Kidney hopeful two tight matches will prepare team for France
The message was clear. If you feel deep down that you can do it, then you will. Former Munster great John Langford, an Aussie through and through, made that very point strongly in this newspaper on Saturday. But you have to wonder if the players were 100% sure in this respect.
After all, they were 11-3 behind after 17 minutes. Giving a team like Australia an eight point start isn’t the best of ideas. Assistant coach Declan Kidney doesn’t disagree and saw things like this: “The first 20 minutes were slow and they had a lot of ball that we needed and they got their points.
"Once we looked up to see what was in front of us, we started to play well and went for it. We played very good rugby in the skills that we’ve developed over the years. It came out there in the last 60 minutes.
"We had the majority of the field possession in the second half. We needed to show more patience once or twice in the second half, but it is well within our ambit to win these games and it’s very disappointing to lose out.”
Kidney wasn’t for going down the road about bemoaning the loss of the game by such a narrow margin.
“It is what it is. I like tournament rugby, because there’s another match next week. The more we play at this level, the better off we are. I’d like us to play in the Tri-Nations. It would do us good. Hopefully the tight match last week-end and another one now will help us get better still and we’ll play for the 80 minutes.”
Like every other Irishman, Kidney was struck by the noise level within the Telstra Dome with the roof closed. It was deafening and with the green hordes cheering on their men.
“There was certainly a great lift in the second half when the people got in behind the team,” said Kidney. “That adds to adrenalin and helps get you over the few bangs and knocks. The crowd was really superb.”
By all appearances, it appears as if the O’Gara-Humphreys saga has not been finally ended in the former’s favour.
Ronan had his shaky moments out there, missing a few touches and three out of five penalty shots, while on the credit side his distribution was excellent and it was hardly a coincidence that Brian O’Driscoll had one of his best games for some time.
“The change with ten minutes to go was made to provide a different perspective”, said Kidney. “I don’t think Ronan did a whole lot wrong.
"Obviously there were a few things that went against him. We tried for field position early on, but he was left isolated. They dropped three players back and did well coming back at us. When he went off, it was a bit similar to last week, a lot of the ground work had been done.
“You can always make the argument for leaving fellas on for 80 minutes or changing. The change was made and had a drop at goal drifted two feet to the left instead of two feet to the right, we could be talking about a master stroke. On the other hand, maybe Ronan would have got the drop goal.”
On the subject of taking tap penalties when shots at goal were on, Kidney had no doubts: “We were down by four and what I was pleased about is that we went for it.
"We will only get better by going for it. We have to give the players our trust that if they go for it, we will back them up. . . I think they saw a gap and went for it and that’s how you’re going to win these matches.”
Yes, by then they believed they could pull it off. But was that the case from start to finish? “The mental side of the game is an intangible”, Kidney pointed out.
“You can measure fitness levels and skill levels to a degree but mentally, you can never measure that. So the more big games, England in a Six Nations final, now this one, the better. If we do win next week, it will be because of the experience gained in this game.”
CONNECT WITH US TODAY
Be the first to know the latest news and updates
