Heads high Ireland, heads high.

 

 Tadhg Furlong

We may have lost, we may not have scored a try, but heads high Ireland, heads high. (Watch out for those New Zealand tackles though!) Ten years ago, when when lost to New Zealand, that was what happened, we always lost, now we get really disappointed! A long way come, a bit further to go!

That was an unbelievably physical game, played at a ferocious pace. We lost because this time we couldn't crack the New Zealand defense, couldn't convert any of the half chances into 5 pointers. There wasn't any lack of effort and we coped with our injuries well, Van der Flier, Jackson and Ringrose all distinguished themselves. And players stood up all over the field, Furlong was immense, look every single player went out and put their bodies on the line for Ireland. Sean O'Brien answered all his critics.

The All Blacks built that win on their defense, which was admittedly excellent, and taking their chances when they came. I thought Jaco Peyper did OK, might be on my own here, but that was a highly explosive match, he had both captains in his ear all of the game, although the video ref didn't seem to be that sympathetic. Were the All Blacks the wrong side of legal physicality? - the citings for Cane and Fekitoa would say so.

Where does that leave Ireland? One point down over two legs against the best team n the world, we'll take that. To put these guys away on a regular basis, we are going to need to evolve our game though, work on our counterattacking, our set play attack, our phase attack.

Elsewhere, Australia scraped past France in a really exciting match. Great to see the French flair back. Scotland got a good victory, whereas Wales were all over the place, and were lucky not to lose to the team on the rise, Japan. In Rome, the decline of the Springboks continues apace, I reckon they'll be lucky to win anything this tour, but Italy are on the up too.


Saturday 19th November
International Match
Georgia 20 16 Samoa FT
Italy 20 18 South Africa FT
Wales 33 30 Japan FT
England 58 15 Fiji FT
Tonga 20 17 USA FT
Scotland 19 16 Argentina FT
Ireland 9 21 New Zealand FT
France 23 25 Australia