Murray Kinsella Reports from Sydney

ALREADY TRAILING BY 12 points and with half-time looming, Ireland appear to be in deep trouble when the totemic figure of Joseph-Aukuso Suaalii splinters their defence and plots a route to the tryline.

Ireland are defending near their 10-metre line when the linebreak happens.

Second row James Ryan looks to win momentum for his team by blitzing up on Wallabies lock Josh Canham, who has already been influential with his deft passing at the line.

Ryan seemingly intends to leave a marker on Canham or anyone he passes to, making a ball-and-all hit that gives Ireland a chance to turn the ball over.

But 25-year-old Canham uses his footwork smartly this time to get away from Ryan’s shoulder, meaning the Irish lock ends up reaching out with his arms to tackle and can’t get power into the contact.

Though Ryan clings onto Canham with his left hand, the Wallabies lock can offload to Suaalii.

And just like that, Ireland are in a compromised position.

Suaalii [yellow above] can see that opposite number Garry Ringrose [blue] is isolated.

Ringrose has to worry about Harry Wilson [pink] on Suaalii’s outside, while hoping that tighthead prop Tadhg Furlong [green] will be able to cover across to Suaalii.

Suaalii begins accelerating to the inside of Ringrose, and he does a good job of initially keeping the ball in two hands, shaping as if to pass to Wilson.

As we can see above, Ringrose reacts by raising his arms, preparing to block or intercept any attempted pass from Suaalii to Wilson, all while the Irish centre is still hoping Furlong can get to Suaalii.

But that’s not the case as the Wallabies number 13 gets outside the Irish tighthead, fending Ringrose as he goes.

Because Ringrose has stayed upright in a bid to cut off the passing or offloading option, he is very high into the tackle attempt. Ringrose is grabbing with his arms rather than tackling with a shoulder.

With Suaalii’s fending power and range, and Furlong unable to get contact with him from the inside, there’s only going to be one winner.

Suaalii scorches through, and now it’s on the Irish backfield to rescue the situation.

Up steps fullback Hugo Keenan.

With Sam Prendergast having closed up from the right-hand side of the backfield towards the right edge of the Irish frontline defence, Keenan is swinging from left to right to cover across.

The key thing in Keenan’s mind here is that he does not want to give Suaalii the chance to beat him back on his left shoulder.

So watch how Keenan controls his feet, not overcommitting out to his right-hand side, and therefore leaving his inside vulnerable.

Keenan essentially invites Suaalii to have a go on his outside and try to finish into the left corner.

And as we see above, Keenan is successful with the first part of his job, as Suaalii hitches and accelerates to Keenan’s outside.

But there is still a tackle to make, and Keenan has to show sharp speed himself to close the gap to Suaalii.

As he gets closer, we can see Keenan raising his left arm.

Suaalii has the ball tucked in his left arm now, so his right arm is a possible threat to Keenan with another fend.

Keenan gets his left arm up to chop that possible fend from Suaalii.

But by the time Suaalii tries to fend, Keenan has already dipped and initiated the tackle. Suaalii’s right hand simply makes contact with Keenan’s back.

There are two elements to Keenan’s tackle.

Obviously, he wants to incapacitate Suaalii’s legs by wrapping his arms around them, but he also wants to make an initial contact that unbalances Suaalii. The Wallabies centre is big and heavy, so he takes some stopping at this speed.

It’s Keenan’s head that makes the initial contact onto Suaalii, destabilising him as Keenan then reaches with both arms and manages to grasp both of Suaalii’s legs.

Suaalii is unbalanced, but he still manages to reach his left leg forward to plant, so Keenan redirects his focus and wraps both of his arms around Suaalii’s right leg.

With Keenan clinging on even after Suaalii comes to ground, he manages to kill the Australian midfielder’s forward momentum.

Having been denied a score, Suaalii then looks for a wonder offload to Jock Campbell but it goes forwards and the scrambling Ringrose falls onto the ball.

Suaalii will probably rue not holding onto the pill here, because the Wallabies would have had a fine chance of scoring even after Keenan’s remarkable tackle.

It’s a wonderful bit of fullback play from Keenan and a truly pivotal moment in the game. It wasn’t his only try-saver of the night.

“They can turn a game as much as a try can,” says Ireland scrum-half Jamison Gibson-Park of these tackles.

