Australia head for Twickenham on Saturday in two minds after losing back-to-back Tests by a single score: on the one hand the quality of rugby they are playing, under their new coach, Michael Cheika, who says he has not had time yet to shape the product the way he wants, is first class; on the other, they are coming up short on the finishing straight.
First France, then Ireland, Cheika’s drained Wallabies could readily be four from four on this tour instead of trading at 50%. Despite being at the tail end of an exhausting schedule – the Twickenham Test will be their 15th in 25 weeks – in both Paris and Dublin they finished the games on the front foot with the home teams hanging on.
“Yeah, not close enough, obviously, but I thought the team played really well,” said Cheika of the Wallaby effort against Ireland, where they rallied from 17 points down after 16 minutes to be level at half-time. “We’re very committed. We got a bad bounce of the ball early on and we hung in there and came right back into the match. We were probably a bit unlucky at the end not to get a bit more pay from some of the work that we’d done.”
This was a thrilling game, the best by far of the November Tests across Europe, and for both parties there was an element of laying down markers for the World Cup next year. Ireland have had a clean sweep, their first in a three-Test November series since 2006, and won’t face southern hemisphere opposition again until the knockout stages of the tournament, providing they get that far. Getting past South Africa and Australia this month would suggest they are on the right track.
“It was very satisfying - to back up the South Africa win was the big thing,” said Ireland’s man of the match, and captain, Paul O’Connell. “To beat South Africa the way we did, to pick them off accurately was great. To back that up [against Australia] makes it all the more satisfying. It just wasn’t a one-off win, to be able to keep our heads and close out the game was very satisfying.”
It didn’t look that way coming up to half-time when Australia had overturned Ireland’s opening blitz to be 20-17 ahead late in the first half, after tries from Nick Phipps and Bernard Foley had cancelled efforts from Simon Zebo and Tommy Bowe. Ireland needed Johnny Sexton – one of four Ireland players to have concussion issues on the day – to level it before the break, and push the home team ahead in the third quarter with another two strikes off the tee, from where he hit six of seven. Ireland’s better discipline – five penalties conceded against Australia’s 10 – kept their noses in front.
The overall accuracy of recent weeks, however, was missing. Joe Schmidt, who was removed to hospital on Saturday night for an appendectomy, saw his side come off second best with ball in hand to the Wallabies who, despite not yet having an attack coach, were sharper and more creative and regularly stretched the home defence in the wide channels. They offloaded almost twice as much ball as Ireland and made eight clean breaks to three. Cheika bemoaned Ireland’s policy of putting the ball in the air, and was happy with the approach of his own crew as they settle in to the new regime.
“I think there’s been a lot of new things happening with the team and we’ve still got a lot of good players at home,” he said. “I’m really happy with this effort. I think last week we probably lacked a bit of individual preparation but this week I thought the lads were very well prepared and they put in a really good effort on the field. It’s a bit hard for them to come away with a loss but that’ll only harden us up – no doubt about that.
“Ireland are on fire at the moment and playing well and beating southern hemisphere teams which maybe they haven’t done in the past. But for ourselves we’ve still got about eight or nine months to get ourselves together to come back hard. And that will be our focus.”
Ireland Kearney (Jones 78); Bowe, Henshaw, D’Arcy (Madigan 59), Zebo; Sexton (Reddan 78), Murray (Reddan 71-77 temp); McGrath, Best (Cronin 68), Ross, Toner (Foley 62), O’Connell (capt), O’Mahony, Heaslip, Ruddock
Tries Zebo, Bowe. Pens Sexton 4. Cons Sexton 2.
Australia Folau; Ashley-Cooper, Kuridrani (Beale 46), Toomua, Speight; Foley (Cooper 65), Phipps (Genia 68); Slipper (Robinson 76), Fainga’a (Hanson 71), Kepu (Faulkner 71), Carter (Skelton 72), Simmons, Jones (Schatz 54), McCalman, Hooper
Tries Phipps 2, Foley. Pens Foley 2. Cons Foley.
Referee G Jackson (NZ). Att 51,100.