KEY POINTS:
BORDEAUX - Ireland coach Eddie O'Sullivan was a relieved man after his team held on for a 14-10 Rugby World Cup win over minnows Georgia on Saturday.
The Irish team's second Pool D victory, which could so easily have ended in a huge upset win for Georgia, put O'Sullivan's men equal top of the pool with Argentina on nine points.
Ireland, though, have yet to meet hosts France, who were upset by Argentina in the tournament's opening match, in Paris on September 21 or the Pumas nine days later with only two going through to the last eight.
"We kicked poorly and they ran back with the ball and pinned us down. We showed a lot of guts at the end to hold them off," O'Sullivan said after tries by hooker Rory Best and fullback Girvan Dempsey gave Ireland the win.
"Two nerve-wracking evenings but I hope they stand us in good stance going to Paris next week," he told reporters alluding to Ireland's poor 32-17 win over Namibia in their first pool match last weekend when they conceded two tries.
Dempsey expressed his displeasure with the team's performance when he said: "It is up to the individuals to look at their own games."
Captain Brian O'Driscoll added: "We will have to assess things, obviously we are going to have to need a considerably better performance against the French."
Georgia scored the try that put them temporarily in the lead in the 45th minute when wing Giorgi Shkinin intercepted a pass from halfback Peter Stringer that was meant for O'Driscoll.
"It's likely we are going to have to win our last two (matches) but we knew were going to have to pull out big performances to come out of this group and nothing's changed," O'Driscoll said.
"I'm very happy. I would like to thank my team," Georgia coach Malkhaz Cheishvili said.
"I'm really proud of my lads. To try to compete with the Irish, we tried to organise our defence as tightly as possible.
"We also prepared our players psychologically, because without mental qualities we would not have been able to compete with a team like Ireland."
- REUTERS
