IT WASN’T the heart-stirring farewell from the Aviva Stadium Ireland wished for Paul O’Connell, or the injury list they wanted less then 48 hours before coach Joe Schmidt names his 31-man squad for the World Cup. Thirteen years after O’Connell’s first cap at the old Lansdowne Road ended with a bang on the head that knocked him unconscious against Wales, a 16-10 defeat by Wales concluded his international career at home and sent Ireland on the road for their final warm-up game against England next Saturday with plenty to chew over.
Before mulling over the gaps in their performance, though, there are more pressing medical issues to address. Keith Earls being stretchered off concussed will top the list ahead of Monday’s squad announcement but Luke Fitzgerald, Peter O’Mahony, Johnny Sexton and Richardt Strauss all suffered injuries to cause varying degrees of concern. In terms of the result, Justin Tipuric’s try and Leigh Halfpenny’s usual bullet straight goalkicking decided the match, with Iain Henderson enhancing a fine performance alongside O’Connell in the second row with Ireland’s try. Ireland’s late pressure did get Sean Cronin over the line at the end, but he was held up by Halfpenny and Aaron Jervis.
“Very disappointing,” said O’Connell at the end. “There was a lot of the things we wanted to improve on from two weeks ago (against Scotland). We didn’t do that. It leaves us with a lot to work on. We’re preparing for the World Cup, we’d want to play a little bit better than we’re doing.”
O’Connell also exhibited some admirable evasion skills to duck and dive away from a lap of honour, but the crowd still cheered and applauded long enough to pay due tribute to an iconic leader.
“All through my career in Dublin the supporters have been amazing,” he said. “Hopefully, they can add to it in the World Cup. We’re lucky it’s close to Ireland, there will be a lot of people there. Hopefully we can give better performances once it starts.”
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For Wales, victory settled any irritation caused by defeat to Ireland three weeks ago and allowed them flick their preparations up a few gears. “It was a tough game,” Tipuric said. “You know when you play Ireland you have to front up. Our front five were awesome and gave the boys a platform to play off. It was a great performance and good result.”
Like Schmidt, Gatland names his final squad tomorrow before one final run-out against Italy ahead of Wales’s first pool game against Uruguay. Ireland have less than three weeks to Canada, and a single day before Schmidt reveals the first big decisions of the autumn.