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Heroics forgotten after Hamilton’s historic low
After Saturday, it’s just as well Ireland are not coming back here for 12 years.
NewZealand 60 Ireland 0
By Rory Keane
It may well take that long for the scars to heal and the memories to fade of what was a shambolic performance on an epic scale. By Rory Keane
Once again, this Irish team displayed its inability to string two top-class performances together. The heroic display in Christchurch is now sandwiched between two record defeats in Auckland and Hamilton.
That Grand Slam success in 2009, Declan Kidney’s first season in charge, seems like a long time ago now. It has been three years of frustration since; interspersed with the sporadic sparky showing.
In Hamilton, Kidney’s side were lethargic and lacking in accuracy from the off, and were ruthlessly punished by a New Zealand side with a few scores to settle.
Ireland seemed to dump the tactics that worked in Christchurch. Gone was the aggressive rush defence, the intelligent kicking game and direct attacking approach to be replaced by the kamikaze tactics of the 42-10 beating at Eden Park. The maddening sight of Irish players probing from touchline to touchline with laboured passes and ineffective decoy runners was an all too familiar sight this time round.
For what it’s worth, Steve Hansen’s side were outstanding, although their true resolve was never fully tested by their inept opponents.
Aaron Cruden stepped in manfully for Dan Carter and, playing on his home ground, the Waikato Chiefs fly-half ran the show for the first 24 minutes until he retired with an achilles injury. At that stage, the damage had been done. Richie McCaw, despite playing out of position at No 8, led from the front and was ably assisted by his 20-year-old protégé Sam Cane on the open side.
Brian O’Driscoll and his fellow inside backs had performed manfully in containing Sonny Bill Williams for the first two Tests, but it was the SBW show in Hamilton. The giant inside centre carved Ireland open at will and finished the night with a brace of tries and two assists, not to mention about half a dozen outrageous offloads for the highlights reel.
You had to feel for Paddy Wallace, parachuted in to mark Williams. The Ulster centre had been sitting on a beach in Portugal at the beginning of last week when he got the call form Kidney and only arrived in New Zealand last Tuesday.
How Kidney expected him to step up to the pace after that ordeal is anyone’s guess, and the Irish coach was unflinching in his appraisal this callow display.
“We won’t try and hide from it,” said Kidney. “We were hammered and it’s unacceptable.”
One damning statistic that emerged from the contest was that on 24 different occasions, a Kiwi player broke an Irish tackle, which suggests that this Irish team simply failed to front-up.
“We’re not making any excuses,” said Kidney on the Irish defensive effort. “They won them. They bust us and that is where we have to ask that question because would I have seen that coming? No.
” Obviously they hit us better but we didn’t respond in the way that we needed to.
“We didn’t win the collisions, we made turnovers when we shouldn’t, when we didn’t have to make them because we forced passes. Our kicking game was loose. They played a smarter game.”
After a near 12-month season, Kidney has his players will break for some much-needed rest. This side needs to find a new gear next season, and Kidney was adamant that he was the man to do it. “You don’t get into it for games like this,” he said. “But you’re the coach; you’re the one that has the responsibility to rectify it.”
NEW ZEALAND: I Dagg; B Smith, C Smith (T Ellison 61), S B Williams, H Gear; A Cruden (B Barrett 24), A Smith (P Weepu 61); T Woodcock (B Franks 72), A Hore (K Mealamu 41), O Franks, L Romano, S Whitelock (B Retallick 56), L Messam, S Cane (A Thompson 70), R McCaw (capt).
IRELAND: R Kearney (yellow card 40-50); F McFadden, B O’Driscoll (capt), P Wallace (R O’Gara 54), K Earls (A Trimble 64); J Sexton, C Murray (E Reddan 54); C Healy, R Best (S Cronin 67), M Ross (D Fitzpatrick 60), D Tuohy (D O’Callaghan 56), D Ryan, K McLaughlin (C Henry 55), S O’Brien, P O’Mahony
Referee: R Poite (France).