Ireland ready to tame the Pumas

The Millennium Stadium in Cardiff has been a happy hunting ground for Ireland and our provinces over the years. From Munster’s Heineken Cups in 2006 and 2008, to Ireland’s Grand Slam in 2009 and Leinster’s great comeback win against Northampton in 2011, it’s given us plenty of days to cherish. To that list we can now add last Sunday’s victory over France.

The Millennium is a great place to play rugby. And it’s not just the Irish who love it – when players from other countries are asked to name their favourite stadium, it regularly comes out on top. And after last weekend I can also vouch for it being a great stadium to watch rugby. Cardiff was a great place to be. We could have had up to 80% of the support in the stadium and the players fed off it.

The game itself turned out as I’d expected: it was tight and tense in the first half before Ireland upped the intensity levels and got the better of the French as the game progressed.

Injuries and absentees

This week will be a strange one in the Irish camp due to the injuries picked up by key players. You make best-laid plans when you start out in the summer, as Warren Gatland would have done with Wales, and you have a plan for who you might use and how you think the tournament will go, but if you get a run of injuries like we’ve had in the last few days, then the plans are out the window.

Everybody talks about squads in rugby but no matter how you dress it up, you have special players that you know are your frontliners. To lose Paul O’Connell and Peter O’Mahony for the tournament – and we don’t know about Johnny Sexton – is more than even someone like Joe Schmidt would have planned for, but it’s a reality of rugby at the highest level. It’s attritional. There are going to be injuries.

The World Cup is a different animal when it gets to the knockout stages. In the Six Nations, you might play Italy at home or Scotland might be having a bad year so it’s not terribly difficult. In the World Cup we’ve got France, Argentina and whoever else we get after that. It’s the top nations one week after another. Even in the Six Nations you have a two-week break at stages that gives you a chance to draw breath, and if a fella was rattled, he has an extra week to get back in shape. That’s not available in the World Cup.

This week is all about recovery. The players can’t get fitter or stronger now. It’s about fine-tuning and keeping mentally right. Negative thoughts that might exist outside the group can’t be allowed to filter through. Whether it’s through the newspapers or social media, there are people out there who’ll think we’re in trouble because of who we’ve lost. The players can’t think that way and it’s down to Joe Schmidt to make sure that’s the case.

The players that come in can’t see any doubt about their ability from Joe Schmidt. He can’t wish someone else was standing in their place.

The players will know his thoughts as the week progresses. If Joe starts taking more of a lead in training and doesn’t let the players get on with it as they normally would, they’ll know he’s worried and will wonder whether he trusts them.

The big decisions that would normally be left with senior players must remain with the players who come in. Joe can’t suddenly start leading them around by the hand.

When the injured players went off at the weekend, there was no time to think about who was missing. Now they have a week together with questions and concerns from those outside the camp. That can’t be allowed to get into the players’ heads.

Players on standby

Ireland have nothing to worry about with the players on standby coming in. They will have been keeping a close eye on the players in their positions and watching to see if they finish games or pick up knocks. I remember watching the Lions tour in 2009 and keeping a close eye on the props – the tight-heads in particular. When Euan Murray broke his ankle in one of the early games, I thought, yeah, I’m in with a chance here. I was a likely candidate as one of the players on the official standby list. I had the paperwork done and was registered and ready to go. The morning after Euan’s injury, I got the phone call and headed for South Africa. That’s just the way it is on standby; you’re waiting.

Rhys Ruddock and the other Irish players called up this week will have been exactly the same.

Argentina

Before the World Cup, Ireland looked like they had a better schedule than Argentina with easier games at the start to allow them grow as the tournament went on, whereas the Pumas faced New Zealand on the first weekend and have been picking off lower-ranked sides ever since. The potential problem with Ireland’s schedule is exactly what has happened now. Finishing the group stages with the biggest game has taken a huge physical toll, which is not what you want a week before playing Argentina.

We played France and Argentina on consecutive weekends in the 2007 World Cup but that whole tournament was a bit of a write-off. The situation with the Irish side now is different. We couldn’t get to their level in 2007 after a couple of poor performances in the group. The current Irish side are going into this game having played well against France and won comfortably. But we’ll have to reach that level of physical intensity and surpass it on Sunday. Ireland have to turn it around in seven days, get over the bumps and bruises and regain freshness.

All the while, Argentina are waiting. As always, they have a big, physical pack, but they’ve improved from playing against the three southern hemisphere giants in the Rugby Championship and have a better all-round game. They’ve always been renowned for their scrum and forward play but Ireland’s forwards have more than held their own in the tournament so far. They got the upper hand against the French and the scrum won’t be an issue against Argentina. While it’d be hard to see us gaining an advantage over them, we shouldn’t have too much to fear and I can see it being fairly even up front.

Argentina have upped their game but they haven’t strayed too far from their traditional strength. They’ll come at us at scrum time but I wouldn’t be worried. As ever and always, the battle will start up front but when it loosens out we should gain control and hopefully we can add one more famous victory to the Cardiff roll of honour.

Southern hemisphere dominance

In the weekend’s other matches, the three southern hemisphere giants should have enough. South Africa are back after their Japanese shock and I don’t think an injury-depleted Welsh side can turn them over; Scotland didn’t show anything against Samoa that would suggest they can trouble Australia; and although France have a history of shocking New Zealand in World Cups, this French side isn’t as good as the previous incarnations of 1999 and 2007. As much as Ireland paid a price for last Sunday’s match, the French were battered too, and turning it around in six days to face the All Blacks is too much to ask.