Ireland are feeling the pressure, says Hansen
IRELAND are struggling to cope with the added pressure of being the ‘top dog’ in world rugby, according to All Blacks head coach Steve Hansen. Joe Schmidt’s men defeated New Zealand 16-9 at Lansdowne Road last November to cap off a stellar year which included a Six Nations Grand Slam and a 2-1
series win in Australia. Following his side’s loss, Hansen anointed Ireland as the world’s top team. Ireland have been a shadow of themselves in this year’s Six Nations with a traumatic defeat by England followed by unconvincing wins against Scotland and Italy.
‘I said it at the time when we played Ireland that whoever won that game was going to be viewed as the No 1 team in the world and everyone is going to chase them,’ said Hansen. ‘For us that’s something we’ve been used to. We’ve been ranked the No 1 team for 112 months now. But people have seen Ireland as
the top dog after they beat us, and that put a massive amount of expectation on the players and coaches. ‘Instead of being the hunters they are the hunted and it’s different. It’s different when you’re sitting at the top of the tree. It’s a different experience. Not many teams
ROB KEARNEY is a safe pair of hands for this Ireland setup, in many aspects. Across 89 Tests, he has been a rock in the backfield, whether it’s claiming high balls or anticipating kicks into Irish territory. He is the same when facing the media. Invariably, he is sent out to bat first on these big weeks. He rarely puts a foot wrong on both fronts.
Sunday’s clash with France at Ireland HQ looms large. It will be the first time that this squad have played at Lansdowne Road since that England debacle on the opening weekend. It’s been a month since that 32-20 defeat, but its effects are still being felt. Joe Schmidt’s now infamous observation that the squad were a ‘bit broken’ after that loss has been well-referenced by now.
It was put to Kearney again yesterday.
‘I think Joe has a very good understanding of where we are as a group,’ he said.
‘He has an ability to get a read on us early in the week if we’re off
a little bit and we need our reins pulled in — if he thinks we need to be built up a little bit, if we haven’t quite hit the markers that we want to in training.
‘Yeah, we probably were a little bit broken after the English game but I think that’s understandable and you’d expect that.
‘What you would also expect and hope for is that the game the following week that you’d make up for it and you’d come out and you’d produce the game ideally that you would have liked to the week before.
‘But we’ve got to move on in this competition, too. We’re moving into round four now. It’s time we put it past us.’
It’s a fair point. Schmidt’s men are now at the business end of the Six Nations. They will look to put in a big display against Les Blues this weekend before they travel to Cardiff to face a buoyant Wales outfit on the final day of the championship.
It will be a quick six-day turnaround for the players, as it will be in the opening rounds of the World Cup in Japan. Ireland will face Scotland in their opening pool game before they meet Japan six days later.
Kearney wouldn’t entertain the notion that this final block of championship games would serve
as a dry-run for first few weeks in the Far East later this year.
This squad is trying to move on from the trauma of the past, but looking too far ahead is a recipe for disaster as well.
‘It was referenced maybe two or three weeks ago, just we had a sixday turnaround but it has not been referenced since and certainly won’t be referenced this week,’ said Kearney.
‘We will go out on Saturday, give everything for 80 minutes and whoever rocks up the following Monday or Tuesday, without any bangs and bruises, they will be the ones who will be available for selection.’
The next few weeks represent an opportunity to recapture the magic of last season. Ireland were bulletproof in 2018. Now, they look vulnerable and lacking in confidence. The next fortnight is all about getting their mojo back.
‘A team’s confidence can come back in one set-piece, three or four phases of play, passing is really accurate, you find the holes or the gaps that you scouted during the week, people running onto the ball at pace, you score a try at the end of it, everyone is jumping in on top of each other, celebrating a try,’ Kearney offered.
‘The great thing about a team lacking a little bit of confidence is that it just takes a small spark to get it back. That is what we will be hoping for early on at the weekend.’
Mental fragility is not something that is expected from a team under Schmidt’s watch. Ireland’s head coach even observed last November that his players are ‘conditioned to a degree that they’re not that human.’
The reality, according to Kearney, is far more complex.
‘Elite athletes are no different to any other punter watching on from the stands,’ he added.
‘It is still a human person with the same thoughts, the same negative thoughts, the same positive thoughts. We are all the same, you know? You put a guy out on the field in front of 80,000 people, another few million people watching at home on TV, and you make a mistake, it will have that effect on anybody.
‘And that is where our training comes in, our confidence, little bit of sports psychology and mindfulness, the little bit of things that we do in the background to give you that ability to park it, move to the next moment and keep looking forward.’