As I write this, my stomach remains in knots. Born of raw excitement from a game that hung in the balance until the final minute, now drowned in a new flavour of bitter disappointment that only this year’s Wallabies could invent; to be ruled out of a Grand Slam through a draw, enforced by the 6 Nations Champions in the very last play of the match.
If I’d said to you before the match that in this game Rocky the returning hero would grab the lead through a try, only for the 100 test veteran and Irish rugby god, Brian O’Driscoll, to level the scores in the last seconds with a trademark run, you would have said, “fanciful, but maybe”. What if I’d then said that this ‘soft’ Wallaby pack would nigh-on obliterate this hardened Irish unit in all but the line-out? “You’re dreaming” would have been the reply. But today it was true.
Save for the line-out shambles, the Wallaby pack was masterful. The scrum simply monstered the Irish and if Pocock wasn’t all over the breakdown (he won Man of the Match), then the rest of the pack would simply bulldoze on through it. With perhaps half a dozen lineouts that the Irish won on the Australian 5m line, not one could they roll over for a try.
Why the Wallabies waited for the end of the Tri-Nations and Autumn Internationals to inject this starch into the pack, I don’t know. Perhaps Elsom and Palu have made a bigger impact than we credit them, but it appears to have been contagious throughout the whole eight. Forget the talk of the youthful stars in the Australian back-line: this is the single most important step forward towards possible future success, and almost carried tonight.
However, to temper those strides forward were some themes that wouldn’t have surprised you. The back-line simply didn’t function and again the default option was to kick. Not cunning torpedoes into the corners, but mindless downfield hoofs that allowed Kearney to show off his howitzer.
Doubly mindless considering the state of the Wallaby line-out. Did I mention it’s a fucking shambles? The Wallabies lost 5 of their own throws, including their first 3 of the game, and always at key pressure points. It brings be no pleasure to bring it up again, but this alone cost the Grand Slam.
It was another game where the ball followed Quade Cooper. Unlike last week though, where it generated dangerous offloads and wide balls finding space, this week it created panic and aimless punts. Quade’s last two touches in the first half with Australia hot on attack were pure Benny Hill. There was no surprise that the final Irish worked move of the game looked for the space between him and Ioane. Cooper was the target in all 3 occasions (one held up) that Ireland made it over the Wallaby line, which I’ve no doubt that Les Kiss had a hand in.
It would be grossly unfair though to lump it all at Quade’s feet. The rest of the backline also had a lackluster game, and again Giteau was way off his best, save a trademark break and a pinpoint corner kick. It is also becoming obvious that he can place kick to the left of the sticks – this duty surely has to be shared? Ashley-Cooper’s inadequate full-back kicking game was woefully exposed by Kearney.
The most unsurprising performance of the match however, what that by referee Jonathan Kaplan. The BBC commentators had to be restrained in their pillorying of him at half time and the Irish match caller, Phillip Mathews, sounded like a stuck record with “Australia were unlucky there”. But what to them looked like a one off shocker from Kaplan, has become part of a familiar pattern to Australian viewers.
My hope was that despite the South African’s best, and not very well hidden attempts, this Wallaby would be able to rise above and step out of this re-occurring nightmare of “oh so close not good enoughs”. Instead, we got to swallow yet another bitter pill.
That’s it, I’m full.
Ireland (6) 20
Tries: Bowe, O’Driscoll Cons: O’Gara 2 Pens: O’Gara 2
Australia (10) 20
Tries: Mitchell, Elsom Cons: Giteau 2 Pens: Giteau 2
Ireland: Kearney, Bowe, B. O’Driscoll, P. Wallace, Fitzgerald, O’Gara, O’Leary, Healy, Flannery, Hayes, O’Callaghan, O’Connell, Ferris, D. Wallace, Heaslip.
Replacements: Earls for Fitzgerald (53), Leamy for Ferris (75).
Not Used: Cronin, Court, Cullen, Reddan, Sexton.
Australia: Ashley-Cooper, Hynes, Ioane, Cooper, Mitchell, Giteau, Genia, Robinson, Moore, Alexander, Horwill, Chisholm, Elsom, Pocock, Palu.
Replacements: O’Connor for Ashley-Cooper (69), Polota-Nau for Moore (64).
Not Used: Dunning, Mumm, G. Smith, Burgess, Cross.
Sin Bin: Palu (29).
Att: 74,000
Ref: Jonathan Kaplan (South Africa).
