‘Ireland are up there with New Zealand as the two best sides’
NEMANI NADOLO had nothing but high praise for Joe Schmidt’s experimental Ireland team after Saturday’s bruising encounter at Lansdowne Road, admitting that he rates Ireland as second only to New Zealand in terms of the best team the world.
Fiji made a second-string Ireland side work hard for their 23-20 win, with Montpellier superstar Nadolo putting in a typically electrifying performance, and speaking shortly afterwards the 20-stone powerhouse said he felt Fiji’s performance demonstrated that the gap is closing between the Tier 1 and Tier 2 nations.
‘It was one of those ones when we didn’t help ourselves,’ he said.
‘It showed, and against a quality side like Ireland who are up there in the top three in the world, you have to play the full 80 and we probably shot ourselves in the foot a bit.
‘To me Ireland are up there with the All Blacks as the two best sides. No matter who plays they’re still going to be a really quality side. If we show up and play the full 80, we can be a driving force and hopefully knock off some of these big boys.’
Of course, Nadolo wasn’t the only superstar gracing the Aviva Stadium on Saturday, with Ireland No10 Joey Carbery once again showcasing why there is so much excitement about the young Leinster star, putting in a wonderful display before injury cruelly ended his game.
‘I’ve been fortunate to play against him but I only played him at full-back. I thought he played really well, he’s one of those players who has a really good step. It can beat defenders pretty easily and I think he got that from growing up in New Zealand,’ said Nadolo.
‘Sexton is obviously your number one 10 but with age you guys are covered there. He’s doing really well. [Rugby is] definitely not [only] about size, it’s about what’s up here [points to head] and how you use it. Guys like Damian McKenzie, Joey Carbery and people like that, that’s why they’re the best in the world.
‘They’re not the biggest guys on the rugby field but they’re not afraid either. They’re smart, and choose when to run and when to play. They’re confidence players and if they’ve got confidence they’re unstoppable.’
The 29-year-old also outlined his belief that Fiji don’t always get the credit they deserve, with some Irish bookmakers offering hugely generous odds of a 25-point spread before the game.
‘People don’t realise we’re a group which has been together for four or five years now and with that comes more experience,’ he continued, before stating the goal at the 2019 World Cup is to qualify out of a testing group that contains Australia, Wales and Georgia.
‘Last week we were very under par [losing to Italy], we beat them in Fiji and we probably didn’t give them the respect we should have. They came out and beat us clinically and tonight for us it was more of an attitude thing. We knew it was never going to be an easy game, at the end of the day we’re playing Ireland.
‘We wanted to prove a point, not to anyone else but to ourselves that last week wasn’t who we are or what we’ve been building towards.
‘This group got together in 2014, and 2015 [the World Cup] was pretty tough. But it’s the same core group of players and we’re just a bit older now. We’re looking forward to it [the next World Cup], that’s the goal to get out of the pool but hopefully we can get more Test matches against countries like Ireland and England. That’s going to help us.’