Paul O’Connell’s international career might be over but that doesn’t mean the inspirational Munster man won’t be a factor in Ireland’s World Cup quarter-final.
With back line talisman Johnny Sexton already on the sidelines, captain O’Connell’s half-time departure from the fray in Cardiff yesterday could have spelled doom for Ireland against France, but Joe Schmidt’s men instead banded together to deliver a thunderous second-half display to knock off Les Bleus and win Pool D.
And prop Cian Healy reckons the squad can carry over that momentum into this Sunday’s quarter-final against Argentina, using the absence of O’Connell for that extra little bit of motivation.
“Hopefully Paul will be alright, but you get dealt those hands sometimes,” Healy said after the 24-9 Millennium Stadium triumph.
“Being the fella he is and seeing how hard he’s worked, that would be the case, you dig in and you’d want to put on a show for him.
“Hopefully he’ll be OK, but if not then that will definitely give us extra motivation.”
The loss of Sexton and O’Connell robbed Ireland of two of its key field generals, but Healy praised the way those left on the pitch only got stronger in their absence.
“When you’re playing with the likes of Paul and Johnny they don’t give you an option, you have to know your plays inside-out,” the Leinster loosehead said. Thankfully we were able to keep it going once they went off.
“Our squad is strong and everyone knows what they are doing, so any guys who come into the side can keep that going.”
Touted by many as dark horses prior to the tournament, yesterday’s display will only serve to put Ireland firmly in the conversation, but Healy was keen to stress that ‘next game up’ remains the mantra in the squad.
“We’ve put ourselves in the mix, reaching the knock-out stages, so we just refocus again,” said Healy, who lasted close to an hour in the biggest test of his fitness since returning from a neck injury.
“It’s very easy to put the bigger picture out of your mind. We talk about being a week-to-week team for a number of reasons – you cause yourself too much thinking and too much stress to be looking at something like that.
“We’ve a lot going on with what we want to do on the pitch and how clear we want to be, so there’s point at all in thinking of bigger games.
“The biggest game is the next game.”
