Plus points but Eagles prove an easy target

Ireland 55 USA 6

It wasn't always pretty, often chaotic, but ultimately comprehensive.

Ireland scored seven tries and conceded none in appalling weather conditions but Eddie O'Sullivan recognised the need to keep everything in context long before he knew the result from Marseille.

This was not O'Sullivan's first choice XV but the Eagles, all four professionals and eleven amateurs, were still unable to compete beyond the initial phase. After a 20 year struggle to lay down markers, you wonder if they ever will.

Eagles coach Tom Billups, a former player, remains enthusiastic but doubtful. "We won't hide behind our amateurism. We feel very strongly that we came to Ireland as rugby people and not as amateurs. In financial reality we're amateur and we appreciate that people might acknowledge that but we can't hide behind it.

"The score line against Ireland was in keeping with our results against top-tier nations over the last decade. We have tried to take steps towards closing the gap and the IRB is active in attempting to help countries like ourselves. We're keen on putting our shoulder to the wheel but improvement doesn't happen overnight. For the moment, I'm proud of my guys because the sacrifice they make in an increasingly challenging situation is epic."

Despite a decidedly moderate opening half from Ireland, when mistakes were too frequent, the outcome was all too obvious.

Within a minute of the re-start they pushed the half-time lead of seven points out to 14. Game over. Billups knew what was coming.

"We have experienced this kind of thing before, where we compete for a while and then get put away quickly. Good teams come out of the changing room after half time and up the tempo of the game. They tend to play more direct, urgent football. We expected it of Ireland but we couldn't do anything to stop it."

That, of course, was all part of a grand Irish plan even though the first second-half sucker punch - a try from Geordan Murphy - might well have been disallowed for a forward pass.

O'Sullivan observed: "It was a difficult day to play rugby and it took the players, from both sides, a bit of time to adapt. I thought we rushed things a bit in the first half and maybe didn't kick ourselves into favourable positions.

"On the other hand we knew it would be hard for a while. We won the toss and played into the wind so it really was a question of battening down the hatches. We had a couple of chances in that first half and didn't take them. The game was still tight at the break but I wasn't unduly worried. We made them do a lot of work defending against us and we knew that we had the ability to up the pace of the game. We also knew if we did that they would struggle."

The plus points? Here was a side that made many handling errors and still managed to score seven tries. Tommy Bowe made a try-scoring Irish debut, and Denis Leamy put in a lot of hard work to establish himself as a live contender for the number seven jersey.

A confident David Humphreys is still an international out half of distinction. He kicked all seven conversions, three of them from difficult angles and he also added two penalties to bring his international career total beyond the 500 mark.

That's not bad for a 33-year-old and it's also encouraging that our international No 10s have made the right sort of headlines in successive weeks.

The wealth of back row talent is self-evident when O'Sullivan can keep the likes of David Wallace off the team and know that injury victims Keith Gleeson, Alan Quinlan et al are well covered.

On Saturday, most of the focus was on the front row. Marcus Horan was under scrutiny from referee Rob Dickson in the early stages, and was pinged a couple of times, but ultimately ended up a try scoring hero. He is one of the most mobile props in world rugby and proved it when he set up a late try for Frankie Sheahan, which kept the debate over hooker simmering nicely.

IRELAND: G. Murphy (Leicester), S. Horgan (Leinster), B. O'Driscoll (Leinster) captain; K. Maggs (Ulster), T. Bowe (Ulster), D. Humphreys (Ulster), G. Easterby (Leinster), M. Horan (Munster), F. Sheahan (Munster), J. Hayes (Munster), D. O'Callaghan (Munster), P. O'Connell (Munster), S. Easterby (Llanelli), E. Miller (Leinster), D. Leamy (Munster).

Replacements: P. Stringer (Munster) for G. Easterby (65), S. Best (Ulster) for Hayes (68), L. Cullen (Leinster) for O'Connell (68), A. Foley (Munster) for Miller (72, injured), G. Dempsey (Leinster) for O'Driscoll (77).

USA: F. Viljoen (Washington), A. Lakomskis (Belmont), P. Emerick (Catania), S. Sika (Brigham University), D. Fee (Chicago Lions), M. Hercus (Sale Sharks), M. Timoteo (Golden Gate), M. MacDonald (University of California), M. Wyatt (OMBAC), J. Waasdorp (Warringah), a. Parker (Aspen), G. Klerck (Treviso), B. Surgener (Back bay), K. Schubert (Cardiff Blues) captain; T. Petruzzella (California Polytechnic).

Replacements: A. Tuipulotu (Aspen) for Fee (40, injuredF. Mo'unga (Aspen) for Petruzzella, 47, injured), D. Williams (Chicago Lions) for Timoteo (61). Temporary replacement: J. Gouws (Santa Monica) for Schubert (65-70).

Referee: R. Dickson (Scotland).