Declan
Kidney, Gert Smal, Les Kiss & Alan Gaffney. All key members of
what should be known as Ireland's “brains trust”. With a heavy emphasis on the word “trust”.
I
may have predicted a win for Ireland, but I always said I was going
with my heart over my head. Believe me, I was a bit lacking in
full-blown trust myself when all is said and done.
But
one thing I did say, and have done all this calendar year, is that
this match in Auckland was always going to be the one on which the
coaching staff must be judged because it was the only one that really
mattered.
And
boy, how they came up trumps.
We
all saw the match, but there's three things I want to highlight –
the phase of play that led to the winning score, the state of our
opposition that day, and just how we got things right.
There
were 64 minutes on the clock. We had won the 1st
quarter 6-3, lost the 2nd
quarter 0-3 and won the 3rd
6-0. We may have been 6pts up at this stage, but everyone knew the
danger posed by the Wallaby backline and that in a split-second that
scoreline could be turned on its head.
When
Will Genia picked up the ball and surged forward into our 22,
something Australia had struggled to do all evening, it looked like
that was it. But hang on – how did he manage it? We'd been
executing the Les Kiss-style “choke tackle” to almost perfection
the whole match, and it didn't make much sense that even he could
have gotten through so many players the way he did.
But
say what you like about Bryce Lawrence - and believe me, after he set
up camp in Eoin Reddan's passing lane only to give the scrum against
him I had been saying quite a bit – not every ref would have
spotted Sekope Kepu's obstruction of Paul O'Connell when he was about
to smother Genia. Or at least if they did, they wouldn't have called
it.
And
just like that, yet another Australian attempt to trouble the scorers
was thwarted and with a ROG punt, secure lineout, Sexton bomb and
Kearney recover, all of a sudden we were right on their line just
needing some stready phases to get it over before Cian Healy knocked
it on.
I
just realised that the first time I've mentioned the man-of-the-match
is in a negative light. I'd better make his the lead photo to
compensate, because moments later he plays his part in securing the
match.
So
it's a scrum to Australia. They've been destroyed here all day, but
still, you have to assume they'll at least clear their lines from
here. I was already praying we'd secure our ball from the ensuing
lineout, while still retaining some hope that Quade Cooper would get
a notion to run it out of his own try area and then screw up as he is
wont to do.
But
the Wallaby front row were simply no match for the Healy-Best-Ross
combo. And even at this festival of the best the sport has to offer,
there's precious few who would be. For about the fifth time on the
night we forced a straight arm penalty from a scrum and this time it
was right under the posts. A herculean effort by anyone's standards.
That was the ballgame right there.
Now...about
Australia. Did they play poorly? Perhaps. But not in defence. They
were actually outstanding when they didn't have the ball. And I
couldn't let this write up go without also mentioning the world-class
tackle in the dying seconds on Tommy Bowe by James O'Connor.
But
here's where I think they were lacking, other than in the front row,
that is. Much was made about the absence of Pocock and Moore, and in
some ways, rightly so.
In
other ways, however, it must be noted that rugby is a full-contact
sport and to have any hope of succeeding in a tournament like this
one, you MUST have above-average options ready to come in at every
position on the park, and I reckon Robbie Deans & co have been
exposed for having precious little beyond his admittedly world-class
first XV.
I
mean – every Irish rugby fan knows how big a loss it would be for
either of our props to be injured. But then again, we didn't go into
this tournament with serious aspirations of winning it.
And
of course there's the slogan that adorns my favourite rugby t-shirt :
“youth and skill are no match for age and treachery”.
Ours
is the oldest squad at the tournament, Australia's is the youngest.
Maybe we didn't resort too much to actual treachery, but when you
watch over our display you can see nothing but pure focus on the job
at hand by pretty much everyone wearing green – an ability that can
only come with experience.
So
to summarize, we found their weakness and made them pay. Which leads
me nicely into our gameplan which was so simple yet so brilliant.
What
we saw from our backs in August, ie lateral passing to the wing in
the hope that he can somehow cut inside for a gain, was merely the
ugly duckling to the beautiful swan that was to emerge in Auckland –
a well-thought-out, nigh-on perfectly executed offensive strategy
that drove the Wallabies onto the back foot and kept them there.
If
you make a clearance kick and it goes straight to Quade Cooper or
Kurtley Beale, you'd better watch out. Unless, of course, you put
enough height in the kick AND have support runners right in their
face when it comes down.
And
funnily enough, that's precisely what Beale did to Kearney in the
opening stages, and the Aussie full-back seemed to lay down a huge
marker by catching it himself right in his opposite number's face.
But
although it took us 15 minutes to get some decent possession
ourselves, we patiently remained strong on defence and it did us the
world of good for Kearney to do the very same thing back to Beale not
long afterwards.
They
just had no answer to our execution of the garryowen, and whatever
about our scrums, that high ball was a goldmine for gaining
territory. An absolute masterstroke in every respect that was also
cunningly disguised in the build up to this massive encounter.
You'll
see my individual player ratings later today on The Rugby Blog, but
I'd like to talk about Jonathan Sexton's performance in a bit of
detail here.
I
was a bit surprised to hear Matt Williams at halftime hone in on his
own two missed place kicks while not even mentioning the fact that
James O'Connor had also missed two himself.
Sure,
Sexton should be doing better. But whatever your provincial
allegiance you can't merely rate our outhalf for his placekicking –
his part in the offensive strategy was immense and he certainly
didn't disappear when shifted to first centre either.
With
the Italy match so vital in the pool, and with O'Gara clearly with a
lot less to worry about in the placekicking department, I reckon
Sexton must start against Russia. Give him a chance to get his mojo
back. If it's not happening, then fine, ROG starts against Italy –
no harm, that's bound to be a forward scrap anyway and we'd probably
out-kick the Italians if Paddy Wallace was doing it!
Allow
me catch my breath – a cold shiver went down my spine...
Seriously
though...I've read some comments about the need to get a bonus point
against the Russians next week. Let me make my position perfectly
clear. I couldn't give a flying you-know-what how much we beat
Russia or Italy by, so long as we Do beat them.
It's
simple maths folks – even if you win all four of your pool games by
only 3-0, you have 16 points on the table and NOBODY can catch you. As our
wise captain said, there's still two matches to be won, but they
merely have to be won. Squad management must be high on the agenda
of our brains trust.
And
in their brains, I now have almost complete trust. Do you? JLP
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