Irish make a point in taming the Pumas
It wasn’t the prettiest of games. But soccer it ain’t and the score is all that matters.
It was que sera sera for Quesada and the Argentineans. With just eight minutes on the clock, he stepped up and kicked from 45 metres to pull the Pumas to within a point of Ireland at 16-15. But it was to be Ireland’s day and how fans at home and down under are revelling in it.
One of the many Irish flags among the crowd of 28,803 in Adelaide had just one word on it. ‘Believe’. The Irish team must have seen it, certainly Woods, the injured try-scorer Quinlan and O’Gara were inspired by such a message.
Brian O'Driscoll was again quieter than normal.
He admitted the team, just like the fans at home, were biting their nails right to the bitter end.
“Thank God we came out on the right side of the result. To be through to the quarter-finals - that’s a fantastic feeling,” he said.
Alan Quinlan’s jubilation was cut short. His World Cup is now over. The only try scorer was taken off seconds after he somehow found the strength to stretch over the line. Sadly, the flanker rolled on to his shoulder in the tackle and was left with a dislocation of the joint.
Munster’s veteran flanker David Wallace received the call-up and will replace him in the squad.
Substitute Ronan O’Gara turned the game around and is likely to book his place from the outset next weekend. He picked two penalties while David Humphreys bagged a conversion and a penalty.
The Pumas are now out of the tournament - while Ireland face Australia in a match to decide the winner of the pool.
The team will be glad to have finally banished the ghosts of 1999, the captain said.
“The shackles are off now,” Keith Wood pledged as Ireland attempt to book their place in the semi-final.
And the countdown has already begun to Saturday next’s top of the pool clash with Australia.
It has a later start, 9.35am Irish time, and its live on RTE with coverage beginning just after 9am.
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