Ireland 22; Australia 19
On the face of it, three out of four ain’t bad, but performance wise, Ireland are still trying to find the swagger and rugby innovation which seems to have deserted them somewhat over the November quartet of test games.
For long stretches, Joe Schmidt’s Australia were the stronger and slicker outfit playing smart rugby and stopping us as if they knew our movements before we made them at the Aviva Stadium on Saturday afternoon.
Ultimately, it was the replacing of first-choice half-backs Jameson Gibson-Park and Sam Prendergast by Munster pair Jack Crowley and Craig Casey that breathed new life into our three-quarter line and our forwards took their cue from their play to gain a significant foothold on the game for the rest of the match.
After a dismal showing against the All Blacks, a good half against Argentina and hot and cold against a disappointing Fiji outfit, Andy Farrell's side showed a facility to hang in against the Aussies and by game’s end, we had outgunned them by three tries to one and came away with victory on the IRFU’s 150th anniversary in front of a sold-out crowd.
Ireland went in at half-time 13-5 in arrears and despite a second try from skipper Caelan Doris to go with the first half touchdown from his back row colleague Josh van der Flier, we were still losing by four points with seven minutes to go.
The change of personnel then clicked and Gus McCarthy got our third dot down, from a forward again, with Crowley kicking a great conversion to take us to a three-point win, which was as unconvincing as it was close.
By half-time by which time we had one score - a try, 16 handling errors and 12 turnovers, the Ireland team had lost something they had sought to get back into their game - confidence to penetrate when they had the ball in hand.
Farrell summed it up perfectly when he declared after the game: “We were feeling sorry for ourselves. I understand that and it's human nature, but we had enough possession and territory to win the game twice over in the first half. We spilled enough ball and made enough errors in the first half to lose two matches as well.
“You've no right to think that everything's going to go your own way, all singing, all dancing the whole time. So with that in mind, we got over ourselves and I thought we came back strong,” the coach who now steps down from his Ireland role to take charge of the Lions party who tour Australia next summer.
Trying to put perspective on it all, he added: “The big picture of the game is that I'm really proud of the victory because it was hard-fought in the end against a bit of adversity, so delighted to get the win.
“There were 14 handling errors in the first half. That's a hell of a lot. You obviously take the positives from the fact of being down there in the right parts of the field but I mean, some of them were simple ball in hand and then dropping them.
“Some of them were lineout stuff. A lot of them were a bit fancy – not seeing the pass, just presuming that people are going to be there. Our timing was off a little bit,” he explained.
On the switches he stated: “I thought the bench was excellent, some really good impact from Pete O'Mahony and Garry Ringrose, and the two half-backs. I thought Gus was excellent again. I mean, he had nerves of steel. A young kid coming on in that type of pressurized situation when things weren't smooth in the lineout at times, but when he came on he nailed everything, and to score the try as well.
“So, delighted with the impact. I suppose there's a little bit of you've nothing to lose when you're behind and the performance isn't as good as it should be but they didn't just try to fit in, they tried to add in many departments but mainly with the energy and the grunt.”
Schmidt has not only made Australia competitive again; they are not far away from becoming a force against top teams in either hemisphere.
On the game where he went close to upsetting the apple cart on many of his former players in green, he said: “I was proud of the team. I thought they demonstrated a level of grit that you need if you're going to be competitive with the Lions and competitive with Ireland, number two team in the world, and I think we made them work pretty hard tonight to get the win.
“It started at the end of last November when the boys came back after their break post the World Cup, to where we are now, I think there's a bit more confidence in what they're delivering. They're a little bit more connected, and there's still a bit of growth to go, I'm hoping.
“I think I already knew that this group of young men, they had that in them, and it was just for them to find it and galvanize each other and then deliver it. I felt that at times in that first-half, we didn't quite capitalize on some of the line breaks that we made. We did get to the ball, and we did keep the ball, and I felt Max Jorgensen's drive was really well-worked to finish that after going side-to-side. In the second half, probably my one disappointment around the game is that I felt we got quite conservative,” he said.
And his biggest regret in retrospect: “When you do that against Ireland, and you're hanging on, and you've got a four-point lead and you're hoping that's enough, I just think we tried to do that from too far out, started kicking it back or kicking it out, giving them a set-piece to launch from,” the 59-year-old Head Coach assessed.
A compliment about Schmidt came from Ireland skipper Caelan Doris, who said: “It's always going to be tough against a side coached by Joe Schmidt. We dominated possession and territory in the first half but lacked accuracy in their 22 but it was better in the second half.”
The Wallabies will feel reasonably happy as they get ready to host the Lions following wins over England and Wales, a close call against Ireland and a poor show against Scotland in Murrayfield the previous weekend.
Gus McCarthy’s late try helped us avoid a second home defeat in four games, following the opening round loss to New Zealand. We were poor in the first half and only had Josh van der Flier’s try to show for our efforts. We hit 10 points in the opening 10 minutes of the second half, with a good team try dotted down by Doris, but the Aussies fought back to lead with two penalties before McCarthy’s intervention, expertly converted by Crowley, saw us eke home by three points.
While the game was a close call, it will also be remembered as the day Cian Healy won his 134th cap to surpass former Ireland and Lions captain Brian O'Driscoll.
Ireland: H Keenan; M Hansen, R Henshaw, B Aki; J Lowe; S Prendergast, J Gibson-Park; A Porter, R Kelleher, F Bealham; J McCarthy, J Ryan; T Beirne, J van der Flier, C Doris (capt) Replacements: G McCarthy, C Healy, T O'Toole, I Henderson, P O'Mahony, C Casey, J Crowley, G Ringrose.
Scorers Ireland: Tries - Van der Flier, Doris, Gus McCarthy Cons - Prendergast, Crowley Pens - Prendergast (2) Australia: Tries - Jorgensen Cons: Lolesio Pens: Lolesio (4)