If the Wallabies score here, they move into a 17-point or 19-point lead, depending on the conversion. With half-time approaching, it might even be the decisive blow in the contest.

With Keenan having prevented the try, Prendergast and Jimmy O’Brien hit the breakdown over Ringrose. Ireland carry once infield and Gibson-Park clears to touch.

That means Ireland have to defend again straight away.

The Wallabies look to one of their other big boppers, Rob Valetini, on first phase of the lineout attack. He picks out Ireland number 10 Prendergast, but the out-half wins the gainline for his team.

Valetini’s power is evident, but Prendergast’s linespeed and intent mean he fells the Australian back row.

It’s a good start to the defensive set for Ireland and they control the gainline over the next four phases until the Wallabies get outside the right edge of their defence.

Prendergast has to scramble to cover back onto Australia wing Max Jorgensen.

Prendergast slips off the tackle in the end but does enough to give his team-mates time to regather some defensive shape.

The Wallabies look back to the shortside two phases late, but Ireland manage to pressure their skills just enough.

As we see below, Ryan blitzes on Canham again but the Aussie lock gets the ball away. Wilson then looks to put Jorgensen into space along the touchline, but Prendergast and O’Brien do just enough to force an inaccurate pass.

Ireland cling on.

Jorgensen knocks on with 90 seconds of the half remaining, so Ireland need to consider their intent from the resulting scrum.

In fact, an initial reset of the set-piece means the half-time hooter sounds before Gibson-Park can feed the ball. Ireland have the potential option of kicking the ball dead and taking a 24-12 deficit at the break, but that thought doesn’t cross their minds.

“The lads either side of me were pretty keen to have a crack, and I was as well, so I suppose the feeling was mutual,” says Gibson-Park.

Ireland use rapid ‘channel one’ ball to get it in and out of the scrum as quickly as possible without risking a penalty concession.

The channel one ball also means it’s ideally set for Gibson-Park to lift and play to Ireland’s backline, who feel that Australia’s defensive set-up means they have a chance.

Ireland run with intent as they use a standard ‘blocker’ 9-12 play with Gibson-Park hitting inside centre Stuart McCloskey [red below], who has Ringrose [blue] coming short and Prendergast [pink] out the back.

The image above shows just how much the Wallabies are sitting off Ireland, jockeying sideways across the pitch trying to cover the wide passing possibilities as their backfield defenders come into play.

McCloskey recognises this and does a fine job of squaring up and carrying right to the line, rather than passing early and allowing Prendergast to be crowded out.

The little scoot by Gibson-Park away from the scrum is important too because his running threat briefly holds Wallabies scrum-half Tate McDermott.

As we see below, that means McDermott is just about unable to get to Prendergast when McCloskey does play the ball out the back.

Ireland get the ball wide smoothly and then Keenan combines well with left wing Jamie Osborne to ensure they get maximal gains on first phase.

Keenan tries to get outside Wallabies wing Dylan Pietsch before offloading to Osborne, who avoids being levelled and drives upfield for a few more metres. 

Keenan is rapidly back to his feet to help O’Brien clear out the breakdown, with Ringrose arriving to act as a guard over the ball.

Coming from the scrum, the Irish forwards have snapped into Ireland’s standard 3-2 attacking shape in the middle of the pitch.

That means an initial pod of three forwards closest to the ruck.

And then a pod of two forwards slightly wider.

The set-up is standard in the game, but what really matters is how teams use their range of options to create or exploit space.

In this instance, Ireland play off 10 as Prendergast hits Jack Conan in the middle of the 3-pod, then Conan plays a sweep pass out the back to McCloskey, who has set up behind.

McCloskey receives the pass from Conan and does a good job of turning the corner to get outside Valetini [yellow below], who has been attracted infield by the threat of a tip-on pass by Conan to Joe McCarthy.

In the moment above, Conan’s body shape strongly suggests that the tip-on to McCarthy is very much on, and Valetini has to respect that possibility.

Valetini biting in creates the corner that McCloskey then turns after reaching back to take Conan’s pass.

Canham [blue below] is left isolated in the Australia defence, and he has to worry about McCloskey passing to the 2-pod.

So he sits off, and McCloskey happily takes the space on his inside shoulder.

Canham does adjust back in to tackle McCloskey, but it’s another gain for Ireland as they enter Australia’s half just two phases into their attack.

