Elsom keeps Aussie focus on here and now ahead of Croker test
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Monday November 09 2009
Australia had barely touched down in Dublin yesterday after their successful visit to Twickenham and their returning captain Rocky Elsom was already laying down their intentions for the week ahead.
Much of the talk at this point in the so-called 'World Cup cycle' is about development, but the former darling of the Leinster faithful rubbished any long-term speak as soon as the topic arose.
Robbie Deans' squad have a youthful look to them, but any of them mentioning New Zealand in 2011 around the barnstorming blind-side will have to be careful. Elsom's a cool customer, but it might just upset him.
"If anyone was to talk about the next World Cup then I'd be reasonably annoyed," he said. "There's a lot of time between now and then and we can't win it now, but we can win these game and particularly this one at the weekend. It's not going to be easy for us, we need to put everything into it and throw everything we have into it and then worry about the fallout next week.
"I think looking towards the World Cup -- and we've got a young team, people can say we're building towards the World Cup -- but that's an excuse you'd use after you lose."
unique
Ireland are forewarned, the Aussies aren't here to mess around, but Elsom is preparing his troops for the unique features of a Test at Croke Park.
He attended Ireland's home Six Nations wins over France and England there last season before having arguably his greatest day in the blue jersey at GAA headquarters in the Heineken Cup semi-final win over Munster.
And while his memories of that day remain positive, he knows that he'll be on the other side of the fierce atmosphere come Sunday afternoon.
"I really liked that day. I think I said at the time, it was one of the happiest dressing-rooms I've ever been in. The occasion, the noise coming out into it was deafening for the whole game. You need to address the noise element because compared to the crowds we get in Australia it's very loud. But we just need to make them aware of it and they should be fine. Hopefully they don't make too much noise."
The Brumbies man has been keeping track of his old team-mates' progress from afar, and he believes that Michael Cheika and his own main achievement with the province was instilling the belief they needed to be successful.
"I think that Michael Cheika speaks a lot about culture and creating a culture around the club. Particularly about belief, because I think that he believed that at certain times the team didn't have that in the past."
- Ruaidhri O'Connor
Irish Independent
