Tommy Bowe: Scored two tries
Ireland got their World Cup campaign off to a stuttering start with a 22-10 win over USA at the Taranaki Stadium in New Plymouth on Sunday.
The match was played in rainy conditions and although Ireland held the upper hand in most facets of play, they struggled to breach their opponents' defence.
They only scored three tries, which means that they failed to secure a bonus point.
Ireland's forwards illustrated their dominance with the first scrum of the match when they shoved their opponents off the ball and that scene was repeated on numerous occasions during the rest of the match.
USA's defence were impressive in the initial stages and they held Ireland at bay until the 17th minute when Jonathan Sexton opened the scoring with a penalty.
Ireland did all the attacking in the first half but the wet conditions and their opponents' solid defensive effort made it difficult for them to cross the tryline.
Although USA defended resiliently, they could only watch as Tommy Bowe crossed over for the first try just before half-time, after receiving an inside pass from Sexton, after the Irish pack laid the groundwork with fine driving play in the build-up.
Sexton converted to give his side a 10-0 lead at the break.
The Leinster fly-half's woeful goalkicking and option-taking saw him being replaced by Ronan O'Gara shortly after the restart and there seemed to be a new sense of urgency in Ireland's attacking play with the veteran pivot's introduction.
O'Gara made an immediate impact and brought his outside backs more into the game, something which Sexton struggled to do during his stint on the field.
Ireland crossed over for their second try in the 55th minute when Rory Best charged over from close quarters from a rolling maul.
Shortly afterwards O'Gara fed O'Driscoll, who swapped passes with Bowe, who got in for his second touchdown and it seemed that more tries would follow for the Irish.
This failed to happen, and although they came close to scoring that elusive fourth try on a couple of occasions, the USA were rewarded for their efforts when just before the final whistle as Paul Emerick intercepted a pass by Gordon D'Ary close to the halfway line to score under the posts.
Man of the match: Ireland's front-row of Mike Ross, Rory Best and Tom Court for the demolition job they did on the USA pack in the scrums.
Moment of the match: The 40th minute when Tommy Bowe got in for the opening try of the match. Up to that point Ireland were kept out by a fine defensive effort from USA.
Villain of the match: Jonathan Sexton had a shocking allround game and poor goalkicking return of two out of six. He was replaced by Ronan O'Gara, who gave more direction to the Irish back-line.
The scorers:
For Ireland:
Tries: Bowe 2, Best
Con: Sexton, O'Gara
Pen: Sexton
For USA:
Try: Emerick
Con: Paterson
Pen: Paterson
Ireland: 15 Geordan Murphy, 14 Tommy Bowe, 13 Brian O'Driscoll (capt), 12 Gordan D'Arcy, 11 Keith Earls, 10 Jonathan Sexton, 9 Conor Murray, 8 Jamie Heaslip, 7 Shane Jennings, 6 Stephen Ferris, 5 Paul O'Connell, 4 Donncha O'Callaghan, 3 Mike Ross, 2 Rory Best, 1 Tom Court.
Replacements: 16 Jerry Flannery, 17 Tony Buckley, 18 Donnacha Ryan, 19 Denis Leamy, 20 Eoin Reddan, 21 Ronan O'Gara, 22 Andrew Trimble.
USA: 15 Blaine Scully, 14 Taku Ngwenya, 13 Paul Emerick, 12 Andrew Suniula, 11 James Paterson, 10 Roland Suniula, 9 Mike Petri, 8 Nic Johnson, 7 Todd Clever (capt), 6 Louis Stanfill, 5 Hayden Smith, 4 John van der Giessen, 3 Shawn Pittman, 2 Phil Thiel, 1 Mike MacDonald.
Replacements: 16 Chris Biller, 17 Matekitonga Moeakiola, 18 Scott LaValla, 19 Pat Danahy, 20 Tim Usasz, 21 Nese Malifa, 22 Colin Hawley.
Comments
Ramage says...
@nakedIrishman hope you read this. Just thought Id let you know as you obviously havent seen the referee appointments for the pool game your worst nightmare is awaiting you on Saturday lol Ireland vs Australia at Eden Park referee Bryce lawrence NZL. lol. Never mind we ve had your incompetent Clancy twice in a short period so it must be pay back time lol, lol, lol.
Posted 14:49 13th September 2011
Ramage says...
