Providence smiled on Keith Wood as he capped a superb individual display with his third international try against South Africa at Lansdowne Road on Saturday. The Harlequins hooker, though, cannot have known how close he came to missing out on scoring Ireland's only try.
Coach Warren Gatland explained after the match: "We talked about whether to sub Keith with about 20 minutes to go and bring on Ross Nesdale. Donal (Lenihan) said that we might leave him on for a minute or two as he might do something special. He then goes ahead and scores a try a minute later."
Gatland was effusive in his praise for the Irish hooker: "He brings that attitude and self-belief that is important. We need players of his class in the side, unfortunately at this stage we don't have a number of players of his calibre. Keith is a world class player.
"I was happy with the performance of the back row. I thought Dion O'Cuinneagain played well, so too did Andy Ward, while Victor Costello was excellent on the ball going forward. The midfield defended very well and they tackled the ball in all tackles. The managed to slow ball down for the South Africans." While the Irish coach correctly dwelled on the positive aspects of the performance, it was left to Donal Lenihan to introduce a harder edge and a realistic appraisal of the display. "We have been in this situation before where we have had one-off performances. We have gone on from moral performances.
"We believed that we could win beforehand. At half-time we felt it was the best opportunity ever to beat South Africa. The players are beginning to believe in themselves.
"We play France in the Five Nations next and it's going to be equally as hard. We are going to have to start winning these games fairly soon. I have no doubt that the French game is now a benchmark for us. South Africa are, without question, the best in the world, France have been the best in the Five Nations.
"February will tell us a great deal about how far we have progressed, but having said that, we can take a great deal of encouragement out of this afternoon." And with that Ireland's pre-Christmas Test matches came to an end. There is one final opportunity for the management in tomorrow night's game between Ireland A and South Africa at Ravenhill. Come February it will be interesting to see how Ireland have progressed.
