Ireland rue missed opportunities as winning run comes to an end
AUSTRALIA 18 IRELAND 9 Ireland hooker Rob Herring insists his side will not lose faith after suffering their first defeat in 13 Test matches, but admits they need to do better at taking their opportunities.
Joe Schmidt’s side were beaten 18-9 by Australia in Brisbane and face an uphill battle to rescue the three-game series as they move to Melbourne ahead of the second Test.
The Grand Slam winners were unable to muster a try during a bruising encounter at Suncorp Stadium and Herring believes they left plenty of points behind.
Ireland were twice denied by the television match official, while Joey Carbery missed a second-half penalty and their handling let them down under pressure at key moments.
The Ireland squad flew to Melbourne yesterday ahead of this weekend’s second Test at AAMI Park and a frustrated Herring said he is confident the Six Nations champions can turn things around as they pick apart their performance in the coming days.
“There was a fair bit of disappointment in the changing room. Joe came in and said we have some good things to work on now,” the South Africanborn Ulster player said.
“That’s the beauty of it. It’s a three-test series and we’ve just got to get better now.
“We’ve got to improve on what we let ourselves down on in this game and move on.
“We need to convert pressure into points. We had a couple of good opportunities in their 22 and just coughed the ball up for one reason or another.
“I think that’s the key thing for us, converting those opportunities. We have to be confident, we’ve been building for a long time.”
David Pocock was the hero on his return to the gold jersey following an 18-month break from Test rugby. He capped a dominant breakdown performance with Australia’s winning try after Bernard Foley’s score had given the hosts a half-time lead.
Michael Cheika’s Australia were the more clinical team in attack, but it was their defensive effort and brutish physicality that drew most comment from the Irish camp after the game. “Defensively, they put us under a lot of pressure,” Herring continued.
“They came out firing with a good defensive line, some good hits. We just coughed up the ball a few times, which was what they were trying to do with that defensive pressure.
“We struggled to get our way into the game from there, and I felt like Australia were always in the ascendancy.”