Ireland 52; Fiji 17
It may have been only Fiji but a new-look Ireland 15 rediscovered their creativity in attack and doggedness in defense, leaving Head Coach Andy Farrell with a smile on his face at the end of an eight-try fest at the Aviva Stadium on Saturday.
“You give people these opportunities for them to realize their own potential. It’s what they do with that experience now, that's going to be important pushing on,” said the man who after next weekend’s game against Australia, will step down temporarily to take charge of the Lions for their upcoming tour in Australia next summer.
Farrell talked up the contributions in particular of 21-year-old hooker Gus McCarthy, flanker Cormac “Izzy” Izuchukwu and new outhalf Sam Prendergast.
He stated: “What a story there for Gus. Two years ago, lifting the Senior Cup. I thought he did a brilliant job.
"He just kept going to play 80 minutes and played the finish at number seven. Himself and his family will remember that forever.
"I was gutted for Izzy in regards to the forward pass, it was marginal, so Mack [Hansen] says anyway. It would have been nice for him to get over the line. I thought he was a presence, certainly in the lineout. He's some athlete
“I thought Prendergast did great. I thought he was really composed. He had a few mistakes within his game but he was pulling the strings for a good while, and he was really, really composed.
"It's tough against Fiji, you don't know what you're going to get at times. Certainly, the breakdown is an absolute mess at times, because they're so ferocious there and they're so short defensively that you can see the space but you have them shooting out from out wide, and to have the composure and play the line like he did at times, I thought it was a great showing from him,” he added.
Farrell will now measure up against his old boss Joe Schmidt, who has made a huge difference to Australia and will be going all out to beat his old team Ireland on Saturday to make up for Sunday’s 27-13 loss to Scotland at Murrayfield.
Against Fiji, Ireland and Prendergast were lucky that the latter’s early high tackle was deemed yellow rather than red as that would have had a profound effect on the outcome of the game.
The 21-year-old made several mistakes but also shone in the way he got his three-quarter line to play, interspersing some breath-taking passages with backs and forwards constantly breaching the gainline.
It led to Ireland scoring eight tries – four in the first half through three of our best players on the day – Caelan Doris, Josh van der Flier and Craig Casey - with Mack Hansen getting our fourth on the stroke of the short whistle, which with Prendergast’s conversion gave us a clear 28-3 lead.
Gus McCarthy had recovered from a crooked call on his first throw to play well in all facets of the game, particularly in the continuity where he managed to have a hand on all three of our first scores while he was also involved when MVP Bundee Aki touched down for the fifth shortly after the interval.
Aki, dropped for the previous game, was unstoppable against the mighty Pacific Islanders and drove them back with the power of his running right at the heart of their defense.
As was to be expected Ireland took their foot a little off the pedal in the second half which saw the visitors get in from tries through Kitione Salawa and Satareki Turagacoke, both of which were converted by Caleb Muntz, who earlier had kicked a first half penalty.
Hansen got in for his second and then late sub Rónan Kelleher got us past the half century as our champagne rugby day ended up with Caelan Doris playing center with Conor Murray on the wing for over an hour as the luckless Jacob Stockdale went off with a hamstring problem.
Ireland: J Osborne; M Hansen, R Henshaw, B Aki, J Stockdale; S Prendergast, C Casey; A Porter, G McCarthy, F Bealham; J McCarthy, T Beirne; Co Izuchukwu, J van der Flier, C Doris (capt) Replacements: R Kelleher (for Aki, 73), T O’Toole (for Porter, 47), T Clarkson (for Bealham, 47), I Henderson (for Izuchukwu, 50), C Prendergast (for Van der Flier, 47), C Murray (for Stockdale, 49), C Frawley (for Osborne, 27), S McCloskey (for Henshaw, 47).
Ireland scorers: Tries: Mack Hansen (2), Caelan Doris, Josh van der Flier, Craig Casey, Bundee Aki, Gus McCarthy, Rónan Kelleher Cons: Sam Prendergast (5), Craig Casey (1)
Fiji scorers: Tries: Kitione Salawa, Satareki Turagacoke Cons: Caleb Muntz (2) Penalties: Caleb Muntz (1)
