Irish made to work

A win is a win is a win, as they say, and the Irish midweek side raised their hands in triumph for the first time on this tour after finally subduing a fairly limited North West Districts in Pootchefstroom. The so-called dirt trackers made heavy weather of it, however, and ultimately had to get down and dirty more than they should have had to.

In the final analysis, they needed a lucky bounce of the ball for Richard Wallace to poach a 57th minute breakaway try and steady what had become an ominously rocky ship after a distinctly ragged third quarter had invited the straight-running, no frills home side back into the game.

The unsure 10-12-13 midfield defensive axis was unusually porous and for some inexplicable reason the malaise spread to the fringe defence as well at the outset of the second period. It may not have been entirely co-incidental that this followed the interval departure of Trevor Brennan, who had led the pack from the front up until then.

Nor were the gaps ever completely plugged thereafter, for even in the final quarter, it required some desperate last-ditch tackling to plug the holes caused by some wayward first-up tackling and so prevent a grandstand home finish.

North West had needed to be invited back into the game after the Zimbabwean referee, Marty Wiles, had punished a typically indiscriminate attitude to the rucks from a South African side.

Anything went basically, with regard to fringing, going over the top and playing ball on the ground, and that may have accounted for the inability to establish any loose ball continuity.

David Humphreys was in turn immaculate in tacking on the points and steering Ireland into a commanding 18-6 interval lead, though the pack rarely established a controlled platform and the backs rarely hinted at the cutting edge that might have killed the game off.

The pitch looked like a layer of wood chippings atop a hardwood surface and, more to the point, felt even harder. On a warm, bright late afternoon which turned to chilly darkness by half-time (during which there was a loud fireworks display), the festive bank holiday crowd were largely subdued by a controlled if unspectacular Irish first-half display, punctuated by an outstanding exhibition of place-kicking by Humphreys.

The gifted, Dungannon-bound out-half couldn't miss, landing six penalties out of six before the break and adding another late on to take Ireland over the threshold. With Brennan leading the charge from the kick-off, willingly taking the ball on and putting in several big hits, Humphreys had the Irish 9-0 up in nine minutes with two short-range penalties and another from inside his own half.

After a Ciaran Clarke counterattack, David Wallace's high pass slipped through Brennan's hands and Humphreys was in the clear with Richie Wallace on his outside in a two-on-one attack when the referee erroneously called the move back for the ball going forward.

Even so a good blind-side break by Humphreys released Richie Wallace, and Brennan took the ball on before NW's big, aggressive lock Kleinjan Tromp played the ball on the ground for Humphreys to make it 12-0.

Mr Wiles afforded JB Van den Berg the chance to open NW's account and then, in a foretaste of things to come, Tiaan Joubert cut through Humphreys and Rob Henderson before Ciaran Clarke and David Wallace smothered the danger.

The hard-working Des Clohessy and John Hayes also stood out in a hard-working Irish pack and the pick of Ciaran Clarke's counter-attacking runs released Richie Wallace once more, recycled ball luring NW offside for Humphreys to make it 15-3, and a further exchange of penalties with Van den Berg leaving Ireland well-placed at the break.

Then, suddenly, the Irish line began to break. Joubert, out-half AC Prinsloo, Tromp and the hooker Danie de Waal began to punch through in straight lines. Their gander was up, as was the crowd's.

Ireland's blind side defence from a close-range scrum conceded a softish try when full-back Ettienne Bouwer burst over from Bennie Kotze's pass. Brian O'Meara then set off on his own with a tap penalty, was isolated, and from the turn over Prinsloo broke past Hayes off the fringe, stretched out of O'Meara's grasp and then bounced off Clarke to pick himself up and draw the sides level.

It needed some telling substitutions to steady Ireland, Andy Ward and Derek Hegarty making noticeably more impact in first-up tackles than the players they replaced or several others of those who were visibly wilting around them.

However, it also needed a kindly bounce from Allen Clarke's fly-hack after Kotze had lost his runners going blind, Richie Wallace gathering at full tilt on half-way to sprint into the corner.

Ward made a big charge off the restart, and Des Clohessy dug deeper than most, notably with a covering tackle on Steve van Wyk.

A sustained if plodding drive lured NW offside one more time for Humphreys to push the tourists two scores ahead.

Even then, the Irish pack couldn't control their own set-pieces convincingly and were nothing like as dynamic in the loose as their counterparts. Somehow though, they kept pulling out enough secondary tackles to keep NW out, the pick of them being Mick Galwey's try-saving covering tackle when bundling van den Berg into touch by the corner flag.

Scoring sequence: 4 mins - Humphreys pen 0-3; 7 mins - Humphreys pen 0-6; 9 mins - Humphreys pen 0-9; 16 mins - Humphreys pen 0-12; 18 mins - JB Van den Berg pen 3-12; 33 mins - Humphreys pen 3-15; 35 mins - Van den Berg pen 6-15; 40 mins - Humphreys pen 6-18; 44 mins - Bouwer try, JB Van den Berg con 1318; 48 mins - Prinsloo try 18-18; 57 mins - R Wallace try 18-23; 69 mins - Humphreys pen 1826.

North West Districts: E Bouwer; J van den Bergh, AJ de Jager, T Joubert, JB van den Bergh; AC Prinsloo, B Hotze; H Human, D de Waal, S van Wyk, K Tromp, W Lessing, K Dreyer, B Pool, M van Greunen (capt). Replacements: R Anderson for Joubert (68 mins), J van den Schyff for Kotze (73 mins).

Ireland: C Clarke; R Wallace, K Keane, R Henderson, D Hickie; D Humphreys, B O'Meara; D Clohessy, A Clarke, J Hayes, M Galwey (capt), G Fulcher, D Corkery, T Brennan, D Wallace. Replacements: V Costello for Brennan (half-time), D Hegarty for O'Meara (50 mins), P Clohessy for Hayes (50 mins), A Ward for Corkery (56 mins).

Referee: M Wiles (Zimbabwe).