‘WORLD CUP DIDN’T TAKE AWAY OUR SELF-BELIEF’
WORLD CUP disappointment has not diminished belief among Ireland’s squad ahead of their Six Nations title defence, according to scrum coach John Fogarty. Andy Farrell’s reigning Grand Slam champions take on pretournament favourites France in Friday night’s championship curtain-raiser in Marseille. The match at Stade Vélodrome will be Ireland’s first since the agonising 28-24 quarter-final loss to New Zealand in October halted their 17-match winning run and hopes of lifting the Webb Ellis Cup. ‘There was so much belief going into that game, I don’t think that belief has slipped away,’ said Fogarty. ‘That belief is 100 per cent there in the squad. You can see it in minimeetings, unit meetings, how the players are interacting with each other. They’re preparing to perform now. ‘The (New Zealand) game, fine margins and small margins, and it’s not untrue. There was small margins, but we need to make sure we’re on the right side of those. ‘What an opportunity now for this squad. Andy says “go and make it happen”. ‘There’s a lot of belief within the squad, a lot of clarity and it’s going to be difficult because of a huge crowd, France at home in Marseille. It’s incredibly exciting. ‘It’ll be tough, but that’s the challenge, to go and make it happen. Nice clear heads, play our game, let’s go.’ Ireland’s 34-man squad are on day five of their week-long warmweather training camp in Quinta do Lago on Portugal’s Algarve. Head coach Farrell, who has appointed Peter O’Mahony as captain to succeed the retired Johnny Sexton, will name his team tomorrow, and has no injury concerns. ‘We’re good, a clean bill of health, which is great,’ said Fogarty. The message from the Irish camp has been evolution rather than revolution, with no uncapped players called up to the squad. ‘For us, it’s (about) building on what we’ve done over the last few months and couple of years,’ said Fogarty. ‘We have a good body of work done, there’s really good experience built into the squad, and there’s been some tough days over the last number of years, and there’s nice resilience built into the squad. ‘We’re going to build on top of what we’ve done, and it’s unbelievably exciting to have our first game. ‘What an opportunity to go and show what we can add a little bit different, or a little bit more, in Marseille with a packed crowd against a world-class side like France. ‘It’s a brilliant opportunity in front of us, we need to go and make it happen, make a performance happen for ourselves.’ A large focus for Ireland has been on the battle facing the forwards as they take on a hugely physical French pack. ‘They’re a big side, a huge side,’ said Fogarty. ‘They’re settled as well. I know they have a couple of guys missing, but they’re settled, just like us. They’ve a lot of power and weight in their side. ‘We talk a lot about being nice and smart in how we enter contact in our maul, in our scrum, our lineout, being nice and clear in our heads. ‘Weight is one thing, but we feel we’re a big, powerful side with great experience, we’ve come through a few years now and have taken learnings. ‘This is the type of pack we want to play against. This is the arena we want to be in. It’s about the lads getting after it now.’ Stade Vélodrome, which hosted the 2022 Champions Cup final, when Leinster lost to La Rochelle, is usually the home of Ligue 1 side Olympique Marseille. ‘It’s an incredible stadium,’ said Robbie Henshaw. ‘A handful of us played there before, it’s an intense environment. ‘As opposed to playing at Stade de France, it’s a tight stadium, it’s obviously a football pitch and the crowd is right there in your face, so it’s a tight stadium and it can be intimidating at times when the crowd are up. ‘We got to experience that playing for Leinster a couple of seasons ago and it was different.’