@nakedIrishman hope you read this. Just thought Id let you know as you obviously havent seen the referee appointments for the pool game your worst nightmare is awaiting you on Saturday lol Ireland vs Australia at Eden Park referee Bryce lawrence NZL. lol. Never mind we ve had your incompetent Clancy twice in a short period so it must be pay back time lol, lol, lol.
Posted 14:48 13th September 2011
Carpelone says...
I also agree that Sexton must play with Reddan and ROG with Murray. Things should not be messed up.
With the return of O'Brien, it will be a different team.
I would go with Trimble and Bowe on the wings, difficult to replace D'Arcy with somebody not specialist. I would rather go with him.
Posted 14:24 12th September 2011
melkdave says...
As a neutral i have to agree with what everyones said Irelands play was rudderless even a schoolboy knows if its torrential rain and your forwards are dominating keep it tight .Heslip is not the player he was his line breaking runs ljust dont happen now .Been calling for Trimble at 12 for ages as he is the only back who consistayly breaks the line for the Irish Kidney took Darcy for his experiance i think even though the Irish squad screems experiance everywhere Downey would have been better but his not there so oppotunity lost.There also seems to be a bit of panic in the irish play going for the offload and tight passes in torrential rain stupid return to the basics needed and reeality check The Blacks showed how to play the Australians dominate their pack and pick& go with some not a lot of up & unders that was Italys mistake to many up & unders and a few lapses in the lineout Australia had a good 15 mins and it was gameover they are that deadly in the backs so Ireland cant make many espically in their own half .Hope Ireland get it right we will see
@DALLAS RFC
Great respect for USA rugby mate espically as the game is still amataur there and the player base is so small relativly speaking Played really well and frustrated Ireland no end Think its a given all the so called minnows have improved tremenously in the last 4 years and they have so far made this RWC the best yet and the story of the championship long may it continue and good luck in their /your remaining games
Posted 12:51 12th September 2011
hougiebear says...
why Ireland's back row cannot protect their scrum half is absolutely shocking - in the last year no matter who is playing at SH they are getting slammed, hassled and actually tackled while trying to setup a new attack.
As for the Outhalf debate, I don't think it really matters. Our back play is somehow stunted and I honestly think it is because of our backs coach.
Not going to be a good world cup lads.
Posted 03:15 12th September 2011
scully45 says...
@Daboo Couldn't have put it better myself. Fair play to you. It's not about provinces at this stage.
Posted 00:38 12th September 2011
FerrisFox says...
LESS THAN THE SUM OF THEIR PARTS. The players clearly have no idea of how they as a team should be playing. No direction. Bar a lumpen grand slam ground out through brute force and ignorance, kidneys ireland have been terrible. Joe Smidt or Conor OShea for Ireland coach. Knowledge of cutting edge tactics and game plans, progressive, trust in players, youth and talent. Easy. O Sullivans good years were immensely more impressive than Kidneys in the way he had us playing. Whilst Eddie had to go having lost the dressing room, Kidney has had a far easier ride than Eddie and achieved less. Alan Gaffney, whilst a very nice and decent man has been a terrible backs coach. No creativity. Zero.
Posted 23:12 11th September 2011
melkdave says...
I posted long ago Irelands flyhalf should depend on the weather ROG is a much better wet day player than Sexton simple if its expected to be raining against the aussies start with ROG dont know why everyones getting so ate up about it
Posted 18:20 11th September 2011
Daboo says...
At black47 thank the lucky stars you have no say in the team slection because you haven't a clue what you are talking about, sexton is miles ahead of o gara so you take off ur munster jersey and wake up, being a munster man myself I'm glad I want the best for the Irish team as a whole not just for the provinces we all play for the same team
Posted 17:51 11th September 2011
ciaran1792 says...
No Murry has to go not Sexton what does Reddan and boss have to do to prove there better . They have to get to the rucks and stop throwing to static players get runners going at full tilt targeting the gaps. Then when you do that right use strike runners at an angle if you under preform you get taken off simple. The Ausies will target Ronan O'Doormat if he is picked I would stick with Sexton and have Reddan partner. Wana see Darcy dropd McCfadden start Tommy Bowe was awful today switch with Trimble and make him hungry for the next game.We know picking on loyalty doesn't WORK!!!!!.Stop tryin to overcompclate things and just do the bread and butter basics before getting fancy build up to it. It is an insul to the people who baught tickets and the people who bother ther a** to get up at 6.30 am to watch that.
Posted 15:47 11th September 2011
adamk says...
