'When you lose a game and go from being supposedly contenders in the first game to useless in the second game it's always going to affect the confidence.'
Rory Best has conceded Ireland’s confidence has been dented by the shock loss to Japan – but insisted Joe Schmidt’s men are still “very assured” of how to hit back to World Cup success.
Ireland ground to a patchy 35-0 bonus-point win over lowly Russia on Thursday, leaving victory over Samoa standing between Joe Schmidt’s team and the World Cup quarter-finals.
Ireland will face on Samoa on Saturday, October 12, with the squad intent on taking full advantage of a rare fallow weekend to rest and recuperate – then sharpen up.
“I think when you lose a game and go from being supposedly contenders in the first game to useless in the second game it’s always going to affect the confidence a little bit,” said Best.
“But we bounce back well, and this group understands what we need to do to play well.
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“We understand our core values, and we know we weren’t as good in those areas against Japan.
“But you look back at the warm-up game in England and then the two games against Wales and then Scotland here; we felt we were improving.
“Sometimes you’ve got to take it on the chin and say we didn’t play as well as we can, Japan played very well and put us under pressure.
“But in terms of confidence in the group we’re still very assured of what we’re capable of and how we get there.
“Our destiny is still in own hands. So we’re there and thereabouts, but we would have expected to be in a better place after the three games.
“We would have expected to win the three games but that hasn’t happened.
“We know a bonus-point win will guarantee our place in the quarter-finals.
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“We were always here to make the quarter-finals, we’ve made no secret of that and that’s what it comes down to now.
“We started the Japan game really well, 12-3 it’s not a place where we expect to lose a game from.
“Traditionally when we get ahead we’re a hard team to stop. But we made a few uncharacteristic mistakes, so there’s a lot we need to work on.
“We have time to reflect a little now and it’s very, very rare to have a weekend with no game, so it’s really important we utilise that.”
Johnny Sexton captained Ireland for the first time in the five-try win over Russia, the British and Irish Lions fly-half withdrawn at half-time as a precaution.
Sexton had declared himself fit to take on Russia after missing Ireland’s shock loss to Japan with a thigh complaint.https://t.co/n56PHKgy8H
— RugbyPass (@RugbyPass) October 3, 2019
World Cup skipper Best hailed Sexton’s leadership qualities, insisting that element of the 34-year-old’s game is sometimes underestimated.
“I think Johnny is a fantastic captain; the problem when you get somebody as good as Johnny the tendency sometimes is to focus on some of the negatives,” said Best, of Sexton.
“But if you look at the way he’s led Leinster, not a lot’s been said about how successful they were last year.
“A lot’s been said about that game in Thomond Park and focused on that. But whenever you see the way Leinster play, you see that they want to play for him.
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“And I think the sign of a really good captain is that you get a sense that people want to play under you.
“I think you got that from Leinster last season, and you got that from the boys last night.
“He’s definitely maturing into somebody who understands the difference between being a quality player and being a quality captain.
“And I thought he did really well, I thought he had a really strong 40 minutes, not just as a player but also as a captain last night.
“And there’s no hiding away from the fact that he’s a big, big leader in this group.”
It wasn’t the most convincing win, but Joe Schmidt was still content with how his charges performed against Russia:
Comments on RugbyPass
Big empty stadium does nothing for atmosphere but munster are playing well with solid performance
1 Go to commentsYes, Fiji can win the World Cup! With that belief plus their christian faith🙏 and hard work it is achievable. Great article. Ian Duncan Fiji resident 1981-84
2 Go to commentsInteresting comments about Touch. England’s hosting the Touch World Cup this year and the numbers have exploded since their last World Cup in 2019, something like 70% more teams and 40 nations taking part. And England Touch have made a big thing about how many universities are in their BUCS University Touch Championship as well as Sport England membership. Can only see this growing even more domestically as more people become aware of it
10 Go to comments“Cortez Ratima is light years ahead of anyone on current form, while TJ Perenara has also skyrocketed into contention following the unfortunate injury to the talented Cam Roigard.” At last some sanity. Hitherto so many pundits have been wittering on about Finlay Christie to the point one wondered if they were observing a FC in a parallel universe where the FC they saw wasnt just the mediocre Shayne Philpott project of Fosters hapless AB reign in the real world. Ratima, Perenara and Fakatava are the ONLY logical 9s for Razor now Roigard is crocked.
2 Go to commentsThis game was just as painful as the Hurricanes game. It was real fork-in-the-eye stuff.
2 Go to commentsNow if they could just fire the Crusaders ground PA guy who likes to play his dance music and just loves the sound of his own voice the entire game, even when play is going on. And I thought their brass band thing of a few years ago was bad.
5 Go to commentsUnfortunately when you lose by far the two form players this season in Roigard and Aumua, you're left replacing two game changing Tanks with a couple of pea-shooters. Which is also about the speed of TJs pass.
2 Go to commentsBit rich coming from the guy with zero loyalty to anyone or any team, including happily taking a players place in a league world cup squad because well, SBW wanted to play in it and thus an already named player got told he was no longer going. And airing stuff like this, which may or may not be true, doesn't exactly say you're a stand up guy either SBW. Just looking to keep his name in lights as usual.
38 Go to commentsTamati Tua. …the Taniwha NPC midfielder. Ollie Sapsford, Hawkes Bay NPC midfielder…doing well
2 Go to commentsFiji deserve to be in the rugby championship, fans love seeing the Fijian national team play, the Fijian Drua is a wonderful idea but the players can still be stolen to play for NZ and AUS…
2 Go to commentsThe first concern for this afternoon are wheather forecast…
1 Go to commentsWhy cant I watch Rugby games please?
1 Go to commentsBeautiful shot from Finau, end of story. Gutted for Shaun Stevenson though.
4 Go to commentsThe Chiefs definitely didn’t win ugly. They had the superior scrum, a dominant lineout, and their defence was excellent once the Waratahs scored their two tries (thanks to some lucky refereeing calls mind you). They put pressure on the Waratahs lineout throughout the game, and the mind boggles as to why the referee did not award a yellow card or a penalty try against the Waratahs for repeated scrum infringements on their own try line before Narawa’s first try. And the Chiefs were slick with their passing and running angles on attack. It was a dominant performance all round, even with many questionable refereeing decisions.
1 Go to commentsWasnt late. Ref 2 assistants andTMO all saw it so who are you to say it was?
4 Go to commentsAre the Brumbies playing the Blues twice in a row?
4 Go to commentsBig difference from the Saders. Forwards really muscled up and laid a solid platform. Scooter brought some steel and I liked the loosie combination. Newell has been rather disappointing this season but stepped up big time - happy also to see Franks dot down. He should do that more often! Reihana had a good game and there seems to be more flair and invention with him in the saddle. McNicoll plays well from the back and is reliable plus inventive when he joins the line. Keep it up chaps!
5 Go to comments🤦♂️🤣 who cares who’s the best . All I know is the All Blacks have the star coach but have few star players now …
34 Go to commentsJe suis sûr que Farrell est impatient de jouer avec Lopez et Machenaud et d’être entraîné par Collazo… 🤭
1 Go to commentsAn on field red (aka a full red) in SRP must surely carry a bigger suspension than a red card given by the bunker as that carries a 20 minute team punishment. Had Damon Murphy abdicated his responsibility as a ref and issued both Drua players a yellow, which would have been upgraded to a 20 minute red by the bunker, that would have killed Australia and New Zealand’s push for the 20 minute red to be trialled globally from July this year.
11 Go to comments