‘Ireland not changing game-plan’ – Peter O’Mahony

Although their 32-20 loss to England in their Six Nations opener in Dublin hurt them, Ireland are not panicking and won’t change their game-plan.

That was the word from the defending champions’ blindside flanker Peter O’Mahony ahead of this weekend’s match against Scotland at Murrayfield.

O’Mahony said Ireland’s players have come to terms that they were outplayed by England but said they will be sticking to their style of play.

“We’re hurting. The Aviva is a place we haven’t lost in a while,” he told Reuters.

“You never like losing for Ireland or your club, but the Aviva is somewhere we have made a fortress.

“But the beauty of our job is that, bar the last game of the campaign, you can get back out there, train hard during the week and put it right.”

He added that the players still believe in head coach Joe Schmidt’s approach to the game and don’t think a change in tactics is the way to go.

“We are not going to throw out the game-plan and start on something new,” said O’Mahony.

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“We have built our game-plan for a long time now and we certainly won’t be going away from it.”

He also revealed that the squad are determined to right the wrongs from the England match at Murrayfield on Saturday.

“We cannot hang around feeling sorry for ourselves, we must take our review on the chin and get back stuck in because there is a lot of rugby to be played between now and the end of the campaign.

“We weren’t happy with some of the areas of our game. Some of the strong points that we base our game around didn’t fire and that is disappointing. We have to get back to the things we do well. That is what we will base our performance on this weekend.”