The drained Ireland tight-head located a comfy seat for his post-match briefing in the Aviva Stadium mixed zone.
Mike Ross completed his first 80 minutes in a green jersey for over a year and, given his lack of game time this season, was delighted he had enough in the tank to help see off Australia. ‘I could do with a drip tonight,’ he remarked.
‘We certainly made tough work for ourselves,’ he said. ‘We got off to a great start and then they came back into it. After that, the thing just tightened up massively and it was a case of who could be the most disciplined.’ Ireland coach Joe Schmidt was struck down with appendicitis but was still able to impart advice on his players at half-time, says Ross.
Asked to reflect on a Guinness Series sweep and raised expectations, Ross replied, ‘We’ve got two good victories under our belt over two of the Southern Hemisphere powers. You need to have that belief going forward into the Six Nations and certainly into the World Cup.
That is Irish sport for you. You are either a hero or villain. There is expectation on us but no more than we are putting on ourselves. We know the level of performance that is required now and we have to deliver on that every single time otherwise there is a guy waiting to take your spot.’
Ross continued, ‘We know we need to get our own stuff right. Most of the pressure is from external sources. We would dismiss that within ourselves because it is not much use for us to worry about that. It doesn’t help but we know that if we get our own game plan right and execute well we have given ourselves every chance of winning.’
The Irish scrum generally held up to Australian pressure. The Wallabies had the upper hand just before and after half-time but the Irish started and finished in the ascendancy. Ross described his teams scrummaging as a ‘mixed bag’ but mentioned a teak – dropping lower – and toughening it out as key factors in righting the imbalance.
Ireland and Schmidt (sans appendix) will not meet again until the two-day December get-together at Carton House. The focus, at that stage, will switch to retaining the Six Nations title.
‘We’ve proven to ourselves that we can deliver at the top level when it matters,’ Ross proclaimed. ‘We need to continue just doing that. There is a big Six Nations, plenty of other nations that will be looking to take the title and we will be looking to defend it. Later on, the biggest tournament in rugby, the World Cup. There are plenty of sports up for grabs and everyone will have to perform.’
