Ireland may have beaten France at the Millennium Stadium yesterday but the win came at a cost.
Peter O’Mahony will play no further part in the Rugby World Cup having suffered a knee injury and both Paul O’Connell and Johnny Sexton also had to come off and are major doubts for the rest of the tournament. However, speaking after the match, Ulster’s Rory Best and Chris Henry both highlighted the strength in depth of this current Ireland squad and said that they believed Joe Schmidt has the personnel at his disposal to beat the Pumas next weekend:
Rory Best:
"How many times have we talked in the past two years about developing a squad and how the bench coming on makes a huge difference? Today (against France) Johnny goes off early and Ian Madigan comes on and has a cracking game. Paul goes off and Iain Henderson comes on and does well. Chris Henry was brilliant in that last quarter. You don’t like to lose players, but the reason that you build a squad, the reason that you blood people in the summer or in previous internationals is for this. We aren’t stupid - we know that we are not going to go through a tournament without an injury. The victory was sweet - it was real testament to the character shown after a reasonably poor performance last week to turn it around for this weekend.
"If Paul is out of the tournament then obviously it’s a huge loss. He brings so much. He spoke so well before the game just about how much it should mean to us. Knowing your role and knowing your plays is not enough. It has got to mean more - its got to be about passion and commitment. He will obviously be a massive loss but he will be looking for us to push on without him. That’s what we will do. Jamie (Heaslip) stepped up as captain and he has led both Leinster and Ireland lots of times. He is a brilliant player and leadership brings out the best in him. We all just need to step up and give a bit more."
Chris Henry:
"This is the strongest side that we have had in long time. I think we are in a better place than we were four years ago and we have two great Six Nations wins behind us. We have tried to build a squad mentality. We don’t rely on a handful of players like we did in the past and there are so many variables. There is a long, long way to go and it’s all about getting prepared and ready for next week.
"Before the game Paulie (O’Connell) really had everyone buzzing and really emotional. The 15 lads that started the game were fast off the line and really set the tone. Sub-consciously we knew that this was going to be a step up. If you could bottle that feeling every week you would. We’ll regroup now and see where we are at, but we have reached the target of topping the group."
Peter O’Mahony will play no further part in the Rugby World Cup having suffered a knee injury and both Paul O’Connell and Johnny Sexton also had to come off and are major doubts for the rest of the tournament. However, speaking after the match, Ulster’s Rory Best and Chris Henry both highlighted the strength in depth of this current Ireland squad and said that they believed Joe Schmidt has the personnel at his disposal to beat the Pumas next weekend:
Rory Best:
"How many times have we talked in the past two years about developing a squad and how the bench coming on makes a huge difference? Today (against France) Johnny goes off early and Ian Madigan comes on and has a cracking game. Paul goes off and Iain Henderson comes on and does well. Chris Henry was brilliant in that last quarter. You don’t like to lose players, but the reason that you build a squad, the reason that you blood people in the summer or in previous internationals is for this. We aren’t stupid - we know that we are not going to go through a tournament without an injury. The victory was sweet - it was real testament to the character shown after a reasonably poor performance last week to turn it around for this weekend.
"If Paul is out of the tournament then obviously it’s a huge loss. He brings so much. He spoke so well before the game just about how much it should mean to us. Knowing your role and knowing your plays is not enough. It has got to mean more - its got to be about passion and commitment. He will obviously be a massive loss but he will be looking for us to push on without him. That’s what we will do. Jamie (Heaslip) stepped up as captain and he has led both Leinster and Ireland lots of times. He is a brilliant player and leadership brings out the best in him. We all just need to step up and give a bit more."
Chris Henry:
"This is the strongest side that we have had in long time. I think we are in a better place than we were four years ago and we have two great Six Nations wins behind us. We have tried to build a squad mentality. We don’t rely on a handful of players like we did in the past and there are so many variables. There is a long, long way to go and it’s all about getting prepared and ready for next week.
"Before the game Paulie (O’Connell) really had everyone buzzing and really emotional. The 15 lads that started the game were fast off the line and really set the tone. Sub-consciously we knew that this was going to be a step up. If you could bottle that feeling every week you would. We’ll regroup now and see where we are at, but we have reached the target of topping the group."