At the finish, it wasn’t immediately clear who was at the end of a grueling season and who was merely at the halfway point. This can happen when the margins are tight and the mind takes over. For Australia, they were aiming to surpass break-even in their season, another step in their defensive strategy against the Lions next summer. Ireland was in a similar situation: two out of four wins this month wouldn’t have looked good. They managed to avoid that outcome.
It was in the final stretch that Gus McCarthy’s fresh legs gave Ireland some breathing room. Despite numerous mistakes, they just about deserved to edge ahead. How fitting for the Aussies that their spring tour, as they call it, should end in spring-like conditions, but for much of the game, it felt like trying to light a fire with damp paper. At least by the final quarter, there was some warmth.
But when faced with this, do you persist or start anew? Sadly, the latter wasn’t an option, but Ireland surely would have embraced it. At one point, as the game approached halftime, the home team had accumulated 16 handling errors. In a physically demanding sport like rugby, there aren’t many that fall into the unforced category, but this was extraordinary. Yet, they could have gone into the locker room just a point behind instead of the eight-point cushion the Wallabies enjoyed to listen to Joe Schmidt.
The former Ireland coach would have urged his men to maintain their performance and the courage to run from deep. It was their clinical attack that secured the game’s opening try, from Max Jorgensen, and Noah Lolesio’s boot added the extras when Ireland left the door open. But if Joe McCarthy had handled the ball better from a tackle under the Wallaby sticks a couple of minutes before halftime, Sam Prendergast could have converted his team’s second try. The first had come from Josh van der Flier on 23 minutes, which the outside-half failed to convert, an unusual slip for such a skilled player.
McCarthy missed his chance to do the right thing, and Ireland had to bear the burden. The same player had been fortunate to avoid a yellow card earlier when he chose to rise to meet Rob Valetini instead of staying low, so it could have been worse for coach Andy Farrell in his final match with Ireland before he takes charge of the Lions. He had seen his lineout falter when it needed to be smooth – one costing Ireland a 5m attacking platform – and the unease around the ground was palpable.
Within 10 minutes of the second half, it eased with a Prendergast penalty and Caelan Doris’s try under the sticks. Suddenly, it was 15-13, and the Wallabies needed to regain control. A penalty from Lolesio put the tourists back in front, and repeating the dose on 63 minutes put the home team under pressure at 15-19 with 17 minutes to play. However, Ireland dug deep. Cian Healy broke Brian O’Driscoll’s caps record with his 134th appearance, and substitute hooker McCarthy’s try off a maul on 71 minutes secured the game.
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