Some belated thoughts of the game, in no particular order:
• That was one of the best displays from the Wallabies for some time. Sure they wobbled in the second quarter, their discipline was sketchy, and their opponents had a bad day on the park, but they are due some praise now in one of their worst years ever.
• Ireland were mediocre and showed that they had thinner depth than the Wallabies had. And I didn't expect the Aussie backrow to outplay the Irishmen, but they did. Flanker Stephen Ferris was sadly missed by them.
Losing Sexton after oranges made a difference in the backs: more than you would reckon had the Wallabies lost Cooper, with Leali'fano and To'omua available to slot in. Other Ireland replacements did not compare well to the Aussie reserves either.
12. Luke Marshall is new to international rugby this year; he was having a poor game, especially defensively, but he's a better player than that, and it was good to see him making a couple of good moves late in the match. The defenders were a man short, but Ireland would have scored if someone had been backing up when he was in the clear after that late lineout.
• It wasn't just a lot of quick Aussie ball, cleared quickly, that had the Irish on their heels on defence: they lacked confidence in their defending partners and had a wait-and-see attitude anyway. If they don't improve in these matters the All Blacks will annihilate them come Saturday with all their reserves starting.
• There were two things in the game that really surprised me: 15. Rob Kearney dropping an easy high ball (a rarity) and an Aussie seven-man scrum bossing the Ireland eight after Kuridrani got his red card.
The Aussie scrum domination was disguised by a few early shoves from them; had they not done so their scrum ledger would have had many more credits and their margin would have been clearer. By the end of the game their "set" timing was brilliant even though the players were changed.
In the last few years the Ireland scrum had been decent with THP Mike Ross being one of the team's most valuable players, and LHP Cian Healy, once only handy in the loose, becoming a genuine scrummager. And there were other good looseheads behind him: Dave Kilcoyne of Munster and Jack McGrath of Leinster.
But Sepoke Kepu, playing his best test match, and Paddy Ryan later, had no problem against either of the looseheads. Nor were James Slipper and Benn Robinson troubled by the Ireland tightheads Ross and Archer. It confirmed that the Ireland tighthead situation is in extremis.
Jack McGrath, man of the match for Ireland against Samoa the previous week, who replaced LHP Healey when he was injured, must have been surprised when Ryan replaced Kepu at THP. He might have been looking forward to an easier time, but he got shoved back with TH lock Sitaleki Timani pushing Paddy forward, and he no mug to start with.
• You couldn't quibble about Hooper being nominated as the man of the match but Cooper and Moore had commanding games. Some people had pegged Cooper as being just a Super Rugby player, but at last he is bringing his style of game to the international level and being influential with it.
Getting a good ration of quick ball has done him no harm in the last couple of weeks.
Moore is in world-class form at the moment; whatever that means.
• The Kuridrani red card was condign punishment. You can carp that the laws don't actually prescribe that sanction for what he did, but it is a red card every day of the week under the protocols that referees follow.
• That would have to have been one of the cleanest maul tries of the year. It looked like a scrum, ball up, and weren't the Ireland spoilers disposed of nicely?
• One could quibble about Ireland being allowed back in the game before the break, takeable restarts being lost, loose ball carries, some players (Kuridrani and Kepu) coming out of the line on defence, bonehead infractions (and Fardy should have been carded for his knockdown) but some of the Aussie ball work is getting back to the good old days when Oz rugby was in it's pomp.
Well done boys.
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I think there are a few on this thread that agree that currently he does have a few issues under the high ball, I don't know if it is confidence or lack off it (after the Lions game, remenber that little one) or just poor communication but he has certainly dropped few in recent times. Again as others have already stated it doesn't say much for the other guys in the team, our kick reception overall is poor and has been for a number of years.