They play a phase to the right next, with Conan carrying off a Prendergast inside pass.

And then Ireland swing back to their left to move the ball wide again.

Prendergast and Osborne [yellow below] are the two Irish players in motion, working hard to swing from right to left.

Cian Prendergast [blue] above is the first receiver, with Josh van der Flier [red] set up to run a short line off him.

McCloskey [pink] is initially positioned behind the two Irish forwards, giving Cian Prendergast the ‘out’ option with a sweep pass, but McCloskey intuitively shifts wider as he recognises that Sam Prendergast is swinging into that slot.

With the Wallabies sitting off in retreat mode, Cian Prendergast does a good job of carrying to the line before playing out the back to his brother.

With space having been preserved for him by the work on the inside, O’Brien makes a purposeful carry and Ireland now find themselves just 35 metres from the Wallabies’ tryline.

As they came away from the left, Ireland are back in their 3-2 shape in the middle of the field.

Again, Ireland play off 10 as Prendergast hits the 3-pod.

Ryan has the option to tip to McCarthy, or go out the back to Ringrose, but he carries as Ireland look to split the Wallabies defence, giving them a shortside to worry about on the next phase.

Cian Prendergast provides the final clearout, and Ireland strike to score on sixth phase.

The set-up outside Sam Prendergast is familiar.

Irish prop duo Tom O’Toole and Furlong form the 2-pod, with Ringrose [red below] in behind.

In this instance, Prendergast passes to Furlong on the outside of the pod.

As he receives the ball, the Ireland tighthead is a clear ball-carrying threat.

That results in Wallabies hooker Josh Nasser [blue below] fully biting down on Furlong, rather than potentially reading off him and trying to get to Ringrose.

Furlong sells the threat of his carry by gazing at Nasser and Angus Bell in front of him as he catches, accelerating in the process.

It’s all disguise from Furlong, though, as he fluidly catches and releases a no-look shoulder ball out the back to Ringrose.

This is seriously deft work from a tighthead prop, and it leaves Ireland in a very promising position.

As Furlong plays his pass, one of the issues for the Wallabies is the wide spacing between centre Len Ikitau and McDermott, who has swung across and up into the line.

Every team wants width in their defensive line, of course, but when Furlong plays the ball out the back to Ringrose, the isolation of Ikitau is magnified.

Because Nasser has bitten down on Furlong, Ringrose is now a threat to Ikitau’s inside shoulder.

So Ikitau has to turn in on Ringrose [red below], which leaves space on his outside for Conan [blue] to thunder into.

It’s also important to note the role Keenan plays here.

The fullback [pink below] is set up behind Conan, giving Ringrose an option to go out the back. 

Keenan attracts the attention of McDermott, who worries about that ball out the back from Ringrose.

So that delays McDermott from turning in on Conan, which he needs to do once Ringrose goes at the line on Ikitau’s inside shoulder.

Ringrose does a great job of exploiting the situation as he reaches to take Furlong’s pass, straightens up to Ikitau’s inside, and passes late at the line to Conan.

Conan is scragged by Nasser, who has worked back into the mix, but the Irish number eight cleverly creates space for an offload by dummying a pass to Keenan on his right, causing Carter Gordon to sit off him.

That gives Conan space to then turn inside and offload to the supporting Gibson-Park, who has been front-running ahead of the ball.

Is the offload forward? The initial angle suggests it might be, but the overhead view is more in Ireland’s favour.

Referee Ben O’Keeffe awards the try, and when Wallabies captain Harry Wilson asks if there will be a review of the pass, he replies, “Of course there will.”

As Prendergast then lines up his conversion, O’Keeffe says, “I won’t end the game [for half time] until we clear this.”

TMO Matteo Liperini reviews the play in the background as Prendergast slots his conversion, then O’Keeffe declares, “OK, not forward. We go to half time.”

It’s a cracking Irish try and characteristic in its fluidity and connectedness.

“It showed what we’re capable of,” says Gibson-Park, “so hopefully we’ll see more of that in the next couple of weeks.”

Ireland go into the break with a hugely momentum-boosting score that leaves them trailing by just 24-19 after a tricky first half.

Given that it very well could have been 29-12 or even 31-12 to the Wallabies at this juncture, it’s a huge boost for Ireland.

In a match of such agonisingly fine margins, this five-minute passage is the winning and losing of the game.