The Ireland flanker Sean O’Brien believes the Six Nations champions will respond to the unimpressive victory over Italy at the weekend by fixing various faults before they face France in Cardiff in Sunday for the group title and a quarter-final against Argentina rather than the All Blacks.
Italy had been the least impressive tier one nation, including England, going into Sunday’s encounter against Ireland at the Olympic Stadium, but the return of their No8 and captain, Sergio Parisse, galvanised them and they were pressing at the end for a draw.
“There were parts of our game we were not pleased with, such as handling errors and giving away too many penalties, and we put ourselves under pressure at crucial stages,” said O’Brien. “Italy caused us problems and it was no harm to have a Test match like that leading into Sunday. One positive was that we closed the game out in the final 15 minutes: when you are in a hole like that it is sometimes hard to get a grip on things.”
Ireland have not lost to France since before the last World Cup and beat them 18-11 in Dublin in February, although Les Bleus scored the only try of the game and have improved since then, winning their last five matches having established continuity in selection.
“We had a rude awakening against Italy,” said O’Brien. “France are a far more dangerous side and their history in the World Cup speaks for itself, six semi-finals out of seven. They are always a different team in the tournament and we know we are going to have to be on our game, smart as well as physical, and play for the whole 80 minutes.
“They like to get into a rhythm and get their off-load game going so we cannot afford to cough up the ball cheaply or make mistakes.
“Frédéric Michalak is one of their dangerous players, and while you look to put pressure on every fly-half, if you go after a player of his intelligence and skill level, he will cause you problems. You need to have a collective approach.”
O’Brien will be up against the France captain, Thierry Dusautoir. “He is one of the best back-rowers around, a very tough man, hard in the tackle and massively influential for France. His leadership qualities are unbelievable and he has a lot of experience at this level, someone who, when I was younger, would look at a lot. He is a great player.”