IN ALL FAIRNESS - Sexton key to Ireland hopes

IN ALL FAIRNESS

 

Wouldn't it be truly Irish for us to finally break our quarter final hoodoo at the Rugby World Cup at the expense of the defending champions.

While Ireland did come into this World Cup as the number one ranked team in the world, it wasn't a true reflection as New Zealand still remain the best team and that won't change until someone defeats them.

It's as tough a quarter final that Ireland could have asked for against New Zealand who are chasing a third title in a row, plus are well rested after their final group game against Italy was one of the casualties to Typhoon Hagibis.

However, the fact that Ireland have beaten them twice in their last four meetings, with the two defeats by narrow margin, means that our players should have no fear when they face down the Haka in Tokyo at 11.15am Irish time on Saturday.

While Ireland's inconsistent form this year makes us underdogs, it is a role we are comfortable in and may just inspire us to a performance which hopefully will be enough to send us through a first ever Rugby World Cup semi-final.

Certainly, in comparison to the 2011 and 2015 we are are lot more grounded going into a quarter final. In both years we were giddy after going through the group phase unbeaten and failed to bring the level of performance to the games against Wales and Argentian respectively.

New Zealand are a higher level of opponent altogether so it will ensure the Irish minds are focused and I am confident we'll see a top notch performance, whether it is enough to win remains to be seen as if New Zealand play near their best, it doesn't matter what Ireland do.

The up and down nature of the group phase performances are in the past now. The loss to Japan doesn't look too bad considering their display against Scotland which saw them progress as group winners at our expense, however, no one here minded such is the quality of their play and the excitement of their fans.

Can Ireland win on Saturday, they certainly can because Johnny Sexton is on the field. He along with Paul O'Connell, Peter O'Mahony and Sean O'Brien were all missing for the 2015 quarter final and no top level team could survive losing such key players. Four years on, we are at rude health going into the knockout stages, apart from the suspended Bundee Aki and long term injury to Dan Leavy.

If you go through the best of Ireland's performances in the World Cup so far, it has been with Sexton running the show from half back. He wasn't on the field against Japan and you would argue we might have survived if he was there. But we are where we are and you can be sure that New Zealand will be picking out Sexton for particular attention, testing legaility at times. He needs to be protected and in that respect you want to have as many of your leaders on the field as possible in the early stages and that should mean Peter O'Mahony starting the game.

O'Mahony's form in this World Cup has been disappointing and in any other game would struggle to hold off Tadhg Beirne or Rhys Ruddock from the team but these are the type of games where the Munster man tends to be a big game player and he certainly won't stand for any nonsense if New Zealand try to test referee Nigel Owens if a big call has to be made.

On current form, Ireland are up against it but everything over the past four years since the loss to Argentina has been about getting back to a World Cup quarter final and finally crossing the hurdle which has become a noose around Irish rugbys neck and what a time to make a bit of history by taking down New Zealand in the process.