YOU COULD FEEL the momentum pile in behind the weight of Australia almost from the second the second half kicked off.
The Wallabies and their brilliant Stephen Larkham attack could see Ireland line out without Jared Payne, the lynch-pin of the back-line defence, and they wasted absolutely no time trying to exploit Ireland’s lack of wings just as Joe Schmidt’s men did to Ardie Savea in Chicago.
Having trailed 17 – 0 in the first half and 17 -7 at the interval, Michael Cheika’s men put their nose ahead 20 – 21 in the 57th minute.
The scoreboard would soon tick to 20 -24. Against a side on a winning run, it would have been easy for Ireland to call the tank empty, November over and reckon only some magical touches could turn the tide.
Rory Best, though, gathered his angry pack together with the makeshift backline of Murray, Jackson, Zebo, Ringrose, Earls, Marmion and Carbery and reminded them of their duties:
“Rory pulled us in and said: ‘right, next job,’ said Tadhg Furlong after just his fourth Test start.
“You have to focus on what you can do next. You can’t really wallow in self pity in there and start to panic. You have to get down to basics and that’s kick-off and everyone executing their roles.”
By no means was it a coincidence that Peter O’Mahony and Cian Healy took the field right on the 61st minute restart. But the collective Irish attitude from that moment was a crack in the jaw to the Wallabies just as they thought they could drop a shoulder and swing from all angles.
Kieran Marmion took down Sefanaia Naivalu and the green line ignored the ruck to fan out in defences. O’Mahony was one of the line-speed leaders, but by the time Bernard Foley got his hands on the ball he had Rory Best bearing down on him and his long floating pass gave Simon Zebo all the time he needed to sprint in and smash Michael Hooper five metres from the try-line. A turning point if ever we’ve seen one.
The Wallabies were forced into a hasty kick to touch and Rory Best had his wish after a long spell under the pump.
“We just knew we had to get the ball,” said the centurion and captain.
“It felt like we couldn’t get the ball, we couldn’t slow the ball. If you give a team like Australia that sort of front foot, you chase shadows a little. That’s what was said: we had to get the ball, keep the ball and dictate on terms like we had done in the first-half.
We had a plan for restarts, but losing the players we did, we had to go to plan B. We got a penalty from that (after going) very close to a turnover when Zebo hit Hooper on his own line.
“Obviously the one before we let them out and go the length of the pitch. What I would say about this group, it’s very young — but there’s no panic. We wanted to play our tempo and our game.”
Iain Henderson departed the scene when Ireland were still in the lead, but he gave an insight into a motivating factor behind the refusal to wilt – at least for 22 of the matchday squad.
“Everyone knew we had to put a performance in, not just for Ireland, but for him as well,” says the lock of captain Best.
“We lost for Paulie’s 100th against Wales and I remember feeling an air disappointment over that and I thought I’d hate to have that again for another centurion.
“Everyone felt similar and everyone knew it would be another big day for him and his family too.
“It was a Rory Best performance as we ground it out after they went ahead, keeping the head down, keeping the work going and holding on at the end.
Having played and trained with him over the last number of years, you see it day-in, day-out. Not only on the playing field and on the training pitch, you see how much hard work he does and how much he is capable of and how much that has an impact on teams.”
The adulation of the exemplary skipper was not restricted solely to men from the same province, of cours. Best is a successful Ireland captain because he represents all corners. His fellow players see the work, the workrate and temperment and they naturally rally in behind without the need for invitation.
“He was real calm, there was no panic in there,”adds Furlong.
“I suppose testament to the man on his 100th cap to play the way he did and have such influence over the team. Especially when changes started coming.”
Change, after all, needn’t be always be negative thing. Ireland began the month outside the world’s top four, but now look in fine fettle to take a top seeding in next summer’s World Cup draw. Typical Best though, just as he did under the posts with his side apparently run ragged after an hour; post-match he was already thinking ‘next job’.
“We look back at the entire autumn and know we’ve a lot of work to do..
“The boys will go off and there’ll be some very interesting derbies over Christmas and European games. Some feel they’re in a good place to progress and others, like us (Ulster), will need to up the performance.
“We’ll take stock around Christmas. It’s in good stead as long as we keep striving to get better.”
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