That’s two wins on the trot now, so is our rugby crisis over? Andrew Trimble wasn’t entirely convinced that we’d had one, “it’s not doom and gloom, we’ve been spoilt,” he’d said before Saturday’s meeting with Fiji. But for anyone who had been fretting, a 52-17 win with a liberal sprinkling of tries might have offered some reassurance that this team may not be quite done yet.
And before you guffaw at a victory over Fiji, remember: they beat Wales in Cardiff a fortnight ago. (Rugby Dept: “Our grannies would beat Wales in Cardiff this weather”).
Not that the Virgin Media panel was 110 per cent happy. “Lots of plusses in that performance, not perfect,” said Matt Williams. But he was highly impressed with some individual displays, not least the one produced by Robbie Henshaw.
Robbie, incidentally, had had a quirky start to his day. He was met by TNT Sport when he got off the bus at the Aviva and was asked what the mood had been like on board. “Did you have a singalong?”
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This conjured up images of Andy Farrell leading the lads in a rousing rendition of ‘We’re on the one road’ on their way to the ground (“North men, south men, comrades all, Dublin, Belfast, Cork and Donegal!”) but Robbie said no, there was no singalong, everyone was “in the zone” with their headphones on.
“What are you listening to?” “Eh, a mix, a bit of country.” “Country?!” “Yeah.” “Irish country?” “No, American, Zach Bryan and bits like that.” By now Robbie was looking a bit bewildered, possibly expecting to be asked next if he prefers brown sauce or ketchup on his sausages. It’s a credit to him that he was able to regain his focus and perform so admirably.
But what of young Sam Prendergast? “The Peter Crouch of rugby,” as Brian O’Driscoll described him over on TNT, due to him being a tall but not massively bulky lad.
Joe Molloy had put Ian Madigan on Sam-watch during the game, and Andrew, while noting the glitches in his game, lauded his ability to pick the right pass and “put someone through the holes”. “It’s like a work of art,” he said.
This all had Matt shifting uncomfortably in his chair. “I think everyone’s got to take a breath, calm down,” he said of the week’s ‘Sam is the New Messiah’ chat. “It was completely out of order, the pressure that was put on him in the media was quite ridiculous.”
Matt could actually have been talking about Ruben Amorim, when you think about.
“We’ve been here before,” Sky’s Kelly Cates said to Roy Keane of Manchester United’s latest New Messiah. Roy was quite optimistic, though, until he saw Amorim’s first starting XI, the realisation dawning that he had to work with the same shower who had left United 13th in the table before Erik ten Hag was put out of his misery.
But then Marcus Rashford (!) scored after 81 seconds, and suddenly that 16 point gap between United and Liverpool seemed entirely bridgeable. The revolution had begun.
And then Ipswich equalised.
“They’re fearless, Ipswich,” said Jamie Redknapp at half-time. “But there’s nothing to fear when you play United,” Roy pointed out.
Second half? Amorim spent much of it stroking his chin in a slightly despondent manner, like he was about to book the first flight back to Lisbon. Casemiro and Christian Eriksen gave him as much energy in midfield as a pair of slippers, Diogo Dalot did a mighty imitation of a headless chicken, and his attack offered as much threat as a bar of soap.
“Talk about leopards and spots,” Roy sighed at full-time, his heart going out to Amorim. “After two minutes we’re finking, wow the Messiah is here, look how good they look, but then they became their true selves, the quality isn’t there,” said Jamie.
Heroically, Amorim joined the Sky crew at their pitchside breakfast bar, Roy wiggling his eyebrows a bit when the new gaffer said his players “were thinking too much”, when Roy reckoned they weren’t doing any thinking at all.
Then Ed Sheeran joined them, the singing person with a minority stake in Ipswich hugging Jamie, saying nothing, before departing the scene. Amorim’s face kinda read “WTF?”, Roy’s too. Then Amorim limped away, heading for the dressingroom for a chat with his slippers, headless chicken and bar of soap. Doom and gloom, that.
