Tony Ward had already given the man of the match award to Jamie Heaslip when D’Arcy chipped through and touched down for his superb series-ending try, but truth be told I thought the inside centre had already earned the accolade before then.
It was impressive outing all round from Ireland on a chilly Dublin Sunday afternoon, albeit against the Argentina A side, given that the A stands for Apathetic.
The visitors pressured our line in the opening minutes, but only got there thanks to an errant kick out on the full from Jonny Sexton. Thankfully for the 30,406 who didn’t let the snow deter them, the remainder of the contest saw both the Irish outhalf become flawless and the visitors fail to trouble us.
But even when an opposition doesn’t seem to want to be there, they still have to be put away, and on our first real attacking set-piece, a lineout in their 22 on 19 minutes, we effectively killed the game in clinical fashion. After Mick O’Driscoll secured possession and we worked a few phases, a neat sequence from Stringer to Sexton to Bowe to Heaslip left Ferris free to crash over.
From then on you could almost see the Heineken Cup thoughts creeping into the minds of all involved. Ireland seemed happy to focus on defence and did extremely well in the second half to ensure nothing got past. Maybe if Felipe had remembered to pack his kicking boots things may have gotten closer, but I very much doubt it.
Overall I feel we got ourselves some answers in key areas…
- In the front row, I think Cian Healy and Tony Buckley have done enough to earn themselves starting roles in the Six Nations. They stood up to the Argentine front row in a series of early scrums and though the referee’s calls could have gone the other way, they got the job done and each complements our loose crash ball attack well enough to merit being in the XV.
- At half-back, I felt the Stringer/Sexton passing lane was MARGINALLY out of sync but imagine what they’ll be like when it does eventually click. For me it’s a no-brainer that these two should start against both Italy and France in February. And for Sexton’s part, his perfect outing from the tee was capped off with an excellent wallop from halfway. This was surely the first time he would have been satisfied to give way to O’Gara.
- As for full-back, as much as George Hook dislikes seeing Rob Kearney there given the reduction in kicking these days, I still think he’s the man for the 15 jumper in the spring with Geordan providing his usual dependable support. Murphy is great when joining the line but I’m not so convinced that the high ball has totally gone from the game just yet. If our defence plays as I know it can we may give opponents no choice BUT to kick it back to us, which makes Kearney the man to have.
- One area of concern is still the restart. We go to great lengths to get a score, then before we know it they’re in our 22 from the kickoff. I’m hoping Paul O’Connell’s return to action on Friday night will eventually right that wrong, however, and with no offence meant to Mick O’Driscoll, Devin Toner is clearly the man to have in reserve.
And so as the clocked ticked into the closing seconds, the only question remained was whether or not we could cap the day off with a second try. Well we did thanks to Keith Earls, but it seemed the TMO had one hot whisky too many sent up to his booth that afternoon, since he couldn’t spot after several angles the Irish sub clearly touching down. Thankfully the referee appeared to recognise this mistake as he found a way to get us possession back and thanks to Darce’s chip n chase we ended the November internationals on a high.
We wanted three out of four, we got just the two. But the lads held up their hands and admitted where they went wrong against South Africa, and given that our Six Nations opponents were anything but flawless themselves this November, it gives us much to look forward to early next year, when our goal will be to provide a springboard from which to attack the World Cup down in New Zealand.
Once more I say that given all that’s going on in the “real” world in Ireland these days, when it comes to rugby I refuse to see our glass as anything but half full for the time being. JLP
