IRELAND REPORT USA 10 Ireland 27: AS EXPECTED, Ireland made it eight test wins in succession when also recording their sixth win in six meetings with the USA at Santa Clara University yesterday.
But after the uninspiring win over Canada a week earlier this scratchy performance was only marginally better if at all and does not indicate that the cupboard is especially full.
Ultimately, the Irish line-out and especially its maul, along with the wayward kicking of the experienced Mike Hercus, saved Ireland’s blushes in an error- strewn, stop-start game. Two of Ireland’s three tries came from this source following its recent revival under the revised laws, while Hercus missed four penalties.
A fussy performance by Chris White, whose penalty count went 12-6 to the Eagles, didn’t help. Ball retention had been highlighted by Declan Kidney in the build-up to the game but Ireland rarely put three or four phases together on a tight pitch.
Their work at the breakdown was especially messy, with players arriving in dribs and drabs rather than committing numbers sufficiently, quickly and decisively enough. As disappointing was the back play, with ball moving slowly through the hands and often deep behind the gain line. Few, if any, individuals enhanced their reputations, with the possible exception of Tony Buckley.
Eddie O’Sullivan’s team didn’t try anything too fancy and were typically fired-up after the The Star Spangled Banner, their big physical forwards working through the phases with four-man pods never more than a couple of phases off the previous target.
However the Eagles were let down by their malfunctioning line-out, which coughed up five throws in the first-half, and more surprisingly, by the wayward kicking of well-travelled former Sale, Llanelli and Dragons outhalf Hercus. He missed three penalties in quick succession, two of which were well within his compass.
The net result was that despite another encouraging spell in the second quarter, when Ireland persistently incurred Chris White’s displeasure, the Eagles were not rewarded for their efforts on the scoreboard.
Ian Keatley also triggered a poor place-kicking effort by missing an early penalty but a good steal at the breakdown by Ian Whitten and an aware pass by Mick O’Driscoll nearly put Ian Dowling over. Justin Boyd made the try-saving tackle, but came around offside and from the penalty into the corner a well-controlled maul patiently rumbled forward off a take by Mick O’Driscoll for Bob Casey to open the scoring.
That would have been an especially nice moment for the London Irish captain, given his near nine-year absence from test rugby in which he was overlooked entirely during O’Sullivan’s reign. They would have had another but for the maul splintering though the polished line-out work did lead to Keatley making it 8-0.
After the sequence of misses by Hercus, Keatley found a couple of lengthy touchfinders and following a counter attack by Gavin Duffy and Ian Dowling, then broke between prop Will Johnson and flanker Louis Stanfil to link with Barry Murphy. He held the ball up well for Rory Best, who put Ian Whitten over.
Keatley missed his conversion again but that was about the high point of the Irish display, and after the turnaround four handling errors and ill-conceived counter attack by Duffy, Hercus missed another routine penalty. He compounded this with a late hit on Peter Stringer, and from the resulting penalty the line-out maul rumbled forward again for White to award a penalty try.
Hercus was replaced by Ata Malifa, who promptly tapped over a drop goal. Lifted by this, the Eagles broke with the playbook, and attacked off a quick tap by Malifa. Malifa spotted a miss-match with Tom Court and put Roland Suniula over before adding the conversion to make it 10-20, and make the 10,000 attendance wonder what might have been had he started.
But Malifa undid his good work with a knock-on, from which Eoin Reddan picked out Rory Best from the recycle for the Irish captain to finish well and ensure a flattering gloss to the scoreline.
Scoring sequence: 13 minsCasey try 0-5; 24 minsKeatley pen 0-8; 40 minsWhitten try 0-13; (half-time 0-13); 52 minspenalty try, Keatley con 0-20; 63 minsMalifa drop goal 3-20; 65 minsSuniula try, Malifa con 10-20; 70 minsBest try, Keatley con 10-27.
USA: C Wyles (Saracens FC), J Boyd (Dallas Harlequins); J Sifa (Middleton); R Suniula (Pearl City); K Swiryn (Old Puget Sound Beach); M Hercus (Sunshine Coast Stingrays); M Petri (New York Athletic Club), captain; M MacDonald (Leeds Carnegie); Chris Biller (California); W Johnson (Oxford University); J Van Der Giessen (Denver Barbarians); Hayden Smith (Saracens); L Stanfill (New York Athletic Club); P Dahl (Belmont Shore); N Johnson (Denver Barbarians). Replacements: J Welch (Belmont Shore) for Biler (44 mins), A Malifa (Belmont Shore RFC) for Hercus (58 mins), M Moeakiola (Park City Haggis) for MacDonald (59 mins), JJ Gagiani (Univ. of Cape Town) for Stanfil (67 mins), C Mackay (Counties Manukau) for van der Giessen, Tim Usasz (Nottingham RFC) for Petri (both 73 mins). Not used: A Tuilevuka (Provo Steelers).
IRELAND: G Duffy (Connacht); B Murphy (Munster), D Cave (Ulster), I Whitten (Ulster), I Dowling (Munster); I Keatly (Connacht), P Stringer (Munster); T Buckley (Munster), R Best (Ulster), M Ross (Harlequins); B Casey (London Irish), M O'Driscoll (Munster); J Muldoon (Connacht), N Ronan (Munster), D Leamy (Munster). Replacements: D Hurley (Munster) for Cave (22-30 mins), D Ryan (Munster) for Muldoon, E Reddan (Wasps) for Stringer (both 60 mins), T Court (Ulster) for Ross (62 mins), R Caldwell (Ulster) for Casey (64 mins). Not used: S Cronin (Connacht), N O'Connor (Ulster) .
Referee: Chris White(England).
* Meanwhile, Rocky Elsom will travel to Canberra today and complete his signing for the ACT Brumbies as part of his contract with the Australian Rugby Union, thereby finally ending any hope of him remaining with Leinster. The 26-year-old flanker is expected to agree a deal which will keep him with Australia until the 2011 World Cup.
