The Irish nation will be expecting them to put it right on Saturday and that means pressure.These little considerations about which team is under more pressure matter a lot in the Five Nations. Some of the effects of their battering from England were eased by the win over Scotland but Wales hardly looked convincing. We’ve got to play with the same pride and the same spirit against Wales And this time we’ve got to win.”. AFTER what the Irish did to the Five Nations form-book last weekend, it’ll take a brave man to do any forecasting about the remaining matches – especially Wales’s visit to Dublin on Saturday. On the face of it, Ireland’s amazing transformation that so nearly beat France should be more than enough to see off the Welsh. We got the French to turn inside and they don’t really hurt you there.” Before leaving Paris, Gatland also got his squad to focus on the challenge they will face at Lansdowne Road on Saturday: playing Wales with the pressure of national expectation upon them.
He had them on the training ground at 8.30am last Sunday.”It would have been easy for us to come home and lose our heads,” McGuinness said, “to wallow in the praise Warren himself would admit the job’s only started It’s one thing to play well when you’re the underdogs It’s much more difficult when you’re expected to win. “He looked at the French,” McGuinness said, “and realised if we gave them room out wide they would cut us to bits. We played in their faces with everyone, out to the wings, pushed up. They were pinned to the walls of the team-room at the hotel and to the dressing-room walls at the ground It was truly amazing to feel all of those people behind you. That came through in the game.”Gatland’s All Black nous came through, too. Every paper under the sun was saying we were going to get a thrashing But Warren isolated us from that. He surrounded us with all these messages of goodwill, 2,000 of them.
When Warren announced he was going to do it I know a lot of people said, ‘What a sad thing.’ But it really did work We had our backs to the wall. By the Friday we really believed we could win.”Opening up the fax line for messages from the Irish public had an incredible effect. “To be honest,” McGuinness said, “we went to Paris to put a bit of pride back in the jersey But Warren built up our spirit and our self-belief. Such high praise will not, however, sweep Ireland’s new hero off his feet.