Ireland chief Kelly banking on Samoan favour

Ireland 20 Tonga 22

Kelly’s side played their part in a memorable match as they went down 22-20 to Tonga at Parramatta Stadium.

The lead changed hands six times before Esikeli Tonga pounced for the decisive try seven minutes from the end to spark wild scenes of joy from the star-studded island team.

Ireland were quarter-finalists in 2000 and they could yet go further in this year’s tournament if Samoa win the south Pacific derby in Penrith on Friday.

That would set up a deciding group match between the Samoans and Ireland back at Parramatta on Wednesday week for a place in the semi-final qualifier with the Pool B winners.

“It’s hard to articulate how proud I am,” said Kelly. “The request for the fellas was to stand in front of a juggernaut and I think they more than did that. They matched fire with fire.

“We were written off and there were some quite detrimental things said about whether we were physically up to challenging the Samoans and the Tongans.

“I hope we answered those questions. We played with a great deal of passion and pride. We didn’t get the result but I think the guys in the next couple of days will recognise their efforts and see the positives.

“And we’ll be ready if Samoa throw us a lifeline from the Penrith game. We’ve nine days to prepare and we’ve shown everybody we’re good enough to challenge.”

The outcome was tough on the brave Irish and especially winger Damien Blanch, whose hat-trick of tries was all in vain.

“You never turn down a hat-trick but the guys are gutted,” he said. “We may have a lifeline coming but we didn’t really want to rely on that.”

Ireland stood up to a ferocious onslaught by the bigger Tongan forwards and showed they can play football by matching their opponents try for try.

In the end it came down to goalkicking, with Pat Richards landing just two of his four conversion attempts.

For a long time it looked as though Tonga would pay the price for their indiscipline, with the Irish scoring 14 of their points while the islanders were down to 12 men.

English referee Steve Ganson awarded nine first-half penalties to Ireland and, after losing his patience, sent winger Tonga to the sin-bin on 23 minutes for lying on in the tackle.

Ireland scored tries through Michael Platt and Blanch while Tonga was on the sidelines and Blanch added another after stand-off Feleti Mateo was also shown a yellow card on 48 minutes for dissent.

Tonga coach Jim Dymock, who was a relieved man at the final whistle, was not surprised by the gutsy Irish performance. “It’s lucky I’ve got no hair. I was up there praying at the end. I thought it was going to be the luck of the Irish but thankfully we came through and hopefully we can play better against Samoa.”

TONGA: Talanoa, Vuna, Jennings, Uaisele, Tonga, Mateo, Taufa’ao, Kaufusi, Leo-Latau, Manuokafoa, L. Paea, Fa’aoso, Manu.

Replacements: Moa, Lauaki, Uasi, Williams.

IRELAND: Platt, Blanch, Gleeson, Littler, Richards, Grix, Fitzpatrick, O’Carroll, Beswick, Tandy, Harrison, Doran, Finnigan.

Replacements: McIlorum, Finn, Haggerty, Cassidy.

Referee: S Ganson (England)