Herring insists more to come from Ireland after historic series win
AUSTRALIA 16 20
Ireland hooker Rob Herring believes the best is yet to come from Joe Schmidt’s side as they toast their series win over Australia in Sydney.
A 20-16 victory at Allianz Stadium brought the curtain down on Ireland’s most successful season as they added a first series win over one of the southern hemisphere’s traditional big three since 1979 to their Grand Slam success.
Despite fielding three very different teams for each of the games in a compelling series, Ireland managed to come from 1-0 down to win in Melbourne and Sydney and clinch the Lansdowne Trophy.
With the 2019 World Cup in Japan looming large over next season, Herring is excited about what the team can achieve. “The last year has been massive for us,” he said. “We know that as a squad we still have more to give. We have another tough autumn international series coming up and then the Six Nations, leading into a World Cup. Hopefully, there is more to come and it’s a massive 18 months coming up for us.”
Contentious refereeing decisions prompted Australia coach Michael Cheika to invite one of the officials to a post-match press conference to explain his calls. French referee Pascal Gauzere didn’t take up Cheika’s offer as the Wallabies coach admitted he was at a loss to understand some of the rulings in his team’s defeat.
“I invited [Gauzere] to come to the presser but he didn’t want to,” Cheika told reporters. “You guys have seen what happened out there. You saw the decisions. The only people who can answer the questions are the referees, not me. I’ll say something and you’ll say it’s a biased view.” Cheika was left scratching his head after Gauzere’s decision to penalise Australia hooker Tolu Latu for not releasing the ball at a ruck late in the match, gifting Ireland stand-off Johnny Sexton the chance to put his team four points ahead.
“I think you guys saw what happened. Tolu is first there with no ruck formed and he gets awarded a penalty against him. Like I said, that’s the fact,” Cheika said. 0 Johnny Sexton celebrates Ireland’s series-clinching win.