O'Driscoll: 'It will be incredibly close'
Ireland captain Brian O’Driscoll predicted an ‘incredibly close’ World Cup quarterfinal against Wales, after leading his side into the last eight following a 36-6 Pool C victory over Italy on Sunday.
O’Driscoll’s men will face their familiar foes in Wellington this coming Saturday and the centre, speaking after Ireland had scored three tries to nil at the Otago Stadium in Dunedin, said: “The games have been incredibly close over the last, eight years, certainly in my career.
“They’ve beaten us in Dublin, we’ve beaten them in Cardiff, it will be an incredibly close game.
“It will just be that team that plays a bit better on the day, there’s not much between the sides,” added Ireland’s record-breaking skipper.
Ireland coach Declan Kidney added: “It will be like a Six Nations game because the players know each other so well, space will be cut down.
“It will be like a Cup Final. That’s what this competition is all about. Today was a cup final and this (the Wales match) will be another one.”
Sunday’s success, in what was a winner-takes-all clash for both Ireland and Italy, now out of the World Cup, saw the Irish maintain their unbeaten record at this tournament and top Pool C after their shock 15-6 win over Australia.
Departing Italy coach Nick Mallett said Ireland, who lost all their four warm-up matches, could go on to a first World Cup Final appearance.
“Ireland didn’t come into his World Cup as big favourites, they lost four games. Ireland targeted Australia as a big game, they targeted us a a big game.
“They’ve got a team that can knock over anyone in that side of the draw, in the quarterfinals and the semifinals, where is their weakness?”
Ireland absorbed everything Italy’s highly-regarded scrum could throw at them in a first half where powerhouse Azzurri prop Martin Castrogiovanni limped off five minutes before half-time.
The Irish turned round 9-6 up at the break thanks to a trio of penalties from flyhalf Ronan O’Gara, who kicked 16 points in all before being replaced by rival stand-off Jonathan Sexton.
And they pulled away decisively early in the second half thanks to tries from O’Driscoll and Keith Earls, who added a second try and Ireland’s third late on to celebrate his 24th birthday in style.
“We didn’t bring results into this World Cup but we never panicked,” O’Driscoll said after seeing Ireland go at least one better than in France four years ago when they crashed out at the pool stage.
“There was pressure on us to perform. It was win or go home.”
Although a match at a neutral venue, the massed ranks of Ireland fans in a near capacity 28,027 crowd made it a ‘home’ fixture for O’Driscoll’s side.
“This was the best yet,” said O’Driscoll after Ireland cemented their status as many New Zealand fans’ ‘second’ team by beating Australia.
“There was a sea of green everywhere. Our job was to give them something to cheer about. It was exactly like [Dublin’s] Lansdowne Road or Croke Park.
“I’ve played in Dublin where the support hasn’t been that good,” added the 32-year-old centre, a veteran of 117 Ireland Tests.
Mallett, in a joking comment on the depressed Irish economy added: “I think every New Zealander put on their Irish shirt because I don’t believe there are any Irishmen who’ve got enough Euros left to come over here.”
O’Driscoll also believes Ireland showed great composure to ease into the quarterfinals.
“We knew we were going to have to be patient as you do against any Test team these days. You have to grind them down,” said O’Driscoll, who led the Irish to the top of Pool C – ahead of Australia.
“We managed to do that but you have to be patient and I think we got our scores in on the opportunities we needed to.”
