Ireland captain Rory Best has called on his side to get back to their winning way heading into their World Cup warm-up games.
The 2018 Six Nations Grand Slam champions fell to third in the table this year, raising questions as to whether the team was as good as people thought. However, Best has admitted that consistency has been a problem of late that they hope to fix.
“When Joe first came in the big question was ‘how do we perceive ourselves?’, and the big answer was ‘inconsistent’. And what we’ve worked hard to do is to prepare the same whoever we play and whatever we do. That’s how it’s always been under Joe and we certainly won’t go away from that now. It sometimes takes a reality check, and finishing third was bitterly disappointing,” he said.
The 36-year-old believes that the team, who have had five weeks of training camps so far, are hungrier than ever before.
“So, coming in at the start of this pre-season everyone is as hungry as I have ever seen them. We’ve had a group of players that want to prove that the 2019 Six Nations was the blip, not 2018,” he added.
The goal for Ireland is to reach a first-ever World Cup semi-final, with an eye on lifting the Webb Ellis Cup, although Best believes that this year will be an extremely open tournament, with even the All Blacks in danger.
“New Zealand are the best team in the world and they are the favourites. But I also think this will be one of the most open World Cups. Anyone will feel they can beat anyone on their day. And it’s great that Ireland can be one of those teams. But we also know that, look at Wales and England in the Six Nations, we can lose to those teams too,” he continued.
Best thinks that Ireland’s first two wins over the All Blacks in their history have shown the world that Ireland can beat anybody on their day and has given them huge confidence.
“That first victory against New Zealand, in Chicago, it felt like we pushed through a ceiling. But it was hugely important to get the second one, to prove again that we can do it. We want to be a team that can prove we can beat anyone and we’ve not just shown it once, we’ve shown it twice now,” he finished.
Ireland host Italy in the first of their World Cup warm-up games at the Aviva Stadium this Saturday, before heading off to face England and Wales in away games.
They conclude their World Cup preparations with a reverse fixture against the reigning Grand Slam champions at home on September 7th after which they will jet off to Japan for where Best and co will be hoping inconsistency won’t be a problem.
