[caption id="attachment_66741" align="aligncenter" width="600" caption="Ireland's Jonathan Sexton is tackled by John van der Giessen and Andrew Suniula of USA. "]
THE fact that they won was the only real plus for Ireland as they opened their Rugby World Cup campaign with a 22-10 success over the USA in New Plymouth, New Zealand on Saturday.
In contrast, the USA could take a good deal of satisfaction. Ideally, they would have marked 9/11 with a victory but that was never a realistic aspiration against highly rated Six Nations opposition.
To have competed as fiercely as they did and finished with Paul Emerick's intercept try said a lot for their courage and resilience. That accepted, Ireland will really need to do an awful lot better if they are to make progress in the competition.
They knew exactly what to expect given the day that was in it. So, there were no real excuses for what was a second-rate Irish performance.
At least, there is an appreciation of what was wrong. And it is that same problem which troubled Ireland throughout their warm-up campaign, an inability to get the basics right.
In difficult wet conditions it was obvious that Ireland needed to retain possession. They had a scrummaging platform but failed to take sufficient advantage of it.
As the USA coach, former Ireland boss Eddie O'Sullivan put it: "Logically, the Eagles should not have finished within 12 points of Ireland. But yesterday wasn't about logic.
"It was about the power of the human spirit and a team's absolute commitment to honor the memory of 9/11. Ireland's may not have enjoyed it but as a coach I'm really proud."
He's every right to be. But, on the other hand, Irish coach Declan Kidney has every right to expect better from his team, even against such committed opponents.
Skipper Brian O'Driscoll admitted as much in the immediate aftermath of the game. So, did another of Ireland's most experienced campaigners Ronan O'Gara.
O'Gara, who came on for Jonathan Sexton 11 minutes into the second half, has always been one to speak his mind. Nor has he ever been someone to make excuses.
He said: "When we woke up this morning the weather wasn't great. But we had to deal with that. You have to play what's in front of you and play the conditions.
"I suppose when we kept the ball at times we made it look easy but we didn't do it with an frequency whatsoever and that's disappointing.
"We're probably looking to come up with big plays too frequently and we've just got to get back to basics and hold on to the ball and keep our error-rate down."
With a red-hot Australian outfit next up on Saturday morning, Ireland will need to do even more than that if they are to win. Besides getting the basics right, they will require some of their big name players to recapture their best form.
Jamie Heaslip is an obvious example. At his best, Heaslip is a world class number eight but he has been unrecognizable recently.
Gordon D'Arcy in the centre continutes to struggle, his intercept pass to Emerick summing up his current problems. Then there was Sexton's goalkicking problems whereby he was successful with only two out of six kicks.
Potentially, Kidney can, of course, bring back O'Gara. While that might take away from Ireland's attacking threat, O'Gara is the more reliable goalkicker and has much more experience.
It's a tough call for Kidney, one of a number he has to make. For instance, he went with the inexperienced young Munster scrum-half Conor Murray against the USA but he struggled before being replaced by Eoin Reddan.
In the long term, Murray could prove a very good international player but Ireland do not have time on their hands in their World Cup pool. They also badly need to have Sean O'Brien, Cian Healy and Ronan Kearney available again.
Not that Healy's replacement in the front-row Tom Court did at all badly. The scrum was one of the few Irish successes, although they made a mess of one when they had the chance of a fourth try and a bonus point late on.
Ulster flanker Stephen Ferris was Ireland's best player. He consistently got over the gain line and made some excellent tackles in a performance which suggests his injury problems are behind him.
Rory Best also did well, scoring Ireland's second try, while Paul O'Connell had a decent game. In the backs, Tommy Bowe was the standout player after a poor start which saw him fumble a number of balls.
But he recovered well to score two well taken tries. If Ireland are to have nay chance of beating Australia they need to get the likes of O'Brien, Ferris and Bowe on the ball as much as possible.
O'Driscoll is still not at his best, although he did really well to help set up Bowe's second try. Sexton, if picked, will clearly need to sort out his goalkicking.
Interestingly, O'Gara doesn't believe the ball is the reason that so many top class goalkickerers have been off target in the first round of matches. Quite simply, they all had a bad day.
As for Ireland's failure to get the fourth try, much credit must go to the Eagles for the way they defended. They put their bodies on the line, no one more so than skipper Todd Clever.
He was one of the best players on the pitch as Ireland struggled to establish a first half advantage. They had to settle for a single Sexton penalty before Bowe burst through for a try which the outhalf converted to make the half-time score 10-0.
The Eagles did pull three points back with a penalty from James Paterson but Ireland at last put some decent moves together to score two more thries through Best and Bowe, one of which was converted by O'Gara. Given that there was 20 minutes remaining, Ireland should comfortably have been able to secure the bonus point for the fourth try.
Instead, they failed to capitalize on their opportunities and it was the USA through Emerick who had the last word. Malifa's conversion completed a pretty decent day's work for the Eagles.
Galway make it
double over Dubs
GALWAY once again upset the Dublin hurling bandwagon when beating them by 3-14 to 1-10 in the All-Ireland Under 21 decider at Semple Stadium last Saturday night.
This was every bit as comprehensive as Galway's All-Ireland hurling minor success over Dublin the weekend previously. There could be absolutely no complaints, Dublin were second best throughout in both contests.
Few, if any, of the pundits anticipated that either game should be so clear cut. After losing the minor final, it was thought that Dublin would be right up for the Under 21 decider.
But there was never any real chance of them taking revenge. Galway, just like Kilkenny in the Senior All-Ireland final, had been waiting for this match ever since losing the previous year's decider to Tipperary.
This is a very good Galway team. And the obvious question now is can all of the Western county's under-age talent at last transfer into senior success.
Given all of the disappointments in more recent years, it's hard to be sure what is going to happen. But the platform is undoubtedly there and it's now a question of getting the organization right.
Anyone who watched them blitz Dublin at Semple Stadium will recognize what a fine job manager Anthony Cunningham has done with this Galway team. Initially, they were given a soft penalty, which Tadgh Haran converted.
But Dublin also got a break when Tomas Connolly, a brother of senior footballer Diarmuid, scored a goal almost immediately afterwards. From then on, Galway were simply too fast and skilful for the Dubs.
They scored a number of brilliantly taken goals, the best of which probably game in the 28th minute from man of the match Davy Glennon. James Regan's goal was another superb effort as Galway moved 3-6 to 1-4 clear at the interval.
Dublin never really recovered from those two blows. Senior intercountry star Liam Rushe tried very hard but it just wasn't his day.
Instead, it was Galway's Barry Daly who lifted the trophy. "Winner takes all," said manager Cunningham. "This time last year, our guys were shell-shocked but they have worked really hard to make amends."
`Dublin manager John McEvoy was bitterly disappointed, stressing: "Some of the decisions went against us but they are the breaks. Also, we have to give credit to Galway, they showed immense physicality, particularly in their full-back and half-back lines."
