Monday, March 15, 2010
CLINICAL was the word Warren Gatland used to describe Ireland’s performance at Croke Park on Saturday and it could hardly have been more appropriate.
Ireland did what they needed to do to keep their hopes of a fifth Triple Crown in seven years very much alive without ever having to play above themselves. And now it would take an upset of major proportions to prevent coach Declan Kidney walking off with his second major trophy in two years with all known form suggesting that Scotland – in spite of all the times they have upset the Irish in the past – coming to Croke Park on a hiding to nothing.
For the second game in a row, Ireland won by scoring three tries to nothing which suggests they have become quite adept at taking their chances and extremely proficient at keeping their own line intact. That was never more apparent than at Twickenham a fortnight previously and manifested itself again during a tense and crucial seven-minute spell shortly after half-time on Saturday. 16-6 behind at the time, Wales scorned three points in search of seven that might well have brought them back into the game. They twice opted for scrums in the hope of receiving a penalty try from referee Craig Joubert and with good reason, too, given that the South African didn’t like much of what Ireland were doing with the penalty count against them as much as 16-10.
At the third time of asking, though, Ireland – or more specifically, the much-maligned but great hearted John Hayes – got the nudge on, totally disrupted the Welsh scrum and cleared their lines. It was one of the game’s defining moments, leaving Gatland to rue: "It was a great scrum by Ireland and the turning point of the game. Had we scored then, it might have been a different outcome but that’s not take anything away from Ireland. They were very good, very clinical and took their chances very well."
Apart from the disappointing penalty ratio which indicates that Ireland still have some work to do at the break down where new IRB recommendations strongly advise referees to come down heavily on "the second tackler", the tackle count of 121 successfully made and nine missed will please Les Kiss even if it pales in comparison with the 99-1 count at Twickenham.
The mighty Paul O’Connell and co pinched six Welsh throws at the line-outs for the loss of one, an indication of just how competent they have become in this area, although it is only fair to point out that Wales were missing almost a third of their best team for one reason or another.
Keith Earls is certainly coming of age as an international three-quarter. On Saturday, he scored his first try while playing on the left wing, his second arrived after he had moved into the centre on the retirement of Gordon D’Arcy with a dead leg. On each occasion, Earls demonstrated both his willingness and self belief to run at the tackler and all-round footballing skills.
Interestingly, neither score would have come his way without the foresight and speed of Tomás O’Leary. It was the scrum-half’s decision to run a penalty close to the Welsh line on the half hour that began the move carried on by Paul O’Connell and Brian O’Driscoll that released Earls to score the first.
One of O’Leary’s strong points throughout his career has been to make light of the odd mistake and carry on regardless. When he threw a poor pass to O’Driscoll midway through the second half, there didn’t appear to be any immediate danger to the Welsh. But the centenary celebrating captain brilliantly whipped the ball off his toes, returned it to the flying O’Leary who this time found Earls with a perfect delivery. Once again, the Welsh never had a hope of catching him as his pace and line of running left them all for dead.
Not that O’Leary was prepared to allow his Munster teammate steal all the thunder! He cruised in for a beauty of his own after a deft pass from O’Connell and in this instance again, the speed of the Irishman left the defence without hope. It obviously helped that Wales were down to 14 men at the time as a consequence of a harsh enough yellow card for full-back Lee Byrne but it was the highlight of the number nine’s man-of-the-match performance.
It says a lot for the squad that Declan Kidney is piecing together that the two Irish stars were backs and that Brian O’Driscoll, even on such an auspicious day, was not one of them. The forward pack was its usual competent self, solid in the scrum and especially when it counted most in those crucial minutes after half time, and once again dominant at line-out time where apart from the statistical count, O’Connell, Donncha O’Callaghan and Jamie Heaslip constantly denied the Welsh quality possession, more often than not with the invaluable assistance of Hayes. Furthermore, the eagerly-awaited duel at number seven ended in something of a rout with the hugely impressive David Wallace way ahead of Martyn Williams.
No performance, of course, is perfect and there will be areas to concentrate Kidney’s mind before he announces his side tomorrow to take on the Scots. He will surely look again at the out-half position where Jonathan Sexton has done many things well against England and Wales without looking anything like the finished article. Crucially, too, his place-kicking has not been up to the required standard. With a player of Ronan O’Gara’s experience and class available to him, the coach knows only too well he has a big call to make for a match in which everyone wants to play.
There is some concern about the fitness of D’Arcy (dead leg) and Earls (calf strain). Of the two, Earls appears to have the better chance of facing the Scots.
IRELAND: G. Murphy; T. Bowe, B. O’Donnell, G. D’Arcy, K. Earls; J. Sexton, T. O’Leary; C. Healy, R. Best, J. Hayes, D. O’Callaghan, P. O’Connell capt, S. Ferris, D. Wallace, J. Heaslip.
Replacements: R. Kearney for D’Arcy (inj., 22); T. Buckley for Hayes (73); S. Cronin, L. Cullen, S. Jennings, R. O’Gara, E. Reddan for Best, O’Connell, Ferris, Earls and O’Leary (all 77).
WALES: L. Byrne; L. Halfpenny, J. Hook, J. Roberts, S. Williams; S. Jones, R. Rees; P. James, M. Rees, A. Jones, B. Davies, L. Charteris, J. Thomas, M. Williams, G. Delve.
Replacements: H. Bennett for Rees (56); I. Gough for Davies (58); D. Peel for Rees (61); A. Bishop for Byrne (63); S. Warburton for Williams (65); R. Gill for James (77).
Referee – Craig Joubert (South Africa).
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