RUGBY:IRELAND WRAPPED up the Guinness Series in satisfactory fashion and, after their most gruelling November, were entitled to partake in some of the sponsor's brew last night.
An 81st-minute try by the excellent Gordon D’Arcy rounded off a slightly flattering, 29-9 win over Argentina. But by winning by more than 15 points, coupled with France’s hammering in Paris by the Wallabies on Saturday night, Ireland should rise from seventh to fifth, above Scotland and France, in the year-end rankings.
The win came at a cost though, not just for Ireland but more pertinently, once again, for Leinster. Already resigned to being without Rob Kearney and Luke Fitzgerald, casualties of the All Blacks clash, for around six weeks, Joe Schmidt was last night awaiting the results of an X-ray on Brian O’Driscoll for a suspected broken jaw.
“I think Brian is the one guy I’d have concern over,” admitted coach Declan Kidney.
“He’s gone for an X-ray. He could have a crack in his jaw; the treatment for which I’m not sure. If it’s just a crack he might avoid surgery and a plate.”
Leinster, who play the first of their back-to-back Heineken Cup matches away to Clermont next Sunday week, have been down this road before. Jonathan Sexton broke his jaw in last season’s Heineken Cup quarter-final win over Clermont, had a plate inserted the next day in a failed attempt to have him fit for the semi-final three weeks later, and ultimately didn’t return for five weeks.
Yesterday, an early Sunday afternoon kick-off, coupled with the arctic conditions, was never likely to make for the kind of occasion witnessed a week ago against the All Blacks.
Although presumably the same number of tickets (46,000) were sold for this game, given the IRFU’s ill-advised ticketing policy, the official attendance was deemed to be 30,476.
That looked generous, but those who did make it probably deserved a medal as well as some complimentary black stuff. Scandalously, not a pathway or a road en route to the stadium had been touched since the overnight snowfall.
Ireland’s performance certainly compared more than favourably with Italy and France against the Pumas, although it was a mixed bag. Having built a 19-3 interval lead with an impressive first half – winning quality ball and generally using it inventively – Ireland lost their way a little and became bogged down in an attritional second half.
Forced to defend for the vast majority of it, they did so well, though they made it tougher for themselves by kicking away possession loosely and failing to secure the four or five set-pieces they had in the opposition half.
“I think in the first half when we had the ball there was better shape to us, and we were more clinical,” said Kidney.
“There’s several aspects I know we can work on. I think we lost four balls in the first half by being counter-rucked, so again it’s the wisdom to know how many numbers to put into rucks. Our lineout needs more work and our scrum has improved. Kick-off receipt needs a bit of work, Our kick-off attack today improved a bit.”
“I think our understanding of the balance of possession in trying to offload is improving. Our defence was stoic at times; they (the Pumas) are tough men. When it’s zero or minus one degrees and Jamie (Heaslip) says the temperature was no problem, that shows how warm it was. I think the physicality, because it’s been four weeks in a row, can be taken for granted a bit.”
Having been put through the ringer in the scrums early on, the manner in which the relatively callow Irish frontrow (average age 26, average number of Test starts five) ultimately stood up to the grizzled Puma veterans (average age 35, average Test starts 43) would have given the Irish coaching staff as much pleasure as anything.
“In hindsight, those scrums close to our line gave us an inner belief and we got as much out of the scrums as we gave away. It takes work to come together, and it’s nice now that at the end of a series – that’s certainly not the finished article in terms of where we want to be in terms of scrummaging, but it’s a good stepping stone to where we feel we can get to.”
Though frustrated with their lack of possession in the second half, Heaslip (standing in for captain O’Driscoll) maintained: “I was delighted we won. I always say I play to win. Granted, we probably wanted a little bit more ball in the second half, and it did get a little loose at times. But I think when we had the opportunity we did tighten it down.
“Probably one or two decisions as a team, regarding how to manage games, were a little bit awry, but that’s where we’ll learn.
“As a whole, the lads were very happy with the win. There were a couple of tins in there and the boys got stuck in.”
