February 16, 2011
By Staff Reporter
As the Irish won their first warm-up game of the season against an under-strength Wales at Lansdowne Road, all eyes were on Wood who got through 70 minutes unscathed before being substituted.
As team captain and inspirational leader, Wood remains a key player in Ireland’s World Cup challenge, which kicks off in Australia in six weeks time. If he wasn’t his usual barnstorming self, it was a relief to national coach Eddie O’Sullivan that there was no recurrence of the shoulder problem that has sidelined Wood for so long.
With further preparatory games against Italy and Scotland to come before the squad for the finals is announced, Wood has time to prove his fitness.
“I face a situation whereby my remaining outings will have to be sufficient preparation for the World Cup,” Wood said. “I’ll push myself as hard as I possibly can and if the shoulder blows up, it means that I’m finished. Either way, I can take it.”
Wood has long intimated that he will retire after the World Cup, so was he emotional that Ireland’s victory could have been his last ever game at Lansdowne Road? “I was too tired to be emotional. I was concentrating on the game. Nor was I thinking of my injuries, you can’t play with that hanging over you.”
As for the match, Paul O’Connell impressed in the second row scoring the first and last of five tries, while there were also good performances from Kevin Maggs, Geordan Murphy and David Wallace, when he was introduced in place of Anthony Foley at halftime.
O’Connell and Alan Quinlan both had first-half tries converted by David Humphreys as Ireland led by 14-5 at the interval, and they were followed by further tries from Wallace, Malcolm O’Kelly and O’Connell before the end. “An informative exercise” was how coach O’Sullivan put it. He is likely to try a very experimental selection against Italy at Thomond Park on Saturday week.