Ireland v Namibia: Match details Ireland - 64 Namibia - 7 On the official half-time stats sheet handed out in the press box, the most eye-catching comment was surely that concerning the weather: "Patchy rain." Now even in the depths of an Irish winter we couldn't have come up with that one.
Patchy might also be a reasonably fair assessment of the Irish performance, but then again mistakes were utterly inevitable.
Invariably it will be compared in size, whatever about stature, with the "second string" Pumas' 67-14 win over the same opponents five days before. That's a pretty futile exercise in terms of its relevance to the crunch Pool A meeting in Adelaide a week hence. Different game, different circumstances and most definitely different conditions.
In the event, Ireland almost exerted as much pressure in the scrums as the Pumas did, if not quite reaping a 26-point harvest. But the set-piece play in general, which was always going to count for more in these conditions, was probably the most pleasing aspect of the performance.
Keith Wood's throwing - after much towelling of the greasy ball - was pinpoint, and Ireland duly cleaned up out of touch, not alone winning all 17 of their own lineouts, but taking a dozen of the Namibians' as well. Similarly, with Shane Byrne's introduction in no way diminishing Ireland's scrum, they made the wilting Namibians back-pedal almost at will by the end. The maul too was a potent weapon, initiating the breakthrough and remaining a valuable weapon.
That, and the superb tactical kicking of Ronan O'Gara, were the best means of go-forward ball for Ireland, prompting Eddie O'Sullivan to liken it to good old-fashioned "Munster Cup rugby, stick it up your jumper".
"It certainly wasn't the game plan we left Terrigal with this morning," admitted the coach. "We had intended to play a quick rucking game but had to change the game plan pretty drastically."
If there was a downside, again it was, as Wood admitted, the failure to clear away ruck ball quickly enough, although as Wood also mentioned, the ability to contest the breakdown was the Namibians' main strength; not to mention the conditions.
Furthermore, Ireland probably suffered for the absence of a true groundhog at openside.
In the circumstances, Peter Stringer's service was excellent, although outside of him there wasn't an awful lot of penetration from the backs, save for isolated breaks by Girvan Dempsey in the first half and Denis Hickie (when switched to full back) and Kevin Maggs late on.
The more potent runners were closer in, usually the back rowers, whose performances will have clouded this most competitive of areas for O'Sullivan. Eric Miller ran hardest of all, scoring two tries, as did Alan Quinlan. It was perhaps no coincidence the presence of the grafting Simon Easterby met with an impressive fringe defence.
At times, the Irish backs seemed to be playing with a little too much width, making the odd attempt at skip passes too difficult, and were also culpable of passing a little too far in front. Simple, orthodox man-to-man passing across the line was the only sure way of progress.
The rain drove ticket holders either away or to the sanctuary of covered areas with TV screens in the bowels of the stadium (and seats were emptying steadily by the second half) - or they just didn't bother attending. In any event, sellers of plastic macs at Aus$5 a go were doing a roaring trade with T-shirted supporters.
O'Sullivan had warned Ireland mightn't get such a quick, soft score as the Pumas did against Namibia the preceding Tuesday. In the event, they broke through a few seconds earlier and also from a lineout drive, albeit with more effort. The pack mauled remorselessly inward from Paul O'Connell's take and Quinlan broke away to drive over the line.
Dempsey scored off a blind-side scrum move following an offload in the tackle by Brian O'Driscoll before Hickie, who again looked Ireland's ace card, scored a niftily-taken try by coming over to his opposite wing and beating three tackles on the outside - his 23rd for his country and eighth in four games.
The refereeing of the breakdown area is getting curiouser and curiouser. Andrew Cole was a good deal stricter than other officials have been in penalising defending teams for handling after a ruck has formed or coming in from the side.
Having persistently penalised the Namibians, he duly sin-binned the lock Heino Senekal for "clearly stopping the flow of the ball". However, when Miller picked and went from the ensuing scrum, and the lion tamer Schalk van der Merwe dived in over the top, Cole then penalised Miller for playing the ball a second time.
With Namibia down to 14 men, Ireland couldn't secure their bonus point. O'Sullivan would have been a little irritated that the Irish backs didn't close out a clear try-scoring chance off fourth phase, when O'Gara perhaps didn't make enough allowance for the conditions when flighting his pass a fraction too far in front of Maggs. But this looked a damn sight easier from the comfort of a covered seat.
Horan eventually ensured the bonus point with a try which almost defies description. Suffice to say that after a sequence of bar-of-soap fumbles, Horan was awarded a dubious touchdown when snaffling Corne Powell over the Namibian line after lengthy deliberation by the TMO. Opportunist, if not exactly the try of the tournament.
Miller straightened through for a fifth before good hands on the gain line by van der Merwe enabled Powell to score Namibia's sole try in first-half injury time.
A Quinlan charge-down try, a close-range try from Guy Easterby after hard yards by Miller and Quinlan as well as excellent clearing out by Byrne, a Miller pushover try and finally a try in the corner by John Kelly after the ball was put through the hands following a recycle off Maggs ensured a steady enough supply of scores until the end; O'Gara landing a creditable seven conversions out of 10.
Fittingly, the last words on the "referee link" from Cole, drenched to the skin, were, "We need a cup of tea." Followed by something stronger, one would venture.
Scoring sequence: 3 mins Quinlan try, O'Gara con 7-0; 11 mins Dempsey try 12-0; 14 mins Hickie try, O'Gara con 19-0; 37 mins Horan try, O'Gara con 26-0; 40 (+4 mins) Miller try, O'Gara con 33-0; 40 (+7 mins) Powell try, Wessels con 33-7; (half-time 33-7); 50 mins Quinlan try 38-7; 60 mins G Easterby try, O'Gara con 45-7; 67 mins Miller try, O'Gara con 52-7; 74 mins Horgan try, O'Gara con 57-7; 83 mins Kelly try, O'Gara con 64-7.
IRELAND: G Dempsey (Leinster); S Horgan (Leinster), B O'Driscoll (Leinster), K Maggs (Bath), D Hickie (Leinster); R O'Gara (Munster), P Stringer (Munster); M Horan (Munster), K Wood (Munster), J Hayes (Munster), M O'Kelly (Leinster), P O'Connell (Munster), S Easterby (Llanelli), A Quinlan (Munster), E Miller (Leinster). Replacements: S Byrne (Leinster) for Wood, G Easterby (Rotherham) for Stringer (both 53 mins), J Kelly (Munster) for Dempsey (70 mins), S Best (Ulster) for Hayes (78 mins).
NAMIBIA: R Pedro; D Mouton, D Grobler, C Powell, V Dreyer; E Wessels, H Husselman; K Lensing, J Meyer, N du Toit , H Senekal, A Graham, S van der Merwe, W Duvenhage, S Furter (capt). Replacements: C van Tonder for Meyer (26 mins), A Blaauw for du Toit (61 mins), N Swanepoel for Husselman (63 mins), M Schreuder for Wessels (64 mins), J van Lill for Furter (65 mins), H Lintvelt for Duvenhage (70 mins), M Africa for Powell (77 mins). Sin-binned: Senekal (20-30 mins).
Referee: Andrew Cole (Australia).
