Above all else, Ireland must keep playing under the mind-bending pressure New Zealand will apply in Chicago.
I am back in the Windy City this weekend as one of the pint-swilling punters Paul O’Connell used to envy as the team bus turned down Lansdowne Road.
Match day nerves can be horrible.
Retiring from your chosen profession at 36 is challenging, yet it does provide some benefits. I walked Royal Portrush last Tuesday, even managed to birdie the 1st and par the 18th.
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I do miss the precious moments after a big win, especially inside the changing-room, but the nausea before games and numbness after a loss? Good riddance.
It is two years since Sam Whitelock won the penalty that ended our World Cup quarter-final in Paris. Even writing about it now is agonising but I know the Ireland team have harnessed the pain, and they will continue to do so until the next step is taken.
In 2023, I played 19 minutes off the bench at Stade de France. Only caught my breath once during an insane finish when I was harshly penalised by Wayne Barnes for a hand on Jordie Barrett’s shoulder. Jordie collapsed like a sack of spuds before nailing the penalty to make it 28-24.
Nine minutes on the clock and we needed a try to beat the All Blacks…
I recall the battle that raged in my head between positive and negative thoughts. Nobody was immune from the suffocating pressure.
At least we kept playing. Other Ireland teams would have capitulated when New Zealand took a 13-0 lead after 20 minutes. Previously, my brain would have caved to the negative voice: ‘They are going to put up 60. Like they did in 2012.’
My mental preparation sharpened around 2015. This required plenty of personal attention, and a few trips to Lahinch (not for golf).
I will always hold regrets about Paris. We lost by four points, collapsing to the grass seven metres from the opposition try line.
It’s gone. But not forgotten.
When we returned to camp in advance of the 2024 Six Nations, Andy Farrell wasted no time gathering us for a video session. Somehow the coaches found positives buried in those last few minutes: “Look how much space there was to attack wider,” they told us. “Next time, and there will be a next time, we will trust our skill set rather than betting on the lineout maul.”
We moved on, retaining the Championship after pulverising France in Marseilles before drawing a series in South Africa.
To keep winning after Johnny Sexton and others retired is down to men like Tadhg Beirne and Tadhg Furlong taking up the mantle. And the quality of coaches. But none of that matters if your ability to perform is routinely blocked by anxiety. Every single elite athlete can tell you how they learned to control the nausea, the internal voices, and the fear.
The real sport psychologists, or whatever you want to call them, provide tools to unlock talent you already possess but lack a clear mind to use when it really matters.
I never sat down with Gary Keegan for a one-on-one session but his presentations to the group made it an obvious decision for Farrell to bring him on the Lions tour of Australia last summer. Gary is an approachable and knowledgeable man. His background with the Olympic boxers carries weight among the Ireland squad.
Mental preparation comes down to learning how to deal with nerves. You have probably seen the collective breathing in the huddle. Gary monitors that and other elements of preparation.
At Munster, we could not understand why Caroline Currid was not retained back in 2022.
Caroline has been praised from the steps of the Hogan Stand. The Limerick hurlers swear by her work on mindset and unity. Tipperary captured the Liam MacCarthy Cup on her watch. O’Connell brought her into the Ireland set-up last summer.
Currid has an innate feel for any room she walks into. No need for a PowerPoint presentation, like others. Just a genuine person who has the ability to empower athletes.
Word gets around. Only last weekend the captain of Moycullen David Wynne thanked Caroline after they won the Galway SFC title.
Any sports team trying to white-knuckle through big occasions without the expertise of someone like Keegan or Currid is failing to prepare.
I went a step further. Susie Quirke came into Irish camp for a meditation session before the 2015 World Cup. It had a profound impact on me. I was a sceptic, but a few sessions with her down in Lahinch allowed me to reframe my approach to handling pressure.
Susie also helped, over Zoom, when Warren Gatland named me as the Lions captain in 2021. It came out of the blue. I’d led Munster twice. Together, we turned this huge honour into something I could carry lightly.
Farrell is all about players being vulnerable and curious. When Jack Crowley admitted to struggling with anxiety in one of his early games for Ireland, our coach turned to the entire group: “Does anyone else feel this way?”
Peter O’Mahony raised his hand: “I felt like shite all week, and really anxious on game day.” Instead of having to ‘man-up’, our young 10 had Pete for company.
People see the players coming out of the Shelbourne Hotel, chests out, earphones plugged in, without realising that some boys are sick to their stomach. It is a privileged life. It can also be petrifying to know you must perform in front of 50,000 Irish people.
In my autobiography, Cloud Nine, I wrote: “New Zealand will come at you in waves and you can lose your nerve and go for the safe option. Don’t do that. Trust your skills and hold your nerve under the blitzkrieg.”
By the way, the 1st and 18th at Portrush are both par fours. Just saying.
[ Why perfecting the counterattack is central to Ireland’s World Cup evolutionOpens in new window ]
