Ireland lock Donncha O’Callaghan has revealed that Irish coach Declan Kidney lost his temper at his players last week over the team’s escalating penalty count.
Ireland have been the biggest offenders in the competition so far, conceding an average of over 12 penalties per match.
Their indiscipline cost them against France, where they lost despite winning the try count 3-1, while it almost cost them against a mediocre Scotland side, where they came out on top by three points despite again scoring three tries with none in response from the Scots.
It is a problem that Kidney knows Ireland have to address if they are to have any hope of landing the Triple Crown and O’Callaghan revealed that the normally placid coach didn’t hold back when analysing the defeat to Scotland with the squad last week.
“Whoever was in on our meeting with Declan last Tuesday wouldn’t want to be on the end of a silly penalty this weekend,” said O’Callaghan.
“Everyone probably knows Declan as a nice man who is really calm and composed. But he let fly on Tuesday.
“It has been a while since he lost his temper. I can remember one or two with Munster, but it’s fair to say he was fairly annoyed.
“We know him so it’s tough for him to be that blunt and direct. It’s a side to him that you don’t like to see too much.
“You could see it’s the main man calling the shots and guys don’t want to reoffend.”
Despite winning two of their three games so far, there has been a negative perception overall of Ireland’s displays and O’Callaghan believes that the current side are a victim of their recent success.
“In the past when we won the Triple Crown, people would run on to the pitch, lifting the players off it,” he said.
“And you’re thinking that if we won a Triple Crown now, they’d probably be giving out to us!
“That’s probably due to the high standards that are expected now and I don’t think that’s a bad thing.
“We can’t play the small guys anymore, those days are gone. We’ve won European Cups, we’ve won Grand Slams, we’ve picked up a few scalps – South Africa, Australia etc.
“People’s expectations are way higher than they should be and I think that’s not a bad thing.”
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