Caolán Scully at the Aviva Stadium
Ireland have finally hit their stride after a stop-start Autumn thus far. An 8 try victory over Fiji on Saturday saw Andy Farrell’s men record back to back wins, and in impressive fashion.
Bundee Aki was player of the match on an afternoon where Ireland’s renowned attack finally looked like it had return to its usual heights. It was a difference maker and a massive point of difference ahead of next Saturday’s clash with Joe Schmidt’s Wallabies.
Rugby is often a simple game made complicated. Defensive systems are so rigid these days that attacking rugby has needed incentives from the law makers in order to come back into fashion. Ireland’s attacking structures under Andy Farrell and Mike Catt, now Andrew Goodman, are a wonderful snapshot of this. Their rugby league based system relies on a relentless energy not just in the backline, but in the pack.
One of Ireland’s failings against New Zealand, in the second half against Argentina, was their lack of front foot possession in midfield. This was not an issue on Saturday afternoon as Ireland’s eight forwards fronted up man on man. Finlay Bealham was a monster in defence, Tadhg Beirne and Josh van der Flier covered an extraordinary amount of ground; and Caelan Doris rediscovered the form that saw him nominated for World Player of the Year this past week.
Van Der Flier’s workmanlike energy helped Ireland defensively a week ago, but reaped rewards in attack this time too. Like Doris and Izuchukwu, and Beirne at lock, Ireland consistently had quick tempo attacking ball to play from, making life much easier for Casey and co. in the backs.
The Fijian power that we know them for became a non factor after the opening quarter of an hour. Granted, the momentum of theirs seemed to evaporate after a ten minute period where Sam Prendergast’s yellow stayed yellow, Eroni Mawi was sent to the bin, and Ireland pounced for tries.
The aforementioned Prendergast looked cool, calm and collected after his return to proceedings. He was fortunate not to be given a red card for his shoulder shot on Kitione Salawa, but from there the Kildare man never looked back. His partnership with Craig Casey and Bundee Aki either side was seamless, and allowed Ireland to play with great width and tempo. Prendergast’s strength is his passing, as opposed to tackle evasion like Crowley, but on an afternoon where Fiji’s defence remained passive, this played into the youngsters hands.
Casey’s showing at scrum-half was a further reminder of his credentials. The Munster man grabbed a try and a conversion, but it was his tempo, passing accuracy and kicking game that gave Ireland a different gear to what we saw previously this Autumn. He took his try nicely, but his efforts in the build up to other tries as well as a jaw dropping assist for Mack Hansen’s second is sure to raise a selection headache for Ireland.
Like the half-backs infield, it was a day to remember for Ireland’s centre pairing. The tandem of Bundee Aki and Robbie Henshaw always brings up discussion of their time together at Connacht, but they are an ageless combo. Aki was dominant in his ball carrying, giving Ireland the time and space from which to exploit. Henshaw backed up a starring role a week prior with another excellent forty-seven minute cameo where he seemed to be the catalyst of everything Ireland did well.
This commanding victory will give Ireland great confidence heading into next Saturday’s final series tie with Australia in Dublin. Whereas Joe Schmidt would have had many areas to exploit in Ireland’s first 160 minutes of action, this was a more rounded showing from the boys in green.
Even allowing for the opposition, Ireland will be very pleased to see their attack return to its usual potent self in front of a near sell-out Dublin crowd. There are still areas to iron out, like the lineout, but Ireland will be more than impressed with what we saw. The showing also raised a couple of selection decisions like Izuchukwu at 6, Stockdale and Henshaw in the backs and Casey and McCarthy over Murray and Herring on the bench. Only time will tell.
SEE ALSO: Ireland Player Ratings As Fiji Throttled By Dominant Irish Performance
