February 16, 2011
By Staff Reporter
A 6-point game is not the kind Ireland win against favorites. It’s the kind they throw away heroically and good-naturedly. It’s the kind they get pats on the back for, the kind they shrug their shoulders after while their conquerors and betters move on to greater things. An English try was on its way, as sure and certain as tomorrow.
And yet, it wasn’t. Just this once, it didn’t turn up. Just this once an Irish team held firm and didn’t flounder and didn’t flail. Instead, they ran out to a 19-13 victory in a Six Nations Tournament match played in
They defended more cleverly than they did desperately, they worked more smartly than they did passionately, and they played more cannily than they did heroically. It was a game they won all by themselves, with neither help from fortune nor aid from English shortcomings. True, the world champions had a horribly misfiring line-out, but to put defeat down to that alone without saluting the Irish work that lead it would be a travesty.
All around the pitch there were massive performances in green. Malcolm O’Kelly and Paul O’Connell filled in and sent off their joint application for the first-choice second-row partnership on the next Lions tour. Simon Easterby, Gordon D’Arcy and Keith Gleeson all took heretofore unimagined strides toward seats on the plane to New Zealand. Ronan O’Gara had his best game in and Ireland shirt, a feat made even more impressive by the fact that Brian O’Driscoll had comfortably his worst. Sprinkle in seven out of 10s for most of the rest of the side, with possible shouts for eights from Shane Byrne and Girvan Dempsey and that’s an impressive team performance.
England didn’t play badly so much as they failed to work at playing well. There was something almost cavalier about their approach, about they way they continued with a game plan that so obviously wasn’t functioning. Iain Balshaw remaining at full-back, Jason Robinson at centre, Steve Thompson at hooker — these were all ideas that just weren’t working out and yet it took Clive Woodward an age to change them.
Thompson in particular had a nightmare afternoon. Ireland stole 11 of his line-out throws, and while credit must go at least in part to the power and alacrity with which O’Kelly and O’Connell routinely foisted themselves upon the opposition’s throw, there can be little justification for leaving the English hooker on the field for a whole hour. There’s a definition of insanity that goes along the lines of doing the same thing over and over again expecting a different result. Woodward definitely has some ‘splaining to do.
This game went wrong for him even though initially it seemed Ireland were quite content to help him on his way as usual. O’Gara missed as easy a penalty as he’ll face in his career after just 4 minutes, striking a post from no more than a decent line-out throw away. Not only that, but once he’d managed to set himself on the road to redemption with two much more difficult efforts, in the 17th and 23rd minutes, Ireland promptly threw away the lead he’d kicked. An awful scrum creaked and spluttered, Lawrence Dallaglio destroyed and disrupted, Grayson scooped up the loose ball and put Matt Dawson away for an easy run-in, which the out-half converted from under the posts. An undeserved 7-6 lead for England. A kick in the guts for Ireland.
But no matter. Eddie O’Sullivan’s side were on top. They knew it, England knew it and by the end of the first half, the scoreboard reflected it. Grayson managed a penalty of his own to extend England’s lead to 10-6 on the half-hour, but O’Gara was well in the groove by now and two more assured kicks from him sent Ireland into the break with a 12-10 lead.
The turning point looked like it had come just minutes into the second half. Grayson had his best cameo of the day, a smart chip and chase falling nicely for him in midfield before he transferred to Will Greenwood. A couple of passes later and Ben Cohen was reaching for the line, only to be thwarted by D’Arcy’s tackle. He did manage a touchdown but not without a double movement. No try. A later effort from substitute Mark Regan also rightly got the thumbs down from the video referee.
All that was left was for Ireland to frame the day with a try. They did so in the 50th minute, and how. D’Arcy, for neither the first nor the last time all afternoon, wisped through a tiny gap and left Robinson in his wake with a stunning break. Three phases and an awful lot of patience and skill later, Tyrone Howe joined into the line to feed Dempsey for a brilliantly-taken try. O’Gara’s conversion from the sideline was inch perfect.
All that was left was for “The Fields of Athenry” to drown out “Swing Low, Sweet Chariot.”