Ireland collapse allows USA take spoils in WXV opener
Ireland's Aoife Wafer comes up against Keia Mae Sagapolu-Senele and Freda Tafuna of USA. Pic: Ben Brady/Inpho
A humbling experience for Ireland on their Tallaght Stadium debut after falling to a remarkable USA comeback in their Vodafone WXV Series opener.
When Dorothy Wall scored Ireland's fifth try in the 46th minute and it was converted by Dannah O'Brien, Scott Bemand's side looked to be home and hosed and justifying their tag as the world's fifth-best team against the side ranked eighth.
What followed was a collapse, however, as the States scored 28 unanswered points from the 57th minute to the 72nd before Wall's last minute try proved to be too little, too late.
After an encouraging Six Nations campaign, Bemand had spoken before this game of his team's need to deal with being favourites in every game over a five-Test window.
He will be concerned that they lost the game from a position of dominance, and also with the vast amount of entries that his players gifted their opponents throughout - but especially in the final quarter, when Ireland coughed up three converted tries with Vicky Elmes Kinlan in the sin-bin.
It had gone mostly to plan for the first 55 minutes.
The visitors owned the ball for the first couple of minutes, then out-half Bella Vogel's kick was half-blocked and Ireland were in business.
When the USA were penalised for not releasing at the ruck, O'Brien's penalty put the hosts in their opponents' 22 and a couple of scoring opportunities were missed before they opened their account.
After Ireland's back three combined to come close on the left flank, Aoife Wafer just ran out of room on the right.
A subsequent driving maul made slow progress towards the American line but was deemed to have been held up over it, although it was hard to see how the visitors had not collapsed the maul.
A poor kick-out handed Ireland possession back on the 22, however, and Cliodhna Moloney-MacDonald's clever inside pass released Stacey Flood. The full-back unselfishly found Elmes Kinlan, who touched down in the seventh minute.
O'Brien's tough conversion was wide but the home side added a second try two minutes later after skipper Erin King intercepted Vogel's attempted kick-through on halfway. Moloney-MacDonald was on the end of a slick lineout maul move.
The visitors' defensive line was already cracking and, after Eve Higgins and debutant Jemima Adams Verling ghosted all too easily past would-be challengers, Aoife Wafer got in on the act in the 19th minute.
The Six Nations' player of the championship showed sheer determination in getting the ball over the line despite heavy traffic and this time O'Brien added the extras for a 17-0 lead.
After a dispiriting opening quarter, the USA hit back in some style in the 25th minute. For once it was Ireland who found themselves forced to unsuccessfully scramble desperately in defence and their squad's co-captain Georgie Perris-Redding, finished well with penalty advantage. Vogel's successful conversion made it 17-7.
Ireland centre Aoife Dalton had been forced off in the 20th minute for a HIA and her replacement Anna McGann made a big impact as Bemand's side produced an almost-instant reply.
McGann batted away two tacklers to find Higgins, who raced in for her side's fourth try. O'Brien split the posts with the conversion.
However, Ireland were once more ill-disciplined in defence as the USA came forward and, from a controlled lineout maul, the underdogs scored again through Hope Rogers. Vogel's conversion attempt struck the upright.
A clever break involving Wafer and Moloney-MacDonald wasn't capitalised on at the start of the second half, but Ireland's fifth try arrived in the 46th minute.
An enterprising attack by Robyn O'Connor was finished by King, with the try awarded after the officials took a look at the replay. O'Brien's conversion put some daylight between the sides at 31-12.
Bemand took the opportunity to bring on a quartet of replacements, with Linda Djougang switching to the loosehead side of the scrum.
And, while the crowd greeted an important turnover by Wafer deep in Irish territory like a home try, the USA were not to be denied and easily scored from their 57th minute lineout maul through hooker Kathryn Treder, with Vogel making no mistake with the two-pointer.
There was more where that came from, too. A brilliant midfield break saw the States' co-captain Erica Jarrell-Searcy advance to Ireland's 22 but Elmes Kinlan killed the attack by not releasing.
The winger was sent to the sin-bin and the visitors went kick to the corner again, and the same outcome ensued -a dominant lineout maul leading to Kathyn Treder scoring their fourth try, with Nobel's conversion cutting the deficit to just five points with 15 minutes remaining.
The Americans sensed an upset was on the cards and they drew level in the 69th minute as Ireland's defence collapsed again under pressure, before Nobel kicked her team into the lead for the first time.
Worse was to come for the shell-shocked home side in the 72nd minute, when back row Freda Tafuna finished a flowing move, powering through King to score, with Nobel bringing up the 40-point mark to make it three converted tries in the 10 minutes Elmes Kinlan was off the pitch.
There was still time for Ireland to turn it around but they left their charge too late, with the visitors managing to hold out before Wall's last minute five-pointer. O'Brien's hasty conversion attempt was wide.
One final, desperate attempt to engineer a winning try resulted in an interception and the ball being joyfully kicked to touch for the final time by the Americans.
S Flood; R O'Connor, A Dalton (A McGann 70), E Higgins, V Elmes Kinlan, D O'Brien, E Lane (A Reilly 51); N O'Dowd (E Cahill 51), C Moloney-MacDonald (N Jones 51), L Djougang, D Wall, F Tuite-O'Sullivan, J Adams Verling (B Hogan 51), E King, A Wafer.
K Canett, T Uhatafe, T Hann (N Mason 53), E Henrich, E Coulibaly, B Vogel, A Paton (C Bargell 76); H Rogers (C Hill-Huse 76), K Treder, K Sagapolu-Senele (A Leatherman 33), H Taufoou, R Ehrecke (E Jarrell-Searcy 53), H Humphreys, G Perris-Redding (K Bailey 53), F Tafuna.
M Cogger-Orr (New Zealand)
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