Two Irish players emerge with credit after Fiji run us damn close

Pulled away

Patrick McCarry

Two Irish players emerge with credit after Fiji run us damn close

IRELAND 23-20 FIJI

That was close. Closer than it should have been.

Joe Schmidt will probably padlock the doors to the video review room on Monday morning and keep his Ireland team in there for the guts of the day. 17-3 up after 35 minutes, Ireland found themselves hanging on in the second half and needed two Ian Keatley penalties to get over the line.

Ireland hit the front in an open, entertaining game when Joey Carbery’s clean break had the Fijians reeling. His pass found Darren Sweetnam for his first try in green. Carbery missed the conversion and another, not long after, when Andrew Conway teed up Dave Kearney for a score.

Fiji chipped three off the Ireland lead with a penalty but found themselves in a deeper hole when Jack Conan’s brilliant pick up and burst made it 17-3. All was going well until just before the break when Nemani Nadolo’s grubber left the hosts exposed and Henry Seniloi dotted down under the posts.

Carbery

Ireland sought to press on after the break but in their haste to add scores, they were undone. Kearney’s poor pass was intercepted by Timoci Nagusa and his converted score left it level at 17-17 after 45 minutes.

Ian Keatley came off the bench to make it 20-17 but a Jordi Murphy transgression saw Fiji level matters again. When Cian Healy was tackled dangerously, with eight minutes remaining, Keatley did it again.

Here’s how we rated Joe Schmidt’s men in green:

Andrew Conway 8

His time has arrived. Such a dangerous man with ball in hand and keen game awareness. Straightened up and fixed his man to tee up Dave Kearney’s score. Chewed up the metres. Big hit on Nagusa to prevent a score when it was 17-17. Nearly got one of his own when his grubber was unlucky to go out off the corner flag. Made a crucial tackle after Keatley’s good kick into touch was quickly played on. Kicking out of hand simply needs to improve, though.

Darren Sweetnam 7.5

Hung out wide and was tuned in to pump forward when Carbery made his clean break. Classic winger’s score. Made a heap of metres and was brave in defence.

Chris Farrell 6

Loved it out there. Made a number of hard carries straight into a clatter of big bodies and, more often than not, got over the gainline. Very robust in defence.

Stuart McCloskey 7

Carried with brutalising intent. Dipped in well to turnover the Fijians after Ireland’s second try. One nice offload after a strong carry but should have put Conway away for a second half dart instead of going into contact out wide.

Dave Kearney 5

Got a nice try in the left-hand corner. Not much he could do with the two-on-one for Seniloli’s try and had another score of his own chalked off for a Conway knock-on. Silly pass was intercepted by Nagusa to make it 17-17.

Joey Carbery 6.5

Blissful line break for Darren Sweetnam’s opening try. Was having a heap of fun in attack and set up a number of excellent Ireland attacks. Not so accomplished in defence [missed 4 of 8 tackles attempted] and his conversion misses were from tough spots but misses all the same.

Credit: RTE

Kieran Marmion 6

Lively presence at ruck time and with some slick passing but suffered off the back of some scrums as Ireland failed to dominate. Over-cooked a couple of kicks and was turned over within feet of the Fijian tryline after some hesitation. Lovely break up the right wing at the start of the second half. Good, but always pales in comparison with Conor Murray.

Jack McGrath 6

Made a smart intercept only to offload possession straight back to the Fijians. A few carries that got his side on the front foot and didn’t miss a tackle. Was penalised for not releasing inside the Fiji 22.

Rob Herring 5

Good, brusque outing from Herring and his lineout throwing was solid too. Scrum didn’t trouble the Fijians much.

Andrew Porter 5

Tepid outing from Porter. Scrum failed to get on top, no major gains on carries and just the solitary tackle landed. Went looking for work at the breakdown.

Ultan Dillane 7

Intent on making an impact. Hurt his shoulder early on but that did not see him hold back. Important lineout steal.

Devin Toner 6

Passable effort, but no more, from Big Dev.

Rhys Ruddock 5.5

Did well to hang onto one Carbery pass down at his boot-laces. Ireland used him for a lot of carries up the guts and he ran hard but with too much predictability.

Jordi Murphy 5

Game passed him by. Not the enforcer he should have been when the Fijians were counter-rucking like men possessed. Gave away penalty [offside] to allow Fiji to level it at 20-20. Made a crucial lineout steal with three minutes to go.

Jack Conan 7