There were plenty of murmurings of discontent, on Thursday, when Joe Schmidt opted to give Luke Fitzgerald his first ever Test start at inside centre.
The Leinster man was hoping to make his World Cup mark as a left winger but may have harboured hopes of featuring at outside centre.
Nobody, except Schmidt, reckoned he would wear the 12 jersey for Ireland’s opener. We questioned the logic of not selecting specialist midfielder Darren Cave instead.
In the head coach’s mind it was a calculated decision – not a risk. It paid off, as we will see below, but the French pairing of Mathieu Bastareaud and Wesley Fofana will have been watching for any defensive flaws.
Overall, Fitzgerald made 48 metres off eight carries, had one clean break and beat five defenders. In defence he made eight tackles, missed one and turned over Canadian ball once.
Fitzgerald’s early contributions included an unsuccessful kick-chase and a carry up the right flank that produced minimal gains.
He was tested in defence, after six minutes, but stood up well to Nate Hirayama. He held the out-half up and, when Hirayama did not release the ball, forced a turnover.
With 11 minutes on the clock and Ireland pressing for an opening score, Fitzgerald got his first chance to shine in attack. Ireland looked to be sweeping left but he took a popped pass from Johnny Sexton at a sharp angle and gained five metres.
It was 20 minutes before Fitzgerald had his next meaningful involvement when he made ground up the left wing.
Ireland were attacking off scrums, rather than seeking penalties, and Fitzgerald prospered as much as his backline colleagues. He showed lovely sleight of hand with an inside switch in the lead-up to Paul O’Connell’s close call with the TMO.
Ireland would not be denied on this visit to Canada’s red zone. Fitzgerald effected a clear-out that opened up a gap for Sean O’Brien.
On the next phase, Iain Henderson ploughed over.
Fitzgerald was involved in another excellent ruck clear-out just after the half-hour mark. With Dave Kearney isolated, Fitzgerald came through the gate to heave Jeff Hassler away and make Conor Murray’s clearing job easier.
He ran onto a Sexton pass at pace and teed Dave Kearney up for a scoring opportunity – the Leinster winger jinked on his inside foot and burned home for Ireland’s fourth try.
Fitzgerald’s pace came in handy, just before the break, as he took down DTH van der Merwe despite given away a couple of yards to the winger.
He shot out of the line, on the stroke of half-time, to force an error from Hirayama, which prevented a van der Merwe try in the corner. It was a gamble that paid off.
Fitzgerald was limited to running support lines, decoys and clearing rucks up until the 56th minute when he almost repeated his try against Scotland, last month. Ian Madigan, on for Sexton, dinked one over the top but it evaded Fitzgerald’s leap by a foot.
Just before Sean Cronin crashed over for his try – on 66 minutes – Fitzgerald ran another decoy run that freed up space and drew defenders away from Jared Payne.
The Kiwi was held up just short of the line but Cronin scored off the next phase.
Fitzgerald’s final contribution was defensive, as he took down Nanyak Dala, shortly before a turnover led to a counter-attack and a score for Rob Kearney.
Fitzgerald may start at 13 against Romania – with either Darren Cave or Robbie Henshaw beside him – but he can certainly be happy with his performance against the Canadians. Solid as you like.
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