Carbery the star man for Ireland after 18-month injury nightmare
53
7
Stand-in Ireland skipper Peter O’mahony hailed the resilience of “incredible professional” Joey Carbery following his man-of-the-match display in yesterday’s emphatic 53-7 victory over Argentina.
Stand-off Carbery stylishly backed up last weekend’s match-winningcameoagainst New Zealand by guiding the Irish to their biggest win over Los Pumas as he expertly filled in for the injured Johnny Sexton.
The 26-year-old, who endured an injury nightmare on the back of the 2019 World Cup, kicked 18 points in Dublin, with only a late conversion against the posts denying him a flawless display.
Flanker O’mahony, who took on the captaincy after James Ryan was forced off with a head knock just before the break, backed Munster teammate Carbery to continue improving.
“It’s great [to have him back],” said O’mahony. “He had a rough 18-month period and he’s an incredible professional.
“He kept his head down, stuck at it and he’s gathered momentum now that he didn’t have for a long time just by putting games back-to-back.
“He’s been around the environments and not just rehabbing. Once you’re back in the squad, it’s different.”
O’mahony only started the seven-try success at the Aviva Stadium following a late reshuffle caused by Iain Henvery
derson suffering a hamstring issue in the warm-up after Jack Conan earlier withdrew due to a quad problem.
He and Tadhg Beirne were added to a pack which was initially due to be unchanged following the 29-20 success over the All Blacks, while Ryan Baird and Nick Timoney called in to provide cover on the bench.
After a slow start saw Argentina edge in front through Mateo Carreras’s converted try, Andy Farrell’s hosts grew
into the game and ground out a resounding triumph to stretch their winning streak to eight games.
Josh Van Der Flier claimed two tries, while there were also scores from fellow forwards Andrew Porter, Caelan Doris, Dan Sheehan, Cian Healy and Beirne.
Head coach Farrell was pleased with his side’s response to the disruption as they build towards the 2022 Six Nations.
“The scoreline was obviously
flattering for us,” he said. I don’t know whether the firsthalf was so dominant but the most pleasing thing is that we grew as a group.”
“Some more lads got some well-deserved game time after the controversy [selection issues] that we had to deal with throughout the morning and we dealt with that pretty well.”
Wasteful Argentina faded fast as their record of never having won in the Irish capital continued.
Lock Tomas Lavanini was
dismissed 20 minutes from time for a dangerous challenge on Irish replacement Baird, just after Pablo Matera returned from a yellow card for a deliberate knock-on.
The visitors’ hopes of avoiding an eighth defeat of a challenging calendar year were not helped by a bizarre spell of first-half profligacy during which Emiliano Boffelli somehow squandered two simple penalties and Carreras was denied a certain second score by an unexpected fumble.