1
Ex-Ireland players left disappointed after 'unsatisfactory' Autumn Nations series
By Ben Smith
Ireland’s 22-19 win over the Wallabies to end the November Autumn campaign has left an “unfulfilling” taste as expectactions for Andy Farrell’s side went unmet.
ADVERTISEMENT
They came into the Autumn Nations Series with the world number one ranking but will finish the year in second. After dropping the first test to New Zealand, Ireland beat Argentina, Fiji and Australia, but the manner of the wins over the two Rugby Championship teams were “unsatisfactory”.
Ex-Ireland international Shane Horgan said that the team had “concerns” after giving Australia too many chances to win the game. The Wallabies raced out to a 10-0 lead in the first 20 minutes.
“They look quite relieved to get the victory and positive element of this, but ultimately is an unsatisfactory performance,” Horgan told Virgin Media Sport.
“It’s been an unsatisfactory autumn series. And you know, there’s definitely some concerns there.
“Australia looked tired, and in the end, they didn’t look capable of doing the 50 odd meters that they needed a few times to to win the game.
“Ireland gave them enough chances and they didn’t take it but the second half was certainly a marked improvement on the first.
ADVERTISEMENT
Former fullback Rob Kearney credited the bench with lifting the home side to victory after Australia held a 13-5 lead at half-time.
Ireland hit the front eight minutes from time with a rolling maul try to reserve hooker Gus McCarthy.
“The bench made a big difference, Casey came on, he brought a bit of zip and some good tempo to it,” Kearney said.
“I thought Peter Mahoney did very well when he came on too. They brought a bit of energy and that’s what the team needed because we spoke about that first half, very poor, litter ridden, too many errors. They tightened things up a fair bit in the second half.
ADVERTISEMENT
“They had a huge amount of possession but never really looked like creating too many opportunities or too many try scoring opportunities.
“So the second half performance was definitely better, but not enough to not cause a little bit of concern about where exactly are this team at the moment.”
Irish TV pundit Matt Williams said that the quality of the Ireland 23 meant they had no excuses for coming so close to defeat.
“We were saying that across the November series, yes, the southern hemisphere teams looked far better in the first week or so because the northern hemisphere teams haven’t played for so long, which is, which is a very valid argument,” Williams said.
“But as November has gone along, we’ve seen the northern hemisphere teams click in, get a little bit more cohesion and move forward, all except Ireland, or you can say against Fiji.
“If we pick the combined Ireland-Australian side, there’s very few Australians that make the 23 you know, there’d be all arguments about them.
“You could pick an Irish side. So Ireland should beat that side on talent by a considerable margin.”
Go behind the scenes of both camps during the British and Irish Lions tour of South Africa in 2021. Binge watch exclusively on RugbyPass TV now
Much better performance from the Irish, credit to them, did well to push Australia all the way.
I hope it's a springboard for better things to come, seemed like they were trying to return to more of their link play and was a bit more timing and speed to it than over the last year. Also did well to play to Australia, where you have to hold onto the ball a step or two further.
Very unlucky for Aus not to have squeaked over or at least drew at the end, I'd be worried that Schmidt hasn't had the team find the same flair and panache as they did against England, repeatedly turned down chances to run and counter at the end. Really though they have to be stoked that the pressure now goes on to the B&I Lions to pick the right players and find cohesion, because generally it's much hard for that team to perform as the sum of their parts.