Ireland find their hiding place as the fringe steps up to the mark

Ireland 62 Russia 12:HIDINGS HAVE not been an Irish speciality over the years, but although this regenerated team were on something of a hiding to nothing in the Rotorua International Stadium yesterday, ultimately Ireland did give a slightly naïve Russia just that.

In essence, and in terms of both the performance and the result, Ireland extracted what you’d expect from this mis-match. After bright starts to both halves, there were mid-period lulls before strong finishes, notably at the end of the first 40 minutes when Ireland ran in three tries in four minutes with the Russians scarcely touching the ball.

That though, was almost to be expected, for it is well nigh impossible to maintain maximum concentration when the result is all but over before the kick-off and, in this instance, the bonus point had been secured by half-time.

Two tries were conceded in succession toward the end of the third quarter – Rob Kearney and Fergus McFadden may not enjoy the video replays – as Ireland lost their way a little amid the usual plethora of substitutions, though despite the potent duo of Séan O’Brien and Keith Earls being withdrawn, the bench did then begin to make an impact.

To nit-pick a bit more, at times the handling was a little laboured as the backs, especially out wide, became a little too flat and lateral, with the forwards also a tad too flat onto the ball close in at times as well – the notable exception, as ever, being O’Brien.

The set-pieces went pretty well, until the changes destabilised the scrum – with Tony Buckley twice being penalised when switching over to the loosehead side. Two line-outs were lost and some of Seán Cronin’s darts could have had more zip on them, but his work on the ball was very good, while Leo Cullen, Donnacha Ryan and co ate into the vulnerable Russian lineout, forcing six turnovers.

Cullen led the team from the front and Ryan, at blindside for 46 minutes and lock for the remainder, showed up very well, with some typically hard running and even some dancing and offloading on one occasion.

To paraphrase the immortal words of David Coleman, alongside O’Brien it was particularly good to see Jamie Heaslip galloping and showing his class again in open spaces after a couple of typically selfless 80-minute efforts close-in, while Denis Leamy and Shane Jennings both made strong impacts on the ball.

Not unlike South Africa in their first half against Namibia, Irish players were perhaps guilty of waiting for the ball to come their way rather than clearing out at the breakdown as ruthlessly as they had last week. Isaac Boss thus had to go excavating more than he would have liked, and at times his service suffered a little.

Outside him, though again targeted a little defensively, Ronan O’Gara oozed class and form. His handling was superb, the slippery ball sticking to glue-like hands; he landed seven from eight from all manner of angles and aside from his distribution, his little cross-field dink for McFadden’s opener deftly and intelligently maximised their one-man advantage at the time.

Paddy Wallace was bounced once but showed some characteristically classy touches with his passing and footwork, and his influence grew more pronounced when the game loosened up.

A la Heaslip, the management will have been particularly encouraged to see Kearney fielding and running as vibrantly as he did.

Along with O’Brien, perhaps the two classiest run-outs were by Earls and Andrew Trimble. Both continually asked questions of Russian defenders with their footwork, speed and eye for space, while Trimble was constantly roving across the pitch and offering himself as a would-be carrier. Of all the players not in the first-choice starting XV, he is perhaps the unluckiest.

O’Brien, having rumbled over with about his seventh carry in the opening 13 minutes, and Boss, having had the presence of mind to place the ball against the base of the post from close-range, Trimble and Earls combined from half-way for the latter to finish brilliantly from the return pass. Trimble then pounced for a try after good running and support play by Kearney, Heaslip and Wallace.

The way Earls straightened through for his second try, with his final touch, was classic outside centre play, although in the long-term this exceptional talent is going to have to improve his passing and kicking games if a longer-term switch is ever going to happen.

The Bears’ best feature, actually, was the pace of their back three. The ex-Blackrock speedster Vasily Artemyev left the midfield and Kearney for dead after being set up off the base of a scrum by the livewire 5ft 4ins scrumhalf Alexander Yanyushkin and Denis Simplikevich finished wide out after Vladimir Ostroushko had attacked the 13 channel off a lineout.

Ireland regrouped, and Trimble’s unrelenting work-rate off the ball made a switch of attack possible in Heaslip putting Kearney over before Jennings and Buckley finished off intense recycling and support play with close-range finishes.

A 50-point win. Job done and move on.

Scoring sequence: 6 mins: O’Gara pen 3-0; 9 mins: McFadden try, O’Gara con 10-0; 13 mins: O’Brien try, O’Gara con 17-0; 38 mins: Boss try, O’Gara con 24-0; 39 mins: Earls try, O’Gara con 31-0; 40 (+1) mins: Trimble try 36-0; (half-time 36-0); 48 mins: Earls try, O’Gara con 43-0; 51 mins: Artemiev try, Rachkov con 43-7; 59 mins: Simplikevich try 43-12; 65 mins: Kearney try, O’Gara con 50-12; 73 mins: Jennings try, Sexton con 57-12; 79 mins: Buckley try 62-12.

IRELAND: Robert Kearney (Leinster); Fergus McFadden (Leinster), Keith Earls (Munster), Paddy Wallace (Ulster), Andrew Trimble (Ulster); Ronan O’Gara (Munster), Isaac Boss (Leinster); Cian Healy (Leinster), Seán Cronin (Leinster), Tony Buckley (Munster), Donncha O’Callaghan (Munster), Leo Cullen (Leinster, capt), Donnacha Ryan (Munster), Seán O’Brien (Leinster), Jamie Heaslip (Leinster). Replacements: Denis Leamy (Munster) for O’Callaghan (45 mins), Mike Ross (Leinster) for Healy, Geordan Murphy (Leicester) for Earls (both 49 mins), Shane Jennings (Leinster) for O’Brien (57 mins), Eoin Reddan (Leinster) for Boss, Jonathan Sexton (Leinster) for O’Gara (both 66 mins). Not used: Rory Best (Ulster).

RUSSIA: Vasily Artemyev; Denis Simplikevich, Andrey Kuzin, Sergey Trishin, Vladimir Ostroushko; Konstantin Rachkov, Alexander Yanyushkin (capt); Sergey Popov, Valery Tsnobiladze, Alexander Khrokin, Denis Antonov, Adam Byrnes, Artem Fatakhov, Andrey Garbuzov, Victor Gresev. Replacements: Mikhail Sidorov for Garbuzov (45 mins), Alexander Voytov for Antonov (49 mins), Ivan Prishchepenko for Kuzin (50 mins), Mikhail Babaev for Trishin (71 mins), Andrey Bykanov (Slava) for Yanyushkin (73 mins), Alexey Travkin for Popov (74 mins), Evgeny Matveev for Tsnobiladze (75 mins). Sin binned: Konstantin Rachkov (7-17 mins).

Referee: Craig Joubert (South Africa).