February 17, 2011
By Staff Reporter
Ireland were pitiful. Bereft of attacking ideas, nervy in defense and clearly intimidated by the power and pace of the opposition, the home team’s solitary try came deep into injury time. It was a score, a late token of resistance, but it was no consolation.
Before that, the All Blacks had the freedom of Lansdowne Road to give full vent to their considerable repertoire. They ran in five tries, some the product of brilliant invention, one at least had to be put down to ragged defending, and had two more disallowed. As many as 10 of the regular starting line-up had been rested, and only the rugby gods know what sort of points deluge we would have witnessed if a few more star players had been on the pitch.
It had seemed a couple of years ago that Ireland had significantly narrowed the gap on the sport’s southern hemisphere powerbrokers, and recent wins over both Australia and South Africa were evidence of the improvement. But these New Zealanders appear to be made of a different DNA.
The difference in size between last weekend’s protagonists was negligible, yet the gulf in sheer power was immense. At times, Ireland were simply blown away by the All Blacks’ physical presence. Admittedly, the home team’s two best players Brian O’Driscoll and Paul O’Connell were sidelined due to injury, but it’s unlikely they would have been able to prevent this sobering rout.
“We thought we were going to be in for a hell of a game here,” said the winning coach, Graham Henry, and even if that reaction was overly polite, he wasn’t the only one expecting more from the Irish. If victory was clearly beyond stand-in captain Simon Easterby and his teammates, they could have least left some lasting mark on the proceedings.
As it was, New Zealand had everything their own way as Ireland were cowed into submission. In the absence of O’Driscoll and O’Connell, there was a distinct lack of leadership and example. Not one player appeared to be prepared to give his all for the cause.
“Some guys could have thrown in the towel, but they didn’t. We kept plugging away,” said Ireland coach Eddie O’Sullivan defensively. No one could blame him for searching for something positive to say, but a team needs to do a lot more than plug away against the All Blacks.
“I think we had the opportunities to score a few more tries, but by that time we had shipped a lot of punishment. It was a long day at the office,” O’Sullivan added. “I’m very disappointed to lose a game, but we have to recognize that New Zealand were outstanding, probably even better than they expected to be.”
The All Blacks chose to play into a strong breeze during the first-half, but where others sides would have settled for containment, they were 25-0 in front at the interval. Their powerful wing Sitiveni Sivivatu scored two tries while Piri Weepu finished off another sweeping movement as Ireland looked increasingly bewildered.
There was no change to the pattern as Doug Howlett twice pierced the Ireland defense, and then both he and Ma’a Nonu had tries disallowed. The bristling Nonu was at the center of the game’s one controversial moment when he upended Gordon D’Arcy with a dangerous tackle, but referee Jonathan Kaplan decided to award only a penalty. However, after being cited for dangerous play by the match commissioner, Nonu could now be facing a suspension.
After the fall-out from a similar challenge during last summer’s Lions’ tour of New Zealand that left O’Driscoll with a badly dislocated shoulder, coach Henry could have done without Nonu’s intervention. “We know it wasn’t done deliberately, but we don’t want to see those sort of things,” he explained.
As for O’Sullivan, he insisted that it wasn’t safe to turn a player upside down. “That sort of thing is a bit scary to see, These players are basically gladiators who were going at it, and there are a lot of good aspects to rugby, but that’s not something we want to see.”
Ireland now have to regroup for Saturday’s game with Australia, who have lost seven matches in a row, at Lansdowne Road. All we can hope for is that their scars heal quickly.