Brian O’Driscoll: Press Conference Quotes
Ireland captain Brian O’Driscoll gives his thoughts on Sunday’s must-win clash with Argentina and his side’s hunt for the tries which could land them a place in the World Cup quarter-finals.
ON IRELAND’S APPROACH TO SUNDAY’S GAME:
“We’re adopting the attitude that we know that we’re capable of doing it. We’re capable of a huge performance. It’s the last game of the pool stages and we know that if we don’t produce something enormous then this will be our last game in this World Cup.
“It’s very much last-chance saloon. We’re just hopeful that we can produce the form that everyone knows this team is capable of.
“The Argentinians have based their game around their defence and they’ll be very difficult to break down but we’ve managed to score tries against great defences before, the likes of France, Australia and New Zealand.
“We’ve simply got to go out and put in a performance in this tournament because it would be a travesty to work as hard as we have done for the past three months in pre-season, and for the four years since the last World Cup, and not put in a performance.”
ON THE IRISH PLAYERS’ PREVIOUS EXPERIENCE OF NEEDING BONUS POINT WINS:
“There are guys who have been in this situation before. It could be irrelevant, it could be important. There have been guys who needed to do it for their club and managed to do it. So any level of experience they can bring to the table is very welcome.
“They’ll know that you don’t need to go out and do it in the first 20 minutes. Hopefully we’ll let the performance take care of what the result may be. If we can get four tries, fantastic. If not, we’ll die trying.”
ON THE RETURN OF DENIS HICKIE AND GEORDAN MURPHY TO THE TEAM:
“With the two guys coming in, without being disrespectful to the lads they’re replaced, we’ve probably got more game-breakers in the side now, guys that can create something out of nothing.
“We’ve got raw speed in Denis, and an excellent rugby brain and brilliant reader of the game in Geordie. So, we’ve got as many game-breakers on the pitch as we could possibly have.”
ON THE DISAPPOINTMENT OF POSSIBLY BEING ELIMINATED EARLY FROM THE TOURNAMENT:
“There will be plenty of time for that post-competition. There’s no point in allowing yourself to even contemplate what it would be like because there’s nothing you can gain from that. I’m a firm believer in being as positive as possible until the moment when it’s out of your hands.”