Miller’s stamper goes unpunished

Tonga 19

The incident, in the 58th minute, resulted in a red card being issued to Tongan prop, Viliami Ma'Asi.

At the time, it was felt the punishment served by referee Steve Walsh could have been to the wrong party and after watching video footage of the game, match commissioner Lee Smith, formerly a coach at UCD, was unable to positively identify the player responsible for the incident.

Therefore, the Irish management were unable to cite an individual Tongan player and, unfortunately for Miller who broke his nose in the incident and he also needed five stitches on his face this cowardly act is set to go unpunished.

Miller felt he was lucky not to be more seriously injured from the horrific incident.

"I legally cleaned the guy out from behind the ruck," said Miller, "and I was lying on their side and I saw the boot coming down on the flat of my face.

"If it was another quarter of an inch to my left, my eye could have been in trouble, I'm lucky in that respect. I'm not going to think about it too much over the coming days, it's just one of those things."

The only positive thing to come out of all this is the fact that Miller is certain to continue for the remaining week of Ireland's tour.

Although his left eye is swollen shut at the moment, he is expecting to be back in full contact training by the end of the week.

Meanwhile, the rest of the squad were comparing bumps and bruises as they took a day off to recover from the physicality of the game against the Tongans.

There were a lot of scraped knees and elbows as a result of the concrete-like playing surface, but all should be fit for Saturday's test against another physically big side, Samoa.

Samoa are expected to give Ireland a much stiffer challenge than Tonga, and if that is the case there should be cause from some worry in this depleted Irish party.

Although Ireland scored six tries on Saturday, two were scored in the five minutes leading up to half-time, while another brace came in the final five minutes of the second period; as the Tongans were obviously mentally switched off.

Pierre Hola was the stand-out performer for Tonga, scoring all 19 of the home side's points. His booming kicks in the opening half left full-back Mark McHugh in a tizzy, and it was from there that Tonga did most of their damage.

But Ireland can't be totally satisfied with their performance. The lack of killer instinct could prove costly against better opposition come October.

When Tonga were reduced to 14 men with a full 22 minutes of the game to be played, it should have been the opportunity for the Irish players to well and truly demolish the home challenge.

Instead we had to wait a further 19 minutes for Ireland to so much as threaten the Tongan line.

Eddie O'Sullivan explained that there were a number of mitigating factors that the Irish had to deal with coming into Saturday's match.

"I think we were a bit tired going into the game," said the coach.

"All this travelling has got to us and it's the end of the season as well. These fellas have been on the go in one shape or form since last August and again it's a team that hasn't played together before.

"There's quite a few changes and combinations there. Guy Easterby and Ronan O'Gara wouldn't have played together, the centres wouldn't have played together, the back three wouldn't have played together as is the case with the back-row. It was a pretty new combination.

"But overall, I thought we defended very well, we covered them well when they burst at us by and large and we put in a lot of good tackles and met them where we needed to meet them, on the gainline.

"And we forced some turnovers by doing this. It wasn't a classic game of rugby, but in the circumstances, given the conditions, and the team coming together as they did, I was happy."

The players trotted out a similar line to their coach, although they had first hand experience of the conditions on the pitch and appeared to be even happier to emerge with a win under their belts.

"It was very physical out there," said Ronan O'Gara, who kicked 10 points. "It was a road of a pitch, the wind conditions were tough and they were big islanders.

"We got exactly what we expected from them and plenty more too. They really opened well and they got a couple of penalties and a good try off the base of the scrum and it was pretty demoralising.

"But in fairness to our lads we showed great character, we hadn't played out there before and I thought the attitude was outstanding."

There were a few who distinguished themselves in the green shirt over the course of the game.

The centre pairing of Johnny Bell and Mike Mullins looked dangerous when on the front foot, while John Kelly on the right wing scored his second and third tries of the tour to date to keep himself well in contention for a World Cup spot.

In the pack, Paul O'Connell was once again outstanding as he embraced the robust nature of the game, and before his game was ended prematurely, Eric Miller took on a lot of ball with relative success.

IRELAND: M McHugh, J Kelly, M Mullins, J Bell, T Howe, R O'Gara, G Easterby; J Fitzpatrick, S Byrne, R Corrigan, L Cullen, P O'Connell S Easterby, E Miller, K Dawson Subs: D Wallace for Miller, 61 mins, S Best for J Fitzpatrick, 76 mins; D O'Callaghan for Dawson, 81 mins; G Darcy for McHugh, 81 mins.

Scorers: Tries: Kelly (2), G Easterby (2), McHugh, Bell. Cons: O'Gara (2) Pens: O'Gara (2) Sin-binned: O'Connell, 78 mins.

TONGA: G Legev, P Hola, J Ngauamo, J Payne, S Mafileo, T Alatini, D Palu; T Lea'aetoa, U Ma'asi, H Lavaka, M Ngauamo, I Afeaki, N Naufahu, S Afeaki, U Latu. Subs: V Vicki for Nafahu, 46 mins; E Taukafa for Latu, 63 mins Scorers: Tries: Hola (2) Pens: Hola (3).

Sin Binned: I Afeaki, 78 mins.

Red card: V Ma'asi, 58 mins.

Referee: Steve Walsh (New Zealand).