Glorious end to the greatest season
THERE WERE POCKETS WHEN IRELAND JUST LOOKED EXHAUSTED
‘THANK YOU,’ said Johnny Sexton, as politely as if he was being handed his receipt in a petrol station. Referee Pascal Gauzere had told the stand-in Irish captain and his Australian counterpart that there was no conclusive evidence of a deliberate knock-on by Jacob Stockdale in the last play of the game.
As a result, the Test was over. This mesmerising series had concluded. Ireland were victorious on a tour of Australia for the first time in 39 years. And the importance of the achievement was immediately debated. Bigger than the Grand Slam? Judge by the players’ reaction. Sexton turned away from Gauzere and David Pocock and roared ‘Yes!’ before being swamped by a leap of joy feom Bundee Aki and other teammates. It was redolent of what happened in Paris almost four months ago. On that cold, wet, winwere try Saturday Sexton beat the French with a drop goal in injury time.
Aki led the joyous pile-up of the Irish No10 that day, too. It was a dramatic conclusion to a tough day, but it wasn’t the half of it. What followed was a spring-time of gathering confidence, class and ambition.
Those virtues survived the long months of Test and club competition, the journey to Australia, and three Tests that must be among the finest an Irish team has ever contested in a summer series.
History dictates that a Grand Slam must be treasured, but every available measure of class in Test rugby places a premium on any victory over one of the southern hemisphere big three.
To do it twice in three weeks or, if one prefers, over successive weekends, ranks the success of this tour alongside a Six Nations clean sweep.
The qualities that brought glory in Europe were in occasional service here, but only occasionally: the Irish triumph was notable because they couldn’t rely on their set-piece or their defence. At the end of a long season, with resources pillaged by injury and exhaustion, there vulnerabilities in the lineout and particularly in the scrum that the Michael Cheika-inspired Wallabies sought to exploit.
Ireland were able to withstand that, thanks to better discipline than their opponents but also because they are a hard group. Don’t take that last quality lightly: the best sides have it. And this squad has plenty of it. Nobody epitomises it more than Sexton, of course. He survived getting halved by Samu Kerevi in the closing moments to win a penalty. It did appear that replacement Australian hooker Silatolu Latu was judged harshly for a breakdown infringement, but Sexton earned it and then converted it, swinging over the kick that gave his team a four-point margin and obliged Australia to try and win the match with a try. Hardness marbled this effort. Jordan Larmour showed it in taking a Kurtley Beale garryowen ahead of Israel Folau as the match sharpened to a point of exquisite tension in those last moments.
Tadhg Furlong, CJ Stander and Bundee Aki served it up time and again with their ball-carrying.
Furlong is loved by supporters but the other pair should be, too. A centre partnership of Robbie Henshaw and Garry Ringrose gives Ireland more creativity in attack, but Aki is a big-time performer.
He was outstanding on this occasion, his tackling in the first half, in particular, checking Australian attempts to set momentum rolling their way.
Jack Conan is a more dextrous back-row option than Stander, but Stander’s consistency is one of the most admirable features of this generation.
He never plays badly, never fails to battle or show up in the midst of those tight battles that decide the outcomes of matches.
His leadership was very important in Sydney yesterday morning after the departure of Peter O’Mahony to injury. Another hard knuckle of Irish resistance, captain O’Mahony was out of the game before half time after Folau collided with him in the air.
It was the second heavy fall O’Mahony suffered in the game, and that should prompt a reassessment of Ireland’s tactic of using lifters off restarts.
If it means a lifter is elevated and given a better chance of winning
CJ STANDER’S CONSISTENCY IS ONE OF HIS MOST ADMIRABLE FEATURES
the opposition restart — important when a player as good in the air as Folau is an opponent — it also leaves the lifted player vulnerable.
O’Mahony could have been seriously injured. That tactic should be forgotten. The Munster man looked devastated watching on from the sideline, but Stander led the battle in his absence, scoring the try that settled the series in the 44th minute.
He wasn’t alone, from Sexton’s bigmatch courage to the combination of Devin Toner and James Ryan in the second row. That pair looks Ireland’s best combination, with Iain Henderson, Tadhg Beirne and Ultan Dillane now knowing the size of the job facing them if they want to play in this team.
Hardness was needed in this Ireland performance because there were pockets of this match when they looked exhausted.
For all the ball they had, particularly in the second quarter, the failure to score more than one try was a concern, and it looked like it could come at an awful cost as the Wallabies chased hard over the last 20 minutes.
Ireland survived because they persevered and refused to be worn down — by their rivals, by the months of effort, by a history that dictates Irish sides crumple when the pressure comes on. Joe Schmidt should receive the great share of credit. He mentioned the late arrival of the Ireland team bus at the ground in a prematch interview.
It was a good challenge, he said, but why mention it? Because, one supposes, he is a perfectionist; he referenced it at the end of the match, too, just like he did when Ireland’s arrival at Murrayfield was delayed before their disastrous 2017 Six Nations opener against Scotland. There were no excuses here. This side, the greatest Irish one yet, have no need of them.