Malcolm O’Kelly has revealed why Ireland’s last World Cup in France was such a disastrous campaign, but is confident such problems will not affect Ireland during this year’s tournament.
Ireland have never progressed beyond the quarter-finals of the Rugby World Cup, but 2007’s tournament in France was the only occasion they were eliminated at the pool stage.
After unconvincing wins against Namibia (32-17) and Georgia (14-10), which remain the lowest winning margins by tier one nations against the two sides at the Rugby World Cup (who have both never beaten a tier one team in the tournament), Ireland slumped to thumping defeats to France (25-3) and Argentina (30-15).
It was O’Kelly’s third and final World Cup and a tournament where, speaking on The Rugby Paper Podcast, he feels an attacking Irish team was hampered by the dominance of defence.
“What we prepared for was way off,” he said. “That ’07 World Cup was a funny tournament. New Zealand were probably the best team in it, and played the most rugby, but were beaten by France.
“We were a team that liked to play rugby, but that was not a World Cup that was about who was the best attacking team. It was ultimately about who was the best defensive team.”
“Argentina beat France in the very first match, and all they did was boot the ball straight up in the air, fan out across the field, and knock guys down to the floor.
“We were definitely a victim of that against Georgia and Namibia, teams who suddenly had incredibly well-organised defences.
“By the time we played France, we knew by that stage that we were in big trouble. Argentina was worse again, the wheels had fully come off by then.”
With Ireland trying to put together a sophisticated attacking plan, O’Kelly feels the team went away from the fundamentals that proved to be so crucial, and lost the balance between the two sides of the ball.
“We had designed a very elaborate gameplan,” he said. “We’d spent all summer working out this incredibly complex multi-phase attacking structure which was way ahead of its time.
“But we’d spent so much time doing it, we’d kind of forgotten the basics of rugby. What did we need to do? We needed to smash guys, put them back. We didn’t. I think we let the foot off the pedal and we didn’t have a focus on what was important for that particular World Cup. We were guilty of trying to take the game somewhere where it wasn’t.
“I think that’s a risk for the World Cup now. If Ireland spent all their time trying to figure out a new move that ended up getting smashed by Tonga, and everyone sees that, it’s not going to work. You need to find a balance between attack and defence.
“Hopefully by this time round they’ll be no such surprises from these boys. I’m not sure how far in a direction you can take the game at this stage anyway.”
O’Kelly believes the three months leading up to the tournament have always proved difficult for Ireland, with other teams having the opportunity to catch up with the cohesion that the men in green are able to build in their tight-knit provinces and long international camps.
Ahead of the last World Cup Ireland were coming off the back of two years in which they had twice beaten New Zealand, won a Six Nations Grand Slam, and sat at the top of the World Rankings, before a dismal warm-up campaign in which they lost 57-15 to England and then meekly exited the tournament at the quarter-finals with a 46-14 defeat to the All Blacks.
“It’s so important, and it’s been a big problem for Ireland,” he continued. “I wonder if it’s less so that Ireland aren’t continuing on an upwards trail but France, England and South Africa, for example, suddenly have a lot more time to work with each other, and create bonds and build relationships that have already been made in Ireland because of the amount of time they spend together.
“So many great sides will improve, and for Ireland it’s going to be a real challenge to continue to grow, but they need to. That’s not easy, but they do have a great coaching staff.
“They’ve got three warm-up matches, there’s not actually that much rugby there. So they’ll have to find that competitiveness on the training field, they’ll earn their keep in the next three months.”
As a proud Irishman who won 92 caps for his country, O’Kelly is backing the island nation to win this year’s tournament.
But he is fearful of the prospect of having to face New Zealand or France in the quarter-finals, although he preferred the former when asked which side he’d rather Ireland come up against in the last eight.
O’Kelly concluded: “I do think that they can go all the way, but the scenario that they’re faced with is tough. I do think they can beat South Africa in the pool stage, but I don’t know what benefit that is bar momentum with France and New Zealand to come in the quarter-final.
“Maybe it’s the past that I’m thinking about, but I would hate the idea of playing New Zealand, but similarly so France in France is such a difficult game. I think I’d prefer us to play New Zealand. I’m not sure that New Zealand team is what it was, but if they beat us they’ll be hard to beat.”
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