Andy Farrell salutes the 'huge' moments in Ireland's comeback win - but insists there's plenty to fix

COOL: Andy Farrrell saluted Sam Prendergast's calmness in the white heat of battle at Allianz Stadium,in Sydney. Pic: Ben Brady, Inpho

Proud, relieved, but certainly not satisfied.

That is how Andy Farrell viewed Ireland’s tense 33-31 win over the Wallabies on Saturday.

"I suppose it's a good one for us because there's plenty to fix and we need to fix it properly for what's coming ahead, including next week,” he said.

“So it's a good place to be fixing stuff and earning a hard-fought win at the same time.” 

That win – Ireland’s sixth straight over the Wallabies in a run that dates back to 2018 – was made possible by a few huge plays, including two late in the first half.

The first occurred when fit-again Hugo Keenan pulled down a rampaging Joseph-Aukuso Suaalii in the 37th minute.

Soon after, with time up in the first half, Ireland elected to run the ball out from their own 22 metre zone and were rewarded for their desire as crafty halfback Jamison Gibson-Park finished a brilliant team try to cut the deficit to five points.

Later, with the seconds ticking by and opportunities going to waste, Prendergast finally put the visitors in front in the 78th minute by landing a conversion after Thomas Clarkson scored to level up the scores.

Given the trio of big plays, it was no surprise that Farrell highlighted the ballsy moments from the Leinster duo.

“That was a hell of a Test match,” he said. “It certainly would have been for the neutral, I would have thought.

“But, you know, the first thing that comes to mind for me is how proud I am of how the lads showed character in the second half.

“There are some special moments within the game that deserve a hard-fought win like that. i.e. Hugo's try-saving tackle and Sam with the calmness to get the conversion when he did.” 

On a night when former Ireland coach Joe Schmidt was ghostly white at full-time, Gibson-Park’s try on the stroke of half-time, with the men in green running it out of their own half, was the first coach-killing moment.

After letting golden opportunities slip against Ireland in recent years, Schmidt had called on his side to keep playing to ensure they give themselves the best chance of victory. But it was Ireland who took a page out of Schmidt’s playbook and went for broke on the stroke of half-time – and it paid off, too.

Ireland captain Dan Sheehan said at no stage did they consider just putting a stop on their up-and-down opening 40 minutes, where they were calved up on the fringes by the Wallabies’ backline.

DELIGHT: Ireland hooker Rónan Kelleher celebrates his side's fifth try scored by his front row partner Thomas Clarkson at Allianz Stadium in Sydney, Australia. Pic: Steve Christo/Sportsfile

“Yeah, it was important that we weren't aiming for half-time and there was no mindset to kick it out and restart in the second half,” the Irish hooker said.

“I thought it was brilliant that we kept attacking the game in the red.

“That was a big try for us to make sure we sort of switched momentum going into the second half. Obviously, we had a lot to work on. We weren't happy with the first half, but it did help that we knew that we could prove it to ourselves that we were able to fix things on the run and sort of get over the line from our own 22.

“So that was promising and it sort of gave us a bit of belief that, when we did our stuff right, the way we envisioned it before the game, we could see it worked, but we just needed to do it on more occasions in the first half.” 

Farrell didn’t shy away from how big the play was.

“It was huge,” he said. “We referenced it, obviously. I mean, it was a hell of a try.

“And that's what we pride ourselves on. Everyone being involved, everyone being an option, everyone working hard to make sure that we're able to make things work as a group. And we certainly were on that occasion.” 

The never-say-die attitude once again came to the fore in the second half as Keenan scored early to put Ireland back in front.

But the world No.3 had to show some more bottle soon after as livewire halfback Tate McDermott went over the lead score before Ireland was denied a try to Sheehan for obstruction at the maul when lock James Ryan got separated from his hooker.

Indeed, it took until Clarkson crashed over and Prendergast’s ice-cool kick for Ireland to reclaim the lead.

It almost vanished just as quickly as Ireland gave away a penalty and Ben Donaldson a second chance of a late, long-range penalty. But the replacement playmaker missed.

“Honestly, I thought he'd get it because the one that he had before, when you have an opportunity and it doesn't quite go right the first time, you know what to fix or whatever,” Farrell said.

“But having said that, it was a long way out. Tough, tough old kick. It's a shot to the dark, really. Fine margins, isn't it? That's top-level Test match rugby. That's how it should be.” 

Schmidt lamented his side’s inability to put away his old side.

“We had two chances to close it out in the end,” he said. “Sometimes they don't come off, but I was really pleased with how we started the game.

“But we knew that they convert very, very well from any position they get inside the 22. So what we couldn't afford is what we did in the second half and give them so many opportunities to come into our 22. Leading 24-12, we missed two linebreaks. When you don't convert, you pay the price.”