusaders); S Frizell (Highlanders), S Cane (Chiefs) - captain, A Savea (Hurricanes).

Replacements: D Coles (Hurricanes), T Williams, F Newell (Crusaders), S Whitelock (Crusaders), D Papali'I (Blues), F Christie (Blues), D McKenzie (Chiefs), A Lienert-Brown (Chiefs).

Referee: Wayne Barnes (England)