Reaction: Ireland dodge massive upset
September 15, 2007

Ireland captain Brian O'Driscoll cut a relieved figure after his side were given an almighty scare by World Cup minnows Georgia in Bordeaux tonight.

O'Driscoll's men limped home 14-10 but came close to being on the wrong end of one of the greatest upsets in international rugby history.

It was Ireland's second limp performance since arriving in France following an unconvincing opening Pool D victory over Namibia.

"That was a very tough game,'' O'Driscoll said on ITV4. "We didn't play wonderfully again but you've got to give a huge amount of credit to the Georgians today.

"They really came out and obviously put a huge amount of pressure on us, particularly up front. And once they were within a sniff, they grew in confidence.

"When you're within one score, anything can happen.

"We showed some good resolve to hold off at the end and some good defence.''

With games against France and Argentina to come, O'Driscoll admits Ireland have a lot to do if they are going to qualify for the quarter-finals.

"We'll have to assess things and obviously we're going to to need a considerably better performance against the French,'' he said.

"We're still in the competition but it's looking likely that we're going to need to win our last two games.

"We knew we were going to have to pull out big performances to come out of this group and nothing's changed.''

Live Sports

Communication error please reload the page.

ABOUT COOKIES

To help make this website better, to improve and personalize your experience and for advertising purposes, are you happy to accept cookies and other technologies.

More Info Here Cookie Choices