@black47 If you think I'm being biased towards Leinster players then you obviously didn't read my post.
As bothhands said, he had a decent game at fly half, but didn't play well off the tee. A couple of slips from the rain and being given dodgy ball by Murray doesn't count as having an awful game or having no control.
As for the 'Heineken Cup' winners thing... Lets look at the Aussie pack shall we? A huge amount of the players there are picked due to their form in Super Rugby, so why doesn't our national management take a good look at what Leinster are doing, as they're obviously doing it right.
I'm not saying Kidney is being biased in selection - atleast not at a Provincial level - and even if he was guilty of that he'd be guilty of having Leinster at favourites (14 of 30 are leinster after all), but he is guilty of ignoring combo's that clearly work for Leinster.
Redden and Sexton will cut most teams apart. Don't believe me? Well I'm afraid you only have Leinster games to judge, and that one Irish game... I don't call that biased, it's just a fact.
Posted 15:40 11th September 2011
sandal says...
The US played with great courage and spirit. Congratulations to these guys for putting in such a fine performance against a team that, on paper, should have won by a much bigger margin.
Haven't the underdogs been terrific this first weekend?
Posted 14:10 11th September 2011
moutaye says...
@IslandPower
I think this is what is going to come out of this RWC e.g. the gap between Tier 1 and Tier 2 is getting closer.
Although we would probably need to talk about Tier 1 (SA, AUS, NZ), Tier 2 (VI Nations), Tier 3 (Samoa, Fiji, Japan, Canada, Georgia etc...). With FRA and ENG getting into Tier 1 from time to time.
Posted 12:44 11th September 2011
atg77 says...
If I were the Irish, I'd forgot about Australia and just focus on beating Italy and getting out of the pool.
Posted 12:22 11th September 2011
adamk says...
For all ye of little faith in Sexton, just look at the Wilkonson and Rodriguez kicking result (or lack thereof) yesterday (and the had the roof..). The players are obviously out of their comfort zone with the new ball. Give them a game and a week in the camp and they'll be back on it. You need to look at what Sexton did with ball in hand. He was immense, and was probably the only back that was firing on all cylinders today.
But what annoys me is still the 9/10 pairing still being muddled up by kidney. Let's look at it this way... In the previous 9 games by Ireland we have played we have only won one convincingly, and it's no coincidence that in this match that we won with authority we started with Sexton and Reddan. The combination works, and it works well. Sexton was often given a ball by Murray today and Sexton had to second guess, or simply wasn't expecting. The communication between Sexton and Reddan works, and it cuts teams open as we've seen in the HC.
O'Gara did well enough today, but I'd rather see him play with Murray. If O'Gara is to start then so should Murray, or visa versa.
Posted 12:04 11th September 2011
leinster_goy says...
i agree that sexton had a shocker but so did wilkinson and contepomi. also, i don't think "rog" brought that much when he came on - in fact he missed a conversion and just because he makes little kicks for the corner doesn't make him a better player than sexton. kidney is going to have to accept that the munster style of play (which has its merits in the heineken cup) simply does not work against top international teams. he actually said before the game that he would accept a 3-0 win, which tells me that the munster disease is still very much raging in his mind. suffice to say, beale, o'connor and pocock will be licking their lips after this inept display
Posted 11:56 11th September 2011
trackson says...
To be honest I'm not surprised. Most second tier nations seem to be giving 1st tier nations a bit of a scare. Is it just bad performances by the 1 st tier nations, or are 2nd tier nations getting better?
Posted 11:23 11th September 2011
leinsterblue says...
not quite awful, but as close to as it is possible to get...our confidence seems to be shot to pieces - the talent in the side is unquestionable, but decision making, brought on by low confidence, is poor....it is a long shot that the team can sort their problems before next Saturday...
Posted 11:05 11th September 2011
jonesy2 says...
oh dear. that irish right winger had an incredible game, ive never seen someone drop so many balls and generally just stuff up so much, comedic stuff. things could get very very very ugly for the irish next weekend against the wallabies.
Posted 10:39 11th September 2011
melkdave says...
@black47
Ive been calling for Trimble to play 12 for ages ,Darcy definatly should be dropped and McFaden on the bench for cover / impact .At least Trimble will get over the gain line against the aussies.Think ROG will start aswell Sexton just dosent control a game well enough atm .Im also looking forward to SOB playing along with Ferris and Heslip mouthwateriing prospect lol
Posted 10:34 11th September 2011