Hello Fellow Wanderers.
Again I greet and welcome you all to the pages of the Green & Gold Rugby universe, where we dream of days past, hope for golden days ahead, and search about for something to get excited about on the date in-between.
And again I’ll remind all and sundry that this is a fan-run site and any contribution is welcome. So feel free to reach out to me at nutta@greenandgoldrugby.com.au be it with an article, an idea, an opinion piece, or something betwixt them all. There’s also a ‘Submit a Story’ option on the Home page. So feel free to have a crack as the more who share our pages, the merrier we all are.
I have to confess I’m a wee bit bored today, there isn’t much about to stir the cockles of my heart. What with no Super of the screen over the weekend, and no 6 Nations either, I was a bit lost. I thought it was grand of our new fearless leader Joe Schmidt to quietly see the Aussie captains at the Super Rugby captains meet and greet last week. To not just do so, but do so without the Heavenly Heralds in accompaniment bespeaks not just good sense, but the sort of unheraldic, low-key pragmatism I think we have been so sorely in need of for quite some time. To me it signals an understated professionalism and decries any of the sort of ‘look at me’ showboatism of a sort that has unfortunately come to characterise much surrounding our game’s national branding in recent times.
If that’s Joe’s leadership style, then more of it please.
So, in the face of a lack of other inspiration, I took to U-Chube and just let the algorithm take me where it may, safe, or at least confident, in the knowledge that there was an overwhelming weight of rugby-orientated prompts in the search history so as not to land me somewhere ‘compromising’ while on company time.
And wouldn’t you know it, by some mystery of the interwebs I found myself watching a 6 minute clip that captured Chile against South Korea in 2016. Why was this match remarkable? It was because at the 16 minute mark, Chile led South Korea by 36-7. And then the comeback started. I won’t spoil it. I’ll let you watch it.
And so my mission was found: find some of the great comebacks and put them up for chat and comment.
And I’m not sure why, but one of the first games that jumped out of my memory was England and Scotland in 2019. With Wales clinching the title the week before, a disappointed England took to the field in the Calcutta Cup, determined to show a little of ‘what should have been’. And the Roses were surely doing the business and took the score out as far as 31-0 with less than 10min to play before oranges. But, if you think you can show me a beaten Scotsman then I’ll grab a mirror and show you a fool as in the 34min, Scots Hooker Stuart McInally gathered a spilt pill on his own 40m line and raced some 60 metres to start the recovery.
After drawing level at 31 a-piece with scarcely 5 minutes remaining, Aussie Sam Johnson split the Chariots for the Haggis Lads and Wee Finn Russell collected the extras to take the score out to 38-31 and a momentous win was at hand…
Another match that must surely be mentioned was New Zealand and IreIand in 2001. At that time, Ireland had not ever beaten the All Blacks in a Test match. It must be said that Irish eyes were keenly set on a victory as the green men smelt some frailties among the Kiwi debutants that day, including a brash new guy of questionable future by the name of Richie McCaw.
The Irish skipped out to a 13-0 lead and with half time closing, the Irish were on the ascendancy and looking good. But a try just on 35min to Chris Jack, duly converted by some no-name called Mehrtens, seemed to clarion the all too familiar comeback. But a penalty just prior to half time saw the Irish go to oranges at 16-7. Hmmm, this is interesting.
The second spell started well with a scintillating bit of magic by Brian O’Driscoll to put Irish no 11 Denis Hickey in out wide left for a 21-7 scoreline at 42 minutes. That was to be about the last of the Irish dominance in the match as 5 second half tries by The Darkness demonstrated once again the underlying class of the Kiwis. An Eric Millar try put some respectability in the Irish score at 77 minutes, but the final score of 40-29 showed true AB class.
Ireland and New Zealand did it again in 2013, with the Irish being up by 19-0 in the 25th minute, before the to and fro saw the score at 22-17 to the Paddys with less than a minute on the clock. And then this happened…
Looking elsewhere, and now with enough acknowledgement of other nations allowing me to look towards our own Wobblies, Wales and Australia played out a bell-ringer in 2022. The opening 15 minutes were quite tight. But with Welsh No8 Taulupe Faletau grabbing a pie in his 100th test for the Dragons in the 27th minute, the gap opened to 17-6 to Wales and shortly after to 20-6, until Wobbly No 2 Folau Faingaa snagged a dubious pie at 33 minutes to send the teams to oranges at 20-13. A Welsh maul stretched the score to 27-13 and then to 34-13 and all was looking set for a famous Welsh win. But then a Marky Mark Double Special at 57 minutes and again at 67 minutes pulled it back to 34-25 with 10min to go and you can watch the rest.
Of course, no one who saw it will ever forget Japan v South Africa in 2015. With a host of 1st pick World XV players including the likes of the du Plessis brothers, Handre Pollard, Pieter-Steph du Toit, Victor Matfield and others, no one except the most one-eyed Japanese diehards saw this one coming. At 19-13 early in the second half the Bokke were in control but the pesky Michael Leitch-led Nippon would just not lay down. And at 29-22 at the 70th minute the Brave Blossoms STILL would not fade away.
Ok, it wasn’t really a comeback from a massive deficit. But at 32-29 with 1 minute left on the clock, the stage was set for one of the most emotional finishes I have ever seen. With the scrum penalty on the 80th minute, Leitch could have taken the 3pts. No one would begrudge lowly Japan a draw against the might of the Bokke. But such is not the stuff of legends…
But for me, being an Aussie, the comeback that will forever live rent-free in my head comes from the RWC1991 quarter final wherein Australia met Ireland at Lansdowne Road in Dublin. The Irish had the better of the scrums and the Aussies had the better of the lineouts (despite Lightning Kearns’ best efforts), but even so it was to and fro for the first 20min until David Campese weaved through from lineout ball to post the first pie and from there Australia quietly turned the screws.
At the 60 minute mark, Irish no 10 Ralph Keyes kept the Paddies in reach and pulled the score back to 15-12. And then it was at the 73rd minute when Irish no 11 Jack Clarke scooped up a midfield grubber ball and put Gordon Hamilton into the clear to set sail down their left flank and, despite Rob Edgerton holding onto his boot straps, score a pie that sent the Lansdowne Road faithful into hysteria and move the scoreboard to 18-15 to Ireland after Keyes conversion at 74 minutes.
But cometh the hour, cometh the man. In what’s now Australian folk lore, Aussie no 10 Michael Lynagh pushed the kickoff deep, winning an Aussie throw to the lineout on the Irish quarter. Kearns toss was won by John Eales and the midfield bash and barge earned a Wobbly scrum 10 metres out from the Irish posts. From the scrum, slick hands to the right led to Campo laying back a bouncing and ugly ball which Lynagh collected flawlessly on the fly and dived to score a subsequently unconverted try, the score 18-19 to the Wobbs and so break Irish hearts and open the gate to World Cup glory.
Well there’s enough for today. I invite all to have a think, have a wee trot down memory lane, and list below the comebacks you recall from times gone by. Extra points awarded for the more obscure the match.
