Johnny O’Connor: Samoa, New Zealand and Sonny Bill

This week, Johnny reflects on a disappointing performance against Samoa, looks ahead to the All Blacks this weekend and discusses the new star of New Zealand rugby, Sonny Bill Williams.

 

I watched Ireland against Samoa at the weekend and I suppose you have to say it wasn’t a good game really was it? The first 20 minutes was reasonable enough and then Samoa got that try. After that, you start doubting yourself, but we won the game and hopefully we can grow from that .There’s a huge task coming up this weekend, everyone saw what New Zealand did to Scotland. We need to get ourselves sorted really, especially at the set pieces.

At the end of the day though Ireland needed a win and we got it. We started OK and played well at times. I think some players stepped up, for example Seán Cronin hit his darts and carried the ball well. But you just look at some of the players Samoa have and you realise that they’re a good side. The likes of George Stowers, Alesana Tulaigi, Seilala Mapusua; they’re all top class players at their clubs and in their divisions, whether it’s the Premiership or the Top 14.

I think it would be great if a couple of ex-props went into refereeing.

They’ve some really good players and they’re all serious athletes; every one of them is able to carry the ball. It was always going to be a hard game, it’s not like it was years ago against these sides. Samoa are a good team now and Fiji are getting stronger as well. They’re catching up and at some stage there will be a lot more parity between them and the top sides at international level.

Ireland do seem to be stuck in a rut at the moment and it can be really hard as a team when that happens. You look all around for different ideas to solve problems, but you just have to stick to what you know, do what you’re good at, stick to the basics and it will come good in the end. When you’re in a rut, the basics are crucial, such as your scrum, your lineout and your ball handling. Keep trying to do the simple things right and you’re generally going to be OK.

Problems at scrum time

The scrum was a bit of a mess at times on Saturday as there was a bit of confusion at the time of engagement. Some referees pause for a small bit longer than others, but in general it seems to have got a bit longer this season. I suppose the referees are trying to stop lads going for the early hit, they’re not flying through the crouch, touch, pause, engage commands; they’re probably trying to stop teams from jumping the gun.

I think it would be great if a couple of ex-props went into refereeing. Unless you’ve done it yourself, it’s very hard to understand what’s going on and some people’s interpretation of the scrum is different than others. As well as that, props are cute; they have different ways of making opposition props go down. It would be great if some ex-props went refereeing simply because they know exactly what goes on and they would probably be better able to officiate it.

Going forward, if it’s a case of the IRB saying ‘that’s the way it is’, then teams will have to adapt. If there are strong enough calls for the scrum to change, something might be done about it. The pause does seem to have gotten a bit long and it has become difficult for props, but if teams want to play and not give away penalties, they’ll just have to abide by the rules the way they are.

I also caught New Zealand against Scotland at the weekend and to be honest, it looked like a training match at times. They carry the ball so well, the ruck ball was perfect; it was on a plate. They kept feeding their big runners all the time and on Saturday, there was a great performance from Sonny Bill Williams, who is growing and growing into the game after converting from rugby league. Often, you don’t notice the things he does because he does it with such ease. He seems to have taken on the mantle as the new star of rugby in New Zealand.

The future is Sonny

Obviously there was a lot made of his offloads against Scotland, he was constantly using that one-handed offload. It’s really hard to tackle somebody like him. Sometimes you might commit two guys or works in pods of three to stop the offload. He’s such a big man; you try and smother him and stop the offload, but it’s hard to do. Sometimes he passes the ball with one hand even if there is no one near him!

He’s an outstanding athlete, the days of running over people are gone in rugby, everyone’s able to tackle and they know how to deal with big guys. It’s great to have somebody in your team like Williams, who’s so big, but also so evasive in the tackle. He’s a super player and he’s amazing to watch because he’s such a good athlete, and for such a big man, at around 110 kilos, he just moves so well. In the NPC (National Provincial Championship) for Canterbury, there was one game where he ran from the 22 and some poor guy tried to tackle him and he just absolutely floored the guy and sent him flying through the air (see clip below).

As far as the game at the weekend is concerned, you live in hope that things will come right. There are good players in the Ireland squad and there’s always a chance of getting a result if things click on the day. I’m sure Ireland are aware that it’s going to be a difficult task and it could well turn out to be an exercise in damage limitation.

Selection up in the air

In fairness to Ireland, the conditions were difficult against Samoa; you just don’t know what that wind can do. Some guys did play well though, I thought Jamie Heaslip was good, I’ve already mentioned Seán Cronin and Devin Toner was impressive too. They seemed to go very well together at the lineout; Toner is so tall, he’s just a good lineout operator, he did very well for a man getting his first cap. It was just a matter of winning, all they needed was a win and they have that now. It’s unfortunate that New Zealand are up next but I’m sure they’ll be able to deal with it and hopefully get something out of it.

I don’t know what Declan Kidney’s thinking in terms of selection; obviously there will be players coming back in, you’re not sure who was dropped and who was rotated for the Samoa game. I just hope it goes better than when I played against them (see picture above) in 2005; we got absolutely hockeyed! It was in Lansdowne Road, we got beaten 45-7. We just got opened up, it was just one of those times when they were on fire; it was embarrassing at times to be honest.

Lastly, we’re back in action in the Magners League against the Ospreys this weekend. They might have a few international players missing, but that doesn’t matter one bit. Whether they have internationals missing or not, it’s a game we want to win, we go out with that attitude every game. It’s the way it has to be and just because the Ospreys are missing a few players, it doesn’t mean that they’re going to lie down and give up. They have loads of serious players and it’s going to be a tough game. They’re planning to win, we’re planning to win and we’ll just see how it goes.

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