Plenty to ponder as Irish lose with style

FOR HALF an hour in the sun-kissed Rotorua National Stadium yesterday there wasn't a hole deep enough for the touring Irish to hide in. It wasn't only the worst 30 minutes of this tour, but probably any other. Yet out of the depths of this despair somehow came the best 50 minutes of the tour.

So inept was the Irish display to begin with that they could hardly do anything right. They couldn't hold on to the ball for more than a minute, never mind do something constructive with it. The porous defence was as soft as putty, leaking six tries. Most embarrassing was the fact that the tries weren't even that good, and would have been funny if they were happening to anyone else.

It was as if the Irish side were paralysed by self-doubt, brought upon by the prospect of another mauling without being able to do anything about it.

After 35 minutes the score was 45-3, whereupon the catalyst came from off the pitch. When, moments later, Pat Whelan left his seat, one could well have imagined his discussion with Brian Ashton went something like: "What do we do next Brian?"

"You head for the exit on the left, I'll head for the one on the right, and I'll see you at the airport."

In fact, it was clear that a substitution or two was on the cards. As it transpired, four were made. Justin Bishop, Andrew Matchett, Anthony Foley and Rory Sheriff made way for Rob Henderson. Stephen Mclvor, David Wallace and David Erskine.

McIvor pulled the quartet together on the touchline and said: "Right, let's be the four that makes the difference." And they did. Almost immediately, Rob Henderson enveloped centre Caleb Ralph and drove him back. Within minutes he made three more tackles. It just needed somebody in a green shirt to do something and shake them from their paralysis. Confidence seeped through the team. Gradually, mentally, Ireland were in the game and the whole tenor changed.

McIvor began probing the blind side, immediately releasing David Coleman for a gallop up the touchline. Henderson, now emerging as the Irish player of the tour, also gave them something no other back could - save for Conor O'Shea's intrusions - namely the ability to break a tackle and take them over the gain line.

His lovely dummy pass and ensuing break enabled O'Shea to probe the blind side and Kevin Maggs to finish the move nicely. In injury time, McIvor demanded a blind side pick-up and feed from Dean McCartney, stepping neatly out of the tackle in taking the pass and releasing O'Shea for a smartly taken try.

That pre-interval brace seemed no more than a token gesture when another turnover and Andy Miller's loop around Micheal Lynch in midfield enabled Hudson Bond's try to extend the Bay lead to 52-15. But the Irish finally knew what they were about now. As with Henderson in midfield, David Erskine was doing the same up front, breaking through tackles and giving the pack a point of attack with a storming display.

A pitch-length period of sustained continuity and recycling ended with O'Shea careering over from fourth phase. Erskine ploughed over from a line-out at the front. Even the Irish scrum was suddenly exerting intense pressure, yielding a penalty from which Henderson called a quick tap from McIvor and adroitly burrowed over. A quarter to go and it was 52-34.

Confident enough to attack from a scrum close to their own line, Henderson released O'Shea, Maggs cleverly switched inside and Wallace supported, as he does so well, for a move which ended with a penalty under the sticks - the option of a scrum faltering with Mclvor's wayward pass.

Whelan and Ashton became more animated in the stands, the latter understandably lamenting the slowness of penalty options as the Bay attempted to kill every ball.

Eventually, Henderson punched through the blind side once more, and though Lynch was held up Maggs drove over the line. Another attack from behind their own line off a scrum saw O'Shea burst clear, and, lacking support, chipped over Glenn Jackson won the chase, hacked on and was harshly denied a try for a double move which could have taken Ireland to within a converted try of the most famous comeback since Lazarus. Even for the remaining four minutes of injury time they battered away. Fitness isn't such a problem when you're going forward.

It had been a most untypical Irish performance, conceding six tries in the first 25 minutes, scoring six of their own in the final 48 - the post-quadruple substitution score reading 36-7 for the Ireland XV. They only kicked the ball three times, twice in looking for tries. Indeed out-half Richard Governey never kicked the ball once.

This game, more than the previous two on tour, underlined the inevitable discrepancy between some of the personnel on tour. Sadly for them, Andy Matchett (whose passing deserted him) and Rory Sheriff may have completed their tours after 27 minutes Shane Byrne after 45. Inexplicably, the linchpin of the London Irish defence, Justin Bishop, has lost his bearings, and Anthony Foley is possibly not fit enough to do his ability justice. Most of all though, the Irish now know they can play the Ashton way.

Frustration mixed with encouragement afterwards. "The worst 30 minutes and the best 50 (of the tour)," said Ashton. I honestly cannot find any explanation for the first 30. The players were missing tackles and another problem was that the forwards hadn't learnt their lessons from the previous two games and were following the ball around the park like eight junior school footballers.

"Having said that I was delighted to see the reversal. What was encouraging was that we managed to turn it around at all and then turn it to our advantage. I felt in the second half that we started to play rugby for the first time as it's played in New Zealand.

"I've just said to the players that all 20 of them have learnt some remarkable lessons today. Hopefully, we can use this as a platform for the rest of the tour. They've realised very quickly that they've let a massive chance slip away. I think they should be pissed off with the first 30 and happy with the last 50, as I am. But that is progress today."

Which is more than would have seemed credible at one point. This might even have been a turning point. They can believe in themselves now. One small step for this team, one huge step for Irish rugby.