Welcome aboard!
Ireland are into the quarter finals of a World Cup for the sixth time in their history. That and the fact that no Irish players got injured, in their 16-9 win over Italy, are the only two positives from today’s action.
The other may be the fact that Ireland are now getting a lot of support from fans of the host nation.
Many English rugby fans have jumped ship after their country was eliminated by the Australians on Saturday night.
Asked about the possibility of becoming the new hometown heroes, Ireland captain Paul O’Connell had an excellent response.
“We are available for selection for support,” he remarked.
“Looking at today we are going to need everything we can get.”
The lock apologised to Irish fans, who made up the majority of the 53,187 in attendance at the Olympic Stadium, after the game.
“The crowd were amazing,” he said. “I wish we could have put on a better performance today… It was a shame we didn’t match them [for energy and enthusiasm].
O’Connell expanded on the theme in the post-match briefing.
“When you make mistakes and concede penalties, it flattens the performance and you can’t get into any sort of rhythm.
“To turn it over it takes the edge off it a little bit and that is something we have to deal with. We probably did not do that well today.”
