Ireland run away with surprise win against outclassed Wallabies.
Well what can I say about that game of rugby, right from the get go the wallabies who I predicted to win the whole tournament were shut down and out played by a more supported and psyched up Ireland side. Declan Kidney picked an Irish side led by Brian O’Driscoll and Paul O’Connell who were perfectly matched to defeat and shut down the Roo’s attacking threat.
The unbelievable attacking force of Will Genia, Quade Cooper and James O’Connor were completely shut down and made countless mistakes. Every time a Wallaby got their hands on the ball they were immediately shut down and double teamed by the Irish defense. However although the Irish defense limited the amount of decent attacking position the Roo’s had, Will Genia and Adam Ashley-Cooper did cause a few nerves for the Irish defense through explosive and expansive rugby, but all the attacks ended abruptly through key Australian mistakes suck as knock ons, obstruction, turnovers, poor passes and a awful offload from Quade Cooper which led to Irish winger Tommy Bowe charging down the wing 90metres before being tackled and pushed out of touch by James O’Connor.
The scrum was the decisive factor in this stunning victory for the paddies, throughout the game the Irish pack locked horns with the wallabies and forced them to collapse time and time again. However I do not agree with some of the decisions of the referee at scrum time, as a number of collapses looked like the Irish front row giving way, still this does not take any thing away from the dominance the Irish pack showed. This was not the only time they out muscled the Roo’s, at almost every breakdown whether it be rucks or mauls the Irish forced their way through and caused the Aussie forwards to retreat.
The forward play was a key to the victory for the irish because it gave them chance to put points on the board via the boot. Jonathan Sexton was disappointing with the boot, as he missed a couple of manageable chances although one that struck the post almost resulted in a O’Driscoll try. However he did notch up 9 points for the Irish, 3 of those points where via a drop goal. Ronan O’Gara also added 6 points, via 2 from 2 kicks after being handed the kicking duties by Paul O’Connell when Brian O’Driscoll was off the pitch via the blood bin. To counteract this James O’Connor posted 6 points on the board for the Roo’s although he missed a couple of kicks to.
Towards the end of the game Australia began to fight back and cause problems for the Irish but again the Roo’s made mistakes which cost them dearly. But Ireland shut down any hopes when they attacked and had a try disallowed when sub Conor Murray went over in the corner only to be called offside. However Ireland then got a penalty and ended the game by Ronan O’Gara kicking the ball in the Auckland night sky.
Although this is a roadblock in the Qantas Wallabies path to world cup victory, I still feel that they have to much strength and elite players in their squad to move past this loss and win the world cup. However they now will have most likely made this task harder and will now have to play New Zealand in the semi finals rather than the final if both teams get that far. This has no doubt sparked a fire underneath the Australians and I expect them to come back next week and every game after that stronger.
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