Rory O'Connor
๐ค SpeakerAppearances Over Time
Podcast Appearances
And I thought our balance throughout the game of whether to kick straight away, whether to run and challenge England and get on the front foot and then put the ball early.
You look at Sheehan playing Van der Vlier on that short line.
And then we end up getting right into, you know, the passage ends with England having a free kick five meters from their line.
That's off a restart receipt.
They then kick it back.
We subsequently score again.
It's such a killer when you're in under your post and two minutes later, you're back in under again and the captain's trying to motivate you.
So that was a really important part of the game, how we exited.
And it was actually an area that we struggled with against Italy.
Yeah.
And I was struggling to see our identity after the first two rounds.
The difference at the weekend was we're good footballers and that is a point of difference.
And when I say that from a defensive point of view, it's when do you counter-rook?
When do you decide to go for a poach?
When do you decide to cut your cloth and go, we're under a bit of stress here.
We need to just lose a few meters, but stay connected and we'll get them on the next phase.
Or this is a good opportunity to get up off the line and get high.
And we saw McCluskey get man and ball.
We saw Balacoon get man and ball.
We were seeing those impact tackles.