On Off the Ball today, Paul Kimmage has drawn attention to comments made by Paul O'Connell at last night's post-match press conference where Kimmage suggests he may have been implicitly directing criticism at Leinster players.
Speaking about Ireland's performance O'Connell said:
'You read Leinster players for the last few years talking about accuracy in every interview they do. And you know, the way we started the game wasn't accurate and that doesn't spread belief throughout the team. That was disappointing from our point of view. We need to be accurate.'
You can watch it from 2:25 here:
To me that strikes of POC merely referencing an aspect of Joe Schmidt sides that was missing from last night's display and was a criticism of himself and the entire team. However, as Kimmage points out, Jonny Sexton's first kick didn't find touch, Devin Toner failed to catch his first line-out and Sean O'Brien dropped a ball early on.
Kimmage also says that he recited the quote afterwards to Shane Horgan who was also uneasy about POC's comments.
Go to 29mins 30seconds to listen to the Off the Ball discussion here.
So was there a bit of tribalism on display? You can make your mind up but to me it seems outlandish that O'Connell would be levelling jibes at certain players.
Hat-tip: Paul Kimmage
