ALL GOOD THINGS come to an end, and so too did Ireland’s extremely impressive 12-match winning run over the past 15 months.
Ireland emerged from defeat in Cardiff in April 2017 intent on bouncing back and duly ended England’s 18-game winning streak a week later. And so began a run of form that romped through the USA, Japan, November and a Grand Slam before finally coming unstuck with a try-less 18-9 defeat in Brisbane.
Clearly, Joe Schmidt’s selection for this first of three Tests contained a few experimental elements. Joey Carbery, John Ryan and Rob Herring were among rare Test starters, while 20-year-old Jordan Larmour was thrust into action early due to a failed HIA for Keith Earls. On that note, according to Schmidt the Munster man was ‘massively frustrated’ at being ruled a suspected concussion, “he feels fine”.
However much rotation Schmidt has in mind for the middle Test of the series — Johnny Sexton, Garry Ringrose and Dan Leavy are likely inbound — the Kiwi says it won’t be massively influenced by yesterday’s outcome at the Suncorp Stadium. 15 months after he last tasted defeat and 15 months out from the World Cup, Schmidt’s priority is Japan and he is acutely aware of the dwindling time at his disposal to prepare for a tournament that has the habit of defining tenures.
“I don’t think we can afford to change some of the plans that we’ve got because we now have 11 Test matches between now and the lead-in to the World Cup,” said Schmidt.
“And, as much as I’m incredibly frustrated by the four-year cycle that everyone talks about, we’ve had a pretty good run since the last World Cup.
We’ve capped 33 players, so we’ve probably capped the guys that we’re interested in, but we now need to give them opportunity. Because we can’t be caught with guys who haven’t had that experience and haven’t been in that white-hot atmosphere that playing a big team – that whole furnace that occurred tonight – with that time and space taken away, how physical it was.”
Furnace was an incredibly apt description of the heat Ireland were ultimately unable to withstand from David Pocock and Michael Hooper’s pack on the ground.
This Ireland pack don’t get bullied around the park, but early collisions were shaded gold and breakdown kept them on the back foot as Wallaby line-speed made for a stunted attack from the tourists.
Standing in for the veteran skipper, Rob Herring was at the coalface. And in hindsight he could see the writing on the wall:
“They came out firing with a good defensive line, some good hits and I guess we just coughed up the ball a few times, which was what they were trying to do with that defensive pressure.
“We struggled to get our way into the game from there, we did hang on for a bit, but I felt like Australia were always in the ascendancy.”
And yet, another point in the series comes down for decision in Melbourne next Saturday. A chance to return to winning ways, avoid the back-to-back defeats that last befell them on tour in 2016.
And, who knows, perhaps embark on another streak leading into a November Test with the All Blacks – another match which will be a key indicator for this side as they approach Japan 2019.
“There is a fair bit of disappointment in the changing-room,” adds Herring.
Joe came in and said we have some good things to work on now. That’s the beauty of it, it’s a three-Test series and we’ve just got to get better now.
“We’ve to improve on what we let ourselves down on in this game and move on.
“We need to convert pressure into points, we had a couple of good opportunities in their ’22 and just coughed the ball up for one reason or another. I think that’s the key thing for us, converting those opportunities.
“We have to be confident, we’ve been building for a long time.”
All the more reason to stay the course.
