Ireland up and running
Hosts kick off World Cup with thrilling win
MATCHWINNER Sophie Spence paid tribute to the home fans as Ireland recovered from three points down with two tries in eight minutes to claim a 19-17 win over Australia at the UCD Bowl last night.
‘The atmosphere was fantastic. To be in front of a home crowd was amazing, the Irish supporters are absolutely brilliant for us,’ said Spence.
‘It just goes to show the resilience we have as a team and to have each other’s backs for that time period. We have extremely intelligent players and brilliant leaders who brought us to that level. We had really good preparation, we’ve been in camp since Saturday and had five good sessions. I think you can’t go into the first game expecting everything to be perfect.’
IRELAND survived a second-half scare before getting their World Cup campaign off to a winning start in UCD last night.
Tom Tierney’s side fell 10-7 down after 56 minutes but the replacements came up trumps as wing forward Ciara Griffin and second row Sophie Spence powered over for home tries in an eight minute spell to leave it 19-10.
Hilisha Samoa replied with Australia’s third try superbly converted by Ashleigh Hewson to leave just two points between the teams with six minutes remaining but Ireland just about held on to the roars of a capacity crowd.
However, with Japan to come on Sunday ahead of a probable pool decider against France this night week, Tierney knows there’s plenty of room for improvement.
‘There was a lot of pressure on the girls, a lot of tension before the game. Some of the key areas let us down at important times but in the Pool stages, I don’t care how we win as long as we win.
‘It wasn’t as clinical as we would have wanted it to be. We have key areas to work on but it’s on to Japan. We’ve been waiting so long for this, it just created a huge expectation.
‘While the girls did a lot of good things, there are a lot of things to tighten up on. We just have to be more clinical at the breakdown, we were under pressure there against the Australians who were very, very good,’ added the coach.
On a glorious sunny evening, the home side started nervously and the visitors dominated possession in the opening quarter with Ireland’s cause not helped by a couple of basic errors.
Larissa Muldoon kicked the ball straight into touch from outside the 22 and Nora Stapleton missed touch with a penalty but the defence held firm and the visitors rarely looked like breaking though.When Ireland finally gained a foothold in the 22, Alison Miller couldn’t take Stapleton’s flat pass and the initial chance was lost.
A good lineout take from MarieLouise Reilly followed by a driving maul kept the pressure on. Ireland worked the ball in field and Muldoon sold a dummy and raced over by the posts for the opening try which Stapleton converted.
The visitors reply was swift though. Centre Sharni Williams made the initial break and from a quickly taken lineout which caught the Irish defence napping, wing Mahalia Murphy jinked inside Eimear Considine for a try which Samanatha Treherne pitifully failed to convert.
Australia continued to enjoy more territory and possession for the rest of the half and Tierney must have been relieved to take a two point lead into the interval.
Katie Fitzhenry replaced Jenny Murphy who had picked up a couple of heavy knocks and crowd favourite Spence and Ciara O’Connor were also introduced.
However, Australia continued to press and captain Shannon Parry was credited with the touchdown as the pack drove over on 56 minutes.
Skipper Claire Molloy had called on the Irish fans to play their part and they did just that as the comeback started in earnest on 62 minutes.
Muldoon fed Miller who brought play into the 22 and when Ireland recycled the ball, Griffin, who had only been on the field for three minutes, powered over with Stapleton again adding the extras.
Griffin, Ciara O’Connor and Spence were all to the fore as the home back drove again and this time Spence was credited with the try after the referee had called on the TMO for confirmation.
Ireland may have momentarily relaxed at 19-10 and Australia scored again to set up a tense finish, prop forward Samoa barging over from a ruck.
Tierney’s charges had to survive an anxious six minutes but did so without further alarm and can now look ahead to Sunday’s game with whipping-girls Japan with a semi-final place still within their grasp.