This second win now means that Ireland lead Pool A as the countdown begins to next Sunday’s crucial game against Argentina, which will almost certainly decide which team accompanies Australia into the quarterfinals and which team heads for home.
Despite the Sydney weather forecasters predicting some “patchy rain” before the kickoff against Namibia, the heavens opened and conditions were more akin to a winter evening in Limerick than to the customary balmy eastern Australia climate. With the Namibians understandably at a loose end as the rain bucketed down, Ireland adapted more efficiently to run in 10 tries for a convincing success.
If there were a number of handling errors and turnovers during the deluge, no one was complaining too much, given that the ball resembled a bar of soap. However, in the immediate aftermath of the contest, there was genuine apprehension that second row Paul O’Connell could face disciplinary action following a stamping incident.
In possession of the ball in the middle of a moving maul, O’Connell clearly kicked out at a Namibian player who he believed was deliberately trying to collapse the maul. The referee subsequently penalized O?Connell but didn’t show him a yellow card, which would have led to 10 minutes in the sin-bin. However, after the game, Namibia coach Dave Waterston said he was going to cite O’Connell for stamping.
Now, while Ireland coach Eddie O’Sullivan didn’t see the incident as stamping, maintaining that O’Connell “stumbled over” a Namibian player, Waterston was unrepentant.
“O’Connell must be Mr. Magoo,:” Waterson said. “If he didn’t see our player, he needs to join a Braille club because he went back to step on him a second time. We don’t normally cite people when we lose because cowboys don’t cry, but in this case the incident was pretty unsavory.”
Amid the confusion, it then emerged that Waterston had in fact no right to cite O’Connell, and that any complaint had to be made by the match commissioner. Still, the Irish were left to sweat as it was later revealed that the commissioner was going to look at the video of the match to see if there was a case to answer.
In the end, O’Connell was cleared of any wrongdoing, but if he had been found guilty of stamping, he would have received a four-week suspension and his World Cup would have been over. The decision was much to coach O’Sullivan’s relief as already O’Connell has proved himself to be one of the team’s most valuable players with his strong running and outstanding lineout work.
So the Irish came through unscathed scoring 10 tries in the process. Once the O’Connell business was put to bed, management and players were looking ahead to the showdown against Argentina in Adelaide. So far, the Pumas have demonstrated an edge in the forwards, while Ireland have looked more potent behind the scrum.
O’Sullivan will have to make a key choice in the playmaker position of out-half, where Ronan O’Gara and David Humphreys are in contention. Both have played a game each to date, and while suggestions are that O’Sullivan will opt for the greater experience and temperament of Humphreys, O?Gara offers more of an attacking threat.
Because if weather permits, Ireland will want to move the play away from the Argentine forwards and exploit the pace of Brian O’Driscoll and Denis Hickie. While O’Driscoll has been in strangely muted form to day, if the Irish are to avoid the sort of disastrous defeat by the Pumas that ended their participation in the 1999 tournament, they will need O?Driscoll to be at his very best.
O’Sullivan was unwilling to look too far ahead, but he expressed himself satisfied with the performance against Namibia. “I’m pretty happy with that, we haven’t had those sort of conditions since Lansdowne Road last autumn,” he said. “By and large we kept our focus and if we were guilty of anything it was that we tried to force things a few times. But 10 tries in that rain was a pretty good day’s work.”
Interestingly, the Namibians, who were beaten 64-17 by Argentina, rated the Pumas more highly than Ireland. “Argentina are much stronger in the scrums and definitely they’re stronger than Ireland,” Waterson said. “They’re a tougher proposition.” Waterston added that the Puma forwards were a “much harder group and a lot more positive” but he felt that the Irish might hold an advantage in the backs. “I’d say that Ireland are one of the slow starters of the competition and perhaps that’s a good thing,” he said.
They certainly didn’t start slowly last Sunday, making light of the appalling conditions to lead 33-7 by halftime. The impressive Alan Quinlan got the ball rolling with the first try and more scores followed in quick succession from Girvan Dempsey, Hickie, Marcus Horan who was deputizing for the injured Reggie Corrigan, and Eric Miller. Both Quinlan and Miller added second tries after the interval, Shane Horgan also crossed and substitutes Guy Easterby and John Kelly completed the rout with O’Gara kicking seven conversions.
“It certainly wasn’t the game plan we left our hotel with,” said O’Sullivan. “We had intended to play a quick rucking game but had to change everything pretty drastically. In the end, it was good old-fashioned stick it up your jumper, Munster cup rugby.”
With the clash against Argentina looming and with Ireland’s tournament on the brink, the coach and his players will be hoping for some better weather on Sunday, and a better result than the humiliation of four years ago.