Gatland's men `unbelievable'

Standing outside the home dressing-room, jersey still on and kit bag slung over his shoulder, the ex-Wallaby scrum-half Steve Merrick shook his head slightly, smiled and looked almost dazed.

He had been a thorn in Ireland's side when only a penalty from half-way by Alan McGowan secured a 20-18 win for the tourists five years ago. Could this team really be from the same country as that one?

"I think they've doubled in strength," he reflected. "The best performance I've experienced from an international side and I've played against Italy, Ireland, Scotland, Wales, the All Blacks, French Barbarians. Just about everyone.

"The first 30 minutes, it was just kick for kick and coming out from half-time they just completely changed the game plan. They spun it wide, and it was lovely," he emphasised, "to see an Ireland side running the ball. And I think those young blokes, they're just unbelievable. They never let us into the game. We're a better side than that and to their credit they just read every move we pulled, they just got up and smashed us. We thought we might catch them first match, but that was unbelievable."

As regards Ireland's forthcoming matches, Merrick rates New South Wales as twice as tough. "But if they run the ball, they can do damage. That's what it's about, no matter who you're playing against."

On hearing this, Warren Gatland raised his eyebrows, nodded and said: "that's nice to hear." The general viewpoint was supported by Sandy MacNeill, this game's referee observer who had refereed four or five Irish teams in the 1980s and 90s, and claimed he had never seen such a progressive performance from Ireland.

Moments before, when hemmed into a congested little medical room underneath the Woy Woy Oval's only stand by a fair-sized media scrum, the Irish management were consciously trying to play down their opening display.

First off, Gatland was relieved to get the tour off on a winning note, but clearly some of the rugby really pleased him. "I think it was a typical opening game to a tour, where the team looked a bit tentative in the first-half and there were lots of mistakes, but I think we played 20 to 25 minutes of pretty positive stuff that we can hopefully build on. "We were pretty happy with a couple of tries that we scored and there were some pretty promising debuts as well. I thought Tom Tierney had a productive game, Rob Casey played very well and Brian O'Driscoll looked quite sharp. The two centres had promising games for us. Matt Mostyn looked sharp with the ball and he got up there on his opposite number, which is a defence that a few of them are getting used to.

"In the changing rooms afterwards, the players themselves said that the most positive thing was the fact that we didn't concede a try. Aside from the basic errors and the little bit of rustiness, the most positive thing was that we didn't concede a try."

Donal Lenihan echoed Gatland's thoughts about the anxiousness and errors of the firsthalf. "But certainly in the first 10 or 15 minutes of the second-half we played the game that we wanted to.

"However, I think the most pleasing thing from our point of view in the dressing-room was the realism expressed by both Keith Wood and Dion O'Cuinneagain in terms of the improvements that need to be made."

Sure enough, ever-conscious of the exaggerated highs and lows which come with Irish rugby, Wood himself was more inclined to focus on the lows of the game as he made his way in the balmy (Australian winter) night air. "It was good for a spell in the second-half. That will do as a benchmark for the moment, but there were far too many errors and you have to take account of the opposition as well."

Wales have kept one player - number eight Geraint Lewis - from the team beaten by Buenos Aires for tonight's match against Tucuman. Mark Taylor is the only probable Test player in the team so Neil Jenkins, and Scott and Craig Quinnell are likely to play in the Test without a warm-up.

WALES (v Tucuman): N Boobyer (Llanelli); N Walne (Cardiff), M Taylor (Swansea), S Jones (Llanelli), M Robinson (Swansea); B Hayward (Llanelli), D Llewellyn (Ebbw Vale); A Lewis, J Humphreys, D Young (Cardiff), G Llewellyn (Harlequins), A Moore (Swansea), R Arnold (Newcastle), G Lewis, M Williams (Pontypridd).