Work pays off in invincible year

CAN it really get any better than this for Ireland?

The 2009 international season has come and gone with Declan Kidney’s side unbeaten in 10 matches, Grand Slam winners in the northern hemisphere and now conquerors of the World Cup and Tri-Nations champions.

While few will claim perfection has been achieved, this is an incredible achievement which outstrips anything achieved by an other Irish side. They have been blessed at possessing huge performers in key positions, outstanding contributions by many others and by the advent of two or three younger players of considerable potential.

Twelve months ago, after a poor performance against New Zealand and an unimpressive win over Argentina, both at Croke Park, not even the most optimistic supporter could have foreseen such a massive swing in Ireland’s fortunes.

It wouldn’t have happened without the wisdom of coach Declan Kidney (deservedly named IRB coach of the year after Saturday’s game) while inspirational skipper Brian O’Driscoll, put it succinctly when revealing: “we were in a dark place this time last year. But we did a lot of soul searching, there was huge honesty and going through the year unbeaten was down to our work ethic.”

Between scoring vital tries and pulling off stunning tackles, O’Driscoll has been awesome, even by his stellar standards. The crushing and perfectly-timed hit on Zane Kirchner in the last play on Saturday was the ideal way to finish the international season and illustrated the captain’s attitude, determination, courage and skill.

O’Driscoll’s description of the game’s defining moment – “he was getting hit whether he had the ball or not,” – sums up the mindset of the skipper and his Irish team.

And he also made a telling point when noting that “we have the ability to play through the 80 minutes, that the game is never dead until that final kick goes out or goes over. We managed to get a draw against Australia and to hold out South Africa – hugely different sides of the scale but both very, very, pleasing.”

O’Driscoll’s leadership has been another key factor in Ireland’s success but as he would admit, the support of other senior players like Paul O’Connell and Ronan O’Gara, even if he wasn’t playing on Saturday, has been hugely beneficial. O’Connell had arguably his best game of the season on Saturday, whether it was in making life pretty miserable for the great Victor Matfield in the line-out (where Jerry Flannery’s darts were superbly directed) or finding the energy and time to pop up in open play as well as ruck and maul. Donncha O’Callaghan was also at his best and looked a class above Andries Bekker, the late replacement for Bakkies Botha, who was missed by the Springboks.

The one grey area was the Irish scrummage. At times in the first half, they were pushed back remorselessly with Ulster prop BJ Botha later singled out by Flannery for having a considerable influence. It seemed like he was giving young Cian Healy a rather torrid time of it. While there was some improvement later in the proceedings, this remains a trouble spot for Declan Kidney as the gallant John Hayes edges closer to retirement.

Nor was it a day for the flash and the spectacular. The ball spent much of its time high in the foggy north Dublin sky as players on both sides opted for the Garryowen rather than go into contact for fear of infringing at the break down. It’s a strategy that is doing the game a great disservice. So it was that David Wallace and Jamie Heaslip were obliged to do a lot of their best work at close quarters with the former’s renowned ball carrying skills negated by the well marshalled and extremely physical Springbok defence.

Kidney’s bold decision to hand the number 10 shirt to Jonathan Sexton was thoroughly vindicated. He performed solidly throughout and even though some of his tactical kicks were aimless, he was far from the only culprit in this regard, while his ratio of five successful shots at goal from seven attempts was highly commendable. This was especially the case given that at least three were from long range and two were outside the compass of Morne Steyn, the scourge of the Lions last summer.

As the coach put it, “we now have a world-class out-half and an up-and-coming out-half and we’d be in a bad place without either of them.” It was good to see Ronan O’Gara react with a broad, happy smile to Sexton’s fifth penalty that pushed Ireland five points ahead at a crucial stage of the second half. And it will be fascinating to see how he responds to the challenge from the youngster.

Another massive Irish success story was full back Rob Kearney whose courage and ability under the high ball was again demonstrated quite magnificently. He was voted man of the match – and quite understandably so, too – although he cannot have been very far ahead of O’Connell, O’Driscoll and Tommy Bowe whose performances on the right wing seem to get better with every outing. And having come in as a replacement for the luckless Paddy Wallace, Gordon D’Arcy showed signs he is back to his best and a strong candidate for a starting place at first centre in 2010.

All in all, then, a good day for Irish rugby. South Africa, however, are not the team that beat the Lions and captured the Tri-Nations so emphatically. They are at the end of a long, tiring campaign and it looked like some would surely have preferred to be lying on the sunny beaches of Cape Town rather than coping with a fired-up Irish team on a cold, murky and uninviting November afternoon in Dublin.

As Brian O’Driscoll stated, “we won’t be losing the run of ourselves” and that’s good to hear. Likewise, Declan Kidney was entitled to say that “we’ll enjoy tonight”. It’s been a great year for both men, for their players, management and backroom teams.

Ireland: Pens: Sexton 5.

IRELAND: R Kearney, T Bowe, B. O’Driscoll, P. Wallace, K Earls, J Sexton, T O’Leary, C Healy, J Flannery, J Hayes, D O’Callaghan, P O’Connell, S Ferris, D. Wallace, J Heaslip.

Replacements: G D’Arcy for P. Wallace (24), S O’Brien for Ferris (41).

South Africa: Tries: Burger. Cons: Steyn. Drop Goals: Steyn.

SOUTH AFRICA:Z Kirchner, JP Pietersen, J Fourie, W Olivier, B Habana, M Steyn, F du Preez, T Mtawarira, J Smit, B. Botha, A Bekker, V Matfield, H Brussow, S Burger, D Rossouw.

Replacements:B du Plessis for B. Botha (48), D Poteiter for Bekker (62/70), R Pienaar for Steyn (62), J de Villiers for Olivier (64),

Attendance: 75,000

Referee: Nigel Owens (WRFU).