Stepping Forward
Ireland are today looking to a quarter final with old foes Argentina next Sunday. After seeing off France in impressive fashion yesterday , they are counting the cost of that victory with Peter O Mahony ruled out of the rest of the tournament with a knee injury. There are also concerns over Paul O Connell, Jonathan Sexton , Keith Earls and maybe a citing hearing involving Sean O Brien who was involved in an early altercation with Pascal Pape.
In spite of all that went on yesterday ,Ireland came out on top after an impressive performance built on strong defence and a well drilled line out. After losing O Connell and Sexton , Iain Henderson and Ian Madigan came on and had to steer Ireland around the field and take on the leadership role that was vacated when O Connell and Sexton departed.
Ian Madigan has been part of Ireland squads since 2013 and has had to bide his time and wait for his chance to shine. He has seen both Paddy Jackson and Ian Keatley ahead of him in the pecking order and has taken his chance now that it has given to him with an injury to Jonathan Sexton. The performance yesterday was shaky to start with but as the game progressed he gradually grew into the role and produced an assured display that may be needed later in this competition. He along with Conor Murray executed this particular Joe Schmidt game plan to absolute perfection.
We have been told that this team was keeping its powder dry and that by the time this game rolled around we could expect fireworks and so it came to pass. Although they did leave a number of chances behind , they did create two tries that were forged by strong carrying forwards and finished off by quick thinking backs. Rob Kearney expertly finished his chance off and then in the 70th minute when Ireland were looking to land a knock out blow up stepped Conor Murray and delivered the required punch.
On more than one occasion yesterday , Ireland used well-rehearsed moves from the Joe Schmidt play book and you can see that this squad is comfortable with this new found pressure. For the 2nd tournament Ireland have made the World Cup quarter finals after winning 4 from 4 at the pool stage. Fours years ago down in New Zealand we did the same and were ambushed and out foxed by Warren Gatland’s Wales.
Four years on, Ireland have won 2 Six Nations titles , beaten South Africa and Australia in the 2014 November Series. I realise that our World Cup history is very poor and now it is time to put that right. Ireland will face an old foe next week , Argentina have a good World Cup record against Ireland knocking them out in 1999 in Lens and beating them in the Stade De France 8 years later to help knock them out of the 2007 World Cup.
Looking to next week’s tie , Ireland will have to make a number of changes to the team that will face Argentina with injuries and maybe a suspension hanging over the squad. One feels that this squad patched up and all as it is can take on this latest challenge and add a new chapter to Ireland’s World Cup history.
By
Cian Mc Gibney
12/10/2015
