Malcolm O’Kelly: Job done, now roll on Italy!

There were a few minor flaws in Ireland's performance, but they got the job done and can now look forward to next week's meeting with Italy, writes Malcolm O'Kelly.

 

And so we found ourselves in unchartered territory in World Cup history: in command of our pool with the chasing bunch at our heels. Next up was the minnows and World cup virgins Russia. What could we expect ?

Well the rain for one, as it opened as if on queue just to thwart any thought of an open, expansive game.

Following last weekend’s watershed victory, the expectation and desire for success of the Irish public has been restored with whispers of ‘semi-finals’ and ‘can we go all the way?’ and ‘ if they get to the final I’m going!’ but would this have seeped through to the squad? Would their eyes be on the bigger prize?

The key to a good performance against a poor opposition is being able to perfom the basics, keeping shape and being clinical. A temptation would be to throw it around from the word go, but a motto often used is ‘you have to earn the right to go around the opposition’ and this holds true here.

Declan Kidney, rather shrewdly as always, rested some of his frontliners and so handed an opportunity to some of his backup players, who he knew would relish the opportunity to make an impact on further selections.

I went pale when I saw Cian Healy’s leg get contorted awkwardly in a ruck and watched him wince in agony. To lose him would have been devastating to our progress. Thankfully he brushed it off and was able to continue.

The players all week had been very quick to remind the public that the job was only half done and that the focus was on the next game. Our opponents were coached by the ex-Sale rugby head Kingsley Jones, and contained two ex-Leinster players – the Austrailian born lock Adam Byrnes, who I know is well capable of throwing his weight around, and Vasily Arteymev, who was schooled in Blackrock and was part of the Leinster Academy and currently plays for Russia in sevens.

Unfortunately, due to scheduling, it was to be their third game in 11 days and they were forced to delve into their rather more shallow reserves to field a team.

Ireland in a hurry

Ireland started in a hurry, playing with real pace and intensity and forcing the issue. Russia were slower out of the blocks and seemed to have no answers to Ireland’s power but to infringe at the breakdown and were quickly down a man to the sin-bin.

A penalty kick from O’Gara was quickly followed up by a deft chip to the onrushing McFadden for the first try of the game with only ten minutes gone. Their dominance was quickly reinforced with a second try which was initiated from a scrappy lineout, but powerful running and offloading from Buckley and Earls, coupled with naive Russian defending, allowed O’Brien in for number two.

It seemed like it would be a rout, but Russia seemed to settle into the game and started to get back into it as Ireland tried to push the play and put balls down. For 20 minutes or so they traded blows up and down the park, but Ireland’s main ball carriers - O’Brien,  Healy, Trimble, Heaslip and Earls – always seemed to be able to break the first tackle and get hands free, and you watched on knowing that eventually the scores would come once Ireland held their discipline.

In that period, I went pale when I saw Cian Healy’s leg get contorted awkwardly in a ruck and watched him wince in agony. To lose him would have been devastating to our progress. Thankfully he brushed it off and was able to continue.

Russia had no answer to the rampaging Sean O'Brien in Rotorua

The tries came in a flurry in the last ten minutes of the first half, the break through came from, unsurprisingly, more ill-discipline from Russia at the breakdown, setting a great territorial platform where our forwards pounded toward the Russian line and Boss dotted the ball against the post .

This was then followed up by a fourth and the bonus point try; this one came about from an exchange of kicks post-restart. The Russian failed to cover the blindside adequately, Trimble took on the defence, dummied and broke through, eventually feeding Earls who showed good wheels and dived for the corner to slide in.

The ensuing restart was taken by O’Brien, who the Russians had no answer to throughout, and he barrelled up the pitch. This was followed up by some great interplay, and then offside when a retreating defender interfered with play and brought what seemed to be an end to the phases, but determination from Trimble saw him hack on for himself to dot the fifth try down to bring the first half to a close.

Ireland came out in the second half like they had finished the first; playing total rugby with great interplay and forged another try when an eventual mismatch allowed Earls to burn around a backrow for try number six.

Foot off the gas

It seemed ominous for the Russians, six tries down with a full half to go, but it would be they who would come out happiest after two tries of real quality.

The first one came off a midfield scrum, a well-worked play separating our back row defence and allowing Artemeyv a clear run to the sticks.

The second came from back to back penalties against Ireland; the first on the Russian line for a ruck entry infringement, the next a scrum binding penalty against Tony Buckley. A lineout won at the front and some deception in midfield sucked our re-jigged midfield into allowing the Russians to get around our defensive line and first-capper Simplekivech, who had a lot work to do, squeezed in the corner.

If Ireland can look to improve anything, the one thing that sticks out would be discipline, as 13 penalties will be above the threshold.

From then on, Ireland took control of the game and added three more tries with Rob Kearney, Shane Jennings and finally Tony Buckley getting on the score sheet to secure a 50-point win.

The result was never in doubt but the manner of victory and performance was what the team would be looking to continue. In general we saw good commitement to the basics, hard running, good offloading, a cutting edge, good defence and no injuries!

If Ireland can look to improve anything, the one thing that sticks out would be discipline, as 13 penalties will be above the threshold. The set-piece, although dominant at scrum time, cost us a couple of penalties and the lineout was a bit shaky, giving the Russians scraps to survive.

Elsewhere over the weekend, all eyes were on Auckland as New Zealand laid a marker to the rest with a convincing win over the French. New Zealand showed that any weakness will be exploited, and France’s cutting edge was thwarted by their lack of work-rate, especially upfront, but more surprisingly, they got dominated in the scrum.

France can lick their wounds knowing that they can’t meet New Zealand again until the final and perhaps, they will be wiser second time round. It was no surprise England crushed a worn and patched-up Romania. England ramped up their campaign and look in good shape to beat Scotland and top their group again, and will now look with confidence at the path to another final.

Another exciting weekend of rugby. Roll on Italy.