Paul O'Connell on Portugal pasting: 'We can only beat what is put in front of us'

Ireland hammered the hosts in Lisbon on Saturday. 

Ireland interim head coach Paul O'Connell with supporters after the International Rugby Test match between Portugal and Ireland at Estádio Nacional do Jamor in Lisbon. Pic: David Fitzgerald/Sportsfile

A record win for Ireland and a biggest ever defeat for Portugal, but Paul O’Connell was more interested in effort and attitude than any line his team added to the history books in Lisbon on Saturday evening.

The 106-7 defeat of the Portuguese by his second-string side made for the biggest ever victory and the most points scored in the history of the men’s senior Test team. For the hosts it was a black day in the history less than two years since a breakthrough World Cup.

Ireland claimed 16 tries and conceded just the one against a Tier 2 team that was blown away from minute one, and the interim head coach put it that all his side could do was tend to their own garden on the night at the Estadio Nacional.

“Listen, we can only beat what is put in front of us and they have performed quite well against Scotland and South Africa in the last few years so we were ready for a big challenge. And it wasn’t about them really, it was more about us.

“It wasn’t even about the rugby we were going to play. It was more about our mentality and that was a big part for us in terms of how they prepared and how they played. I was hoping it would be sticky and we would see what we were like.

“Then when we were pulling away I was kind of excited to see what our mentality would be like and how we were going to set our own standards. I was really pleased in that. They didn’t care about the scoreline, they just kept playing as hard as they could.

“I love seeing some of the kick-chase stuff late in the game. It really shows the mentality of the players so I was really pleased from that point of view. The scoreline isn’t ideal and it’s not good for them but I was happy with the mentality.” 

Captain Craig Casey echoed that. The Munsterman said there was no talk of hitting triple digits at half-time when they led 52-0. And Casey had no idea that Ireland’s standing record win at that point was an 83-3 defeat of the USA in New Hampshire in 2003.

“God no, no.” For O’Connell, who also guided the side to a comfortable win against Georgia last weekend, the tour has been proof that there are enough players down the depth chart in Ireland to blossom when offered the opportunity.

“We’ve seen it on the Emerging Ireland tour, just guys dying for the chance. They will do everything and anything once they get their chance. They are great tourists to coach, guys with an incredible attitude and it’s your job as coaches not to ‘f’ that up.” For Portugal, this shows up just how far behind they are.

A side that defeated Fiji in France in the global tournament in 2023 was no match for an Irish side flooded with players looking to make their mark and head coach Simon Mannix made the claim that this was a clear reflection of the road they need to travel.

“Explain it? I’m not sure that I can explain it. If it was a boxing fight it would have been called off at half-time,” said the man who once coached at Munster. “We have bluffed ourselves in the last 12 months believing that we could perform.

“We’re not in a performance space at all, we are in a total reset. We are in a development phase, Portuguese rugby, because of the hole that was left after the World Cup in 2023. We need to do a whole rest on what we are doing as a union, what we are doing with our players.

“We are starting to do that, those processes are in place. It is very difficult to play a Tier 1 nation when 1: you don’t have access to your players, 2: the players have had no preparation to come and play this game with no warm-up game.

“And 3: we have had players coming off of ten weeks playing in a local championship that just cannot prepare them for this type of opposition, which is an outstandingly organised rugby team.

“Rather than throwing out excuses, we knew where we were at. Did we think we would be a hundred points worse than Ireland? No we didn’t. Are we disappointed? We are absolutely devastated but we will work. Good things will come through if we work hard.”