Ireland can rise to giant challenges
A number of times physical demands were made on Ireland in the opening phase of their match against France. They were asked whether they were going to be big enough to play international rugby at the high end. The team not only passed the test but came through with honours. France opened by launching Paul Willemse, Thibaud Flament, Charles Ollivon and tighthead prop Uini Atonio at Ireland. As they flung their outsize bodies at the Irish players, they hoped to soften them up or punch through weak shoulders. One of the criticisms levelled at Ireland was that they are too small. But it didn’t work. South Africa will do the same when the teams meet in the World Cup. France were rewarded only with a Thomas Ramos penalty, not the sort of return they would have hoped for.
Ireland’s replacements are not substandard
When the Irish team met up in Dublin on Tuesday, coach Andy Farrell had to start the process of patching things up. Scrumhalf Jamison Gibson-Park, props Tadhg Furlong and Cian Healy, hooker Dan Sheehan and centre Robbie Henshaw were not available to him. The journey to France for the World Cup is, as Farrell described, one where players would not likely but definitely get injured, so those not usually starting would have to come into the team and maintain the level. That was shown to be the case and even as the bench emptied in the second half on Saturday as injuries forced Johnny Sexton, Rob Herring and Tadhg Beirne out of the game, the finishers finished. What an impressive final quarter from Ireland.
Killer instinct needs sharpening
One of the things you need to have when you are ranked the number one team in the world is a well-developed ruthless streak. The jury may still be out on that as Ireland crossed the French line on at least four occasions only for the ball to be held up. But when Uini Atonio was sinbinned for connecting with Rob Herring’s face with his shoulder, Ireland immediately went to work with the extra man before France could make an adjustment. Prop Andrew Porter scored within seconds of Atonio’s yellow card. The official time was: yellow card on 26 minutes and Porter’s try on 27 minutes. In that sense it was a good reaction but perhaps there is more work to do on the ruthless, killer ways of international rugby.
French were flummoxed by Irish defence
You can read some things in a match any way you like. But when Thomas Ramos chose to kick a drop goal on 62 minutes to take the scores to 25-19 for Ireland, it could have been interpreted as the French fullback taking his team to within a converted try of Ireland’s score with just less than 20 minutes remaining in the match. Another way to look at it was France accepting that they were unable to break down the Irish defence, which was superb. It was France deciding that a better way to build the scoreboard would not be by scoring tries but by kicking points. A white handkerchief being waved? For all of their efforts France scored just one try, through Damian Penaud on 18 minutes.
Ireland can count on Keenan
Hugo Keenan was one of Ireland’s outstanding players. We know that because we saw how he played against France, the distance he covered to chase kicks, contest high balls from box-kicks and probe the French defence with his running game. We also know that from the match statistics. The Irish fullback played for the full 80 minutes and during that time carried the ball 18 times. Nobody on the team carried more, although man of the match Caelan Doris also had 18. Keenan made 205 metres with his carries, which is two or three times that of most of his team-mates, again with the exception of the Irish number eight, Doris, who carried 117 metres. Most prolific with ball in hand, Keenan also topped the kicking with 301 metres, more than James Lowe, Conor Murray and Johnny Sexton.
