OFF TO A FLIER
Flanker Josh reveals how Irish clambered out of the doldrums to dominate French
IRELAND’S shake-it-off mentality has put them in pole position to storm to Six Nations glory.
Hopes had been high in France that Les Bleus would bounce back from World Cup heartbreak in Marseille last Friday.
Instead it was Andy Farrell’s team that showed they could quickly forget about their own tournament torture.
For weeks and months after France 2023, some Ireland players spoke of the torment they felt in not crashing through that quarter-final glass ceiling.
Yet, even without the elemental force of Johnny Sexton and the magic of Mack Hansen, that mental resilience they have been building for years under
Farrell was there for all to see in Marseille.
With a new captain in Peter O’mahony and three Six Nations newcomers – including a rookie No.10 – Ireland still marched to their highest ever margin of victory on French soil.
“A lot of the narrative is that it’s a new start, it’s a new cycle or whatever, but that certainly wasn’t the case with how we’ve gone about it in the last few weeks,” said flanker Josh van der Flier.
“It’s just been, ‘Right, what have we learned from New Zealand, what have we been doing well’ – it’s almost a continuation of where the squad has been. We’re still taking learnings along the way and it’s almost like the World Cup was a stepping stone to keep going, to keep improving.
“That’s kind of been the mindset that Andy has been driving with us – and that obviously helped on Friday.”
France were certainly not at their best but they stayed in the fight with a try just before the break.
Ireland responded with Calvin Nash’s 47th minute score but, when Paul Gabrillagues’ 62nd minute try was awarded as the hosts reduced the deficit to seven points, O’mahony (inset) was sent to the sin-bin. Yet the visitors refused to buckle and Dan Sheehan’s try put them out of sight. “It was great,” said van der Flier. “It was something we talked about, trying to stay calm.
“It’s something we probably learned playing them over here a few years ago.
“Some lads obviously wouldn’t have experienced playing France away, it’s always a tough game to play.
“And the atmosphere, we talked about France having those good patches in the game where the crowd would be going crazy and you wouldn’t be able to hear anything. Whenever we got those periods we stayed calm.
“We were mentally prepared for it and talking about it helped a lot.
“It was great to be able to execute that, that when they did something good we were able to bounce back and push back.”
Their World Cup defeat to the All Blacks was Ireland’s first in 18 games but Friday was further proof of a mentality that is almost unshakeable, even with the influx of some newer faces.
“It’s definitely in a good place,” acknowledged van der Flier.
“The work of Gary Keegan as psychologist, the coaches and then the leadership of Pete, I thought he was brilliant on Friday.
“There were times when they scored that the crowd was going crazy and it was getting to be a pretty close game.
“But there wasn’t even a raised voice, he was just calm, telling us to get back into it and he had given us clear messages.
“But it’s one of those things, you have to keep continually working on it all.
“If you don’t address it one week, that’s when things can go against you a bit.
“But it’s definitely been a strength of ours over the last couple of years and we’ll keep working on it.”