Positive mindset a key factor for Ireland

MOMENTUM IS a word that has great importance – not just in a World Cup but in any big sporting tournament. Momentum is a catch-all word to express a team’s spirit, confidence, self belief and the ability to handle adversity. In reality the term momentum is representative of the mental strength of a team.

It is a state of mind.

I have said before in this column that in any aspect of life it is the mindset that drives performance. Momentum gives fuel to the correct mindset and that leads to excellence in performance.

Back in the World Cup of 2007 Ireland did not have momentum in France. Why? Poor scoreboards were compounded by unrealistic public expectation and this created pressure on the team.

Ultimately it was the team’s lack of energy and focus that created a weak state of mind and body in the players.

With one pool game left to play the Irish team of 2011 are the polar opposite of that Irish team of 2007.

This team’s form prior to the World Cup was poor. Confidence was down, the public expectation low.

The media pressure on Declan Kidney was nothing compared to the vitriolic abuse Eddie O’Sullivan had to suffer despite Eddie having a far greater winning record than Declan.

At the final pool game in 2007 Ireland were under siege. At the same game in 2011 the team are full of hope, enthusiasm and possibilities.

In three games Ireland have rediscovered their mojo and captured the momentum they so badly need to be successful in this tournament.

Playing in tournaments is all about energy. Winning gives a team energy.

Good wins give teams good energy. Great wins give teams great energy.

The win over the Wallabies was more valuable than the points it gave the team in the pool table. The win was like a transfusion of positive fuel for the players.

To the Australians, the defeat was an injection of doubt and recrimination. International rugby may appear glamorous to the outsider. But after a bad defeat, and in a state of mind that is bordering on self-loathing, the hotel where the team stays represents the most lonely place on the planet.

Self-belief, confidence and the chance to dream of creating history are powerful psychological assets for a player. If you have a team full of individuals with confidence it stands to reason your team will play with confidence.

France, on the other hand, are watching themselves as confidence, self-belief and momentum slowly bleed out of the team. Like Ireland in 2007, the relationship of the French coach with the media is under strain. The coach is the story. Not the players.

When the boss is the story it brings unwanted pressure on the team. Marc Lièvremont is undermining his own team’s belief in themselves. The players are watching their World Cup dream slip from their control in disbelief. There is no momentum in their performances, no energy coming into the team’s mind.

While all this is good news for Ireland the bad news is that the Italian team are absorbing their own confidence based on the rock -solid platform of a world-class, grizzled coach with an ‘I will show you’ attitude and the dream of being the first Italian team to make a quarter-final.

The Italians are dangerous because, like Ireland against Australia, they have nothing to lose. At home in Italy they are deemed a success already.

They have hunger, confidence and have built momentum with excellent performances against the minnows as well as a brave 80 minutes against Australia.

Momentum is not just an aspect of the tournament as a whole but is part of each individual match. Imagine that at the beginning of any important match there is one ton of pressure evenly distributed on the 30 players involved.

Individual and group actions then change that distribution of pressure so that the entire ton of pressure is moved to one team or even one player.

The best way to create pressure is via the scoreboard. Scoring points by any means possible keeps pressure on the opposition. Thus the decision to select Ronan O’Gara is a sound and correct choice.

The mental state of players during the entire six weeks and in every minute of a match is of far more importance than many of the physical requirements of the game. Yet we give the mind little or no training.

Commentators, coaches and supporters understand so little of the power of the mind and how it drives performance that we make up words like momentum to describe the energy that positive goal-orientated thinking gives.

Tomorrow morning, as in every match ever played, the team with the best mindset will create its own momentum and go on to be victorious.