Fitness the start point in Paul O'Connell's Ireland pack vision

Paul O’Connell, the Ireland forwards coach, was asked exactly what he wants this team to stand for.

Ireland assistant coach Paul O'Connell. Pic: ©INPHO/Ben Brady

Paul O’Connell has challenged his Ireland forwards to be relentless in their pursuit of excellence ahead of a testing November window that sees the squad face top opposition four weeks in a row in the Nations Championship.

Andy Farrell’s squad has just recently sat down and teased out their ambitions, as well as the ways and means that they intend to meet them. They had already met for a one-day mini-camp back in July just to start that process early, to hit the ground running.

These are big-picture, blue-sky concepts.

Test rugby is a messy, imperfect science but every side needs its North Star in terms of how it sees itself, wants to project itself and in how it plays the game. O’Connell, the forwards coach, was asked exactly what he wants this team to stand for.

“There's a there's a load of things. I'm not going to reveal exactly what we want to be as a pack, but as a forward you have to be relentless in delivering our principles.

“It can't be sometimes, and it can't be some players sometimes. It has to be every player every time. When we get that right, we're very good. When we don't, we can be similar to other teams.” 

What’s clear is the heightened focus on fitness.

Irish Test teams have routinely targeted this area as a USP in modern times. They had to given the acknowledged fact that they don’t possess the same size and physicality that nations like South Africa and France can routinely put on the paddock.

Farrell stressed this point in the Eden Park dressing-room immediately after a loss to New Zealand that ended their summer tour and season on a sour note, and Johnny Sexton reiterated its centrality when speaking to media last week.

O’Connell is just the latest to double down on it.

He stressed the importance of what their international players do, not just in national camp, but back home with their respective provinces. It’s a consideration all the more important this week given they play Argentina on a Friday and basically lose a day’s prep because of it.

“We get the players, we're training, then we're playing a game 12 days later, so it's really important that they're not coming in here trying to get fit, that they're training fast, consciously trying to train fast when they're in their provinces as well.” 

Consistency has been another watchword.

Ireland have won big games since the last World Cup, Twickenham and Marseille among them, but they have lost big games too. The All Blacks have regained hegemony in that head-to-head, for instance. The Boks won in Dublin for the first time in 13 years last time.

That’s just another reason for the concentrated focus on what the players do at their provinces. Farrell wants his men bringing a level of excellence into camp, not raising their game when they meet up on day one.

“There's a lot of little things in the game,” said O’Connell, “so that's it: time together, us being clear, players owning what we want to do.” 

Argentina are first up at the Aviva in four days’ time. Felipe Contepomi’s side has struggled for wins but they have been close and more than competitive against Australia, South Africa and England in recent months.

Contepomi has beefed up his coaching staff with the appointments of former Pumas head coach Mario Ledesma as his forward facilitator and Shaun Edwards who held the defensive post with Wales and then France for a period of almost two decades combined.

A win is crucial first time out if Farrell’s side is to retain ambitions of topping the Northern championship table and, by doing so, feature in the tournament decider in Twickenham at the month’s end.

The all-but-guaranteed alternative is a place further down the bill earlier that weekend, regardless of what happens in the weekends in between when Fiji and then the world champion Springboks come to the Aviva Stadium.

“We want to be playing on Sunday afternoon. We would always talk about winning, and then we talk about the things that would probably help us win or help us perform. We want to be playing on that Sunday afternoon, ideally.” 

They go into the month without key men in Caelan Doris, Jack Conan and Jack Crowley but with Andrew Porter and Ryan Baird back on board and ready to wear green for the first time in a year after injuries.

Sam Prendergast remains in the ‘maybe’ bracket as he goes about returning from a wrist injury while Jimmy O’Brien is back training fully. The other good news, of course, was the fact that Tadhg Furlong is good to go after a week of concern over his citing.