Scar issues
RORY BEST believes Ireland can pick at the scars inflicted by the most recent World Cup quarter-final defeats to go one better this time.
Skipper Best claims they may have been over-confident going into the 2011 last eight clash against Wales and the meeting with Argentina four years later.
This time around, Joe Schmidt’s charges are where they wanted to be after the pool stages - gearing up for a shot at making history in the World Cup quarter-finals, even if it wasn’t the smooth passage they had hoped for.
Asked what can Ireland do differently from 2015, Best quipped: “Hopefully we’ll win, which will be different from the last two World Cups! I think you’ve got to try to be prepared. We know that it’s knockouts and we said after the Japan game that it’s important that we learned our lessons from the last two World Cups I’ve been involved in.
“I’ve looked back at quarter-finals and went, ‘We just weren’t quite where we thought we were’.
“We rolled through two pool stages where we didn’t lose a game. We were full of confidence, maybe a little bit of overconfidence. It’s hard to know.
“It’s really important that we look at that Japan week, coming off the back of a good performance against Scotland and go, ‘What stone did we not leave unturned?’. It’s got to be all about rugby this week. We’ll enjoy a bit of down time when it’s there but ultimately it’s about knockout rugby and you don’t get a second chance at it.” Joey Carbery can’t wait for what believes will be one of the biggest weeks of the Ireland players’ lives.
“There’s such an excitement,” said Munster out-half Carbery, who was born in New Zealand and moved to Ireland in his early teens.
“There’s a huge week coming up, obviously one of the biggest weeks of our lives. There’s a huge positive in that. We know how much talent is in the group.”
It’s knockout rugby and you don’t get a second chance