We need belief, says Stringer

NOT a single member of the 10,000-plus Irish people who bit their fingernails to the bone and sat on the edge of their seats in the Adelaide Oval last Sunday will fail to recall one particularly heart-stopping moment in the second half.

Ireland were clinging on to a point lead at the time when Gonzalo Quesada, the Pumas number 10, kicked for the left-hand corner. It was one of the best moments of an otherwise miserable afternoon for Quesada and the ball just beat the covering Peter Stringer and crossed the touchline a couple of metres from the Irish try line. What happened next was a seminal moment in this remarkably tight contest. The irrepressible Irish scrum-half takes up the story.

“The ball bounced once and I grabbed it immediately before any ball boy could get near it,” Stringer recalls. “I turned quickly and saw Humps (David Humphreys) directly across from me in a straight line. I felt the better option was to give it to Humps because we were winning lineout ball and I wanted to get the play away from our line. Humps was facing me and I knew he was ready for it.