What a great weekend of Sport. Events in Auckland on Saturday morning and the quality and drama of the All Ireland Final yesterday certainly will have given the Irish public a spring in their step. The Irish rugby team ripped up the formbook and pulled off our greatest victory ever at a World Cup in beating the Tri Nations winners Australia. The upset has potentially thrown the World Cup Draw wide open and if we can now beat Italy in two weeks we will avoid Southern Hemisphere opposition all the way to the final should be progress that far. With Wales victory over Samoa they will now most likely finish 2nd in Pool D and would be our opponent in the Quarterfinal. If we were to beat Wales we are likely to play either France or England who both have shown weaknesses in their Pool Games so far.
Where did this performance come from? One man doesn’t make a team but he sure can make a huge difference. Even more so if his name is Sean O’ Brien. I am biased about his quality having seen Sean play since he was under 14 for Tullow but to play your first ever game at a World Cup having been out for nearly a month with a knee injury to have such an impact and influence on the game was incredible. The European Player of the year exudes confidence and even his media interviews from during the week when he was quoted as saying “if there are no holes to run at I will make the holes” sends out the message that he was there to get the job done no matter what was put in his way. He had an absolute stormer from choking the ball in the first player of the game and winning Ireland a turnover to countless carries that got over the gain line and he also was Top of Irelands tackle count tally. With Stephen Ferris having a blinder and Jamie’s Heaslip hitting form again we now have a back row that can go toe to toe with any in this tournament and dominate most.
While Ireland brought two quality players into the pack in Cian Healy and Sean O’Brien Australia lost two when David Popock and Stephen Moore were force to pull out through injury before kick off. Popock is the best openside in the World at the moment at the breakdown and he certainly would have made it harder for us to be as dominant there had he played. Stephen Moore likewise is a key part of the Australian scrum and his replacement Tatafu Polota-Nau had a shocker. Another factor that helped us was the rain that fell before and during the match. This generation of Australians are the “Drought Generation” and they have really struggled to adapt to wet conditions whenever they have played in them. Think back to the Munster V Australia match in Thomond Park last year played in a downpour and how the Australian’s game plan came unstuck.
They are the youngest team at the World Cup and Ireland exploited that by playing a highly pressurized game, which exploited their weaknesses brilliantly. When we kicked we generally kicked long to Quade Cooper who Robbie Deans plays at Full Back on defence to protect his defensive frailties knowing that Quade cant resist the opportunity to run it back. Although he is a brilliant runner the Irish chase line was excellent and he time and time again ran into a cul de sac and was turned over. I thought that Australia portrayed a certain amount of arrogance by not doing their video work and ignoring the threat that the “Choke’ Tackle technique posed to them. Quade Cooper after the game was quoted as saying that he was surprised that Ireland defended like that and were so good at it despite this having been the mainstay of our defensive system since 2009. The way the Australians sent a ball carrier on his own running into the Irish defence time and time again was a huge tactical error and also their ball carriers ran too high more often than not. To counteract the “choke technique” the support player/players must be right behind the ball carrier and ‘tackle the tackler’ to ensure the breakdown becomes a ruck rather than a maul.
Australia will learn a lot from this defeat and a still a threat to all the teams. I wonder will Robbie Deans be regretting his decision to leave Matt Giteau out of the squad, as he would have been a great option to come on and try and win the match. For Ireland credit must go to all the players and the Management for getting the preparation spot on. Ireland played with an intensity that we have only seen once over the last 12 months which was against England in March. They used all their experience and self belief got from winning Grand Slams, Heineken Cups and Magner's Leagues to forget about recent form and concentrate on winning the game that mattered most of all. Declan Kidney is the master of getting his teams into the right state of mind and Brian O Driscoll's interview afterwards told us that Declan had got Jerry Flannery to present the team with the Jerseys on Thursday and how that inspired the players to seize the opportunity. Jerry has been a huge part of the team for most of the last decade and hopefully will be again. His own future is in doubt now due to injury and the respect that the players have for him both as a player and a friend is massive. If that presentation was have to have happened on the morning of the game there was a chance that the players might have became over cooked and not performed to the level that they did.
I think that Declan will rest a lot of his front line players this week against Russia and start the build up to Italy in two weeks time. I certainly wouldn’t risk Cian Healy or Mike Ross as the Italians will target our scrum and those two lads are key to our chances. This Irish team owes us nothing but they owe themselves a semi final place at least.
