WHAT A TEST match. What a series. What a season.
Ireland ensured a memorable year finished in fitting fashion as they secured a first series victory in Australia for 39 years, after another thrilling and tension-laden clash in Sydney.
Our match report from the Allianz Stadium is here, and below we take a look at the individual performances.
Rob Kearney: 5
A difficult evening for the fullback as he struggled defensively and was caught out on a couple of occasions, most notably when Marika Koroibete latched onto a kick into space and ran straight through Kearney to score. Shipped a big knock in the first half, before being replaced by Jordan Larmour with 20 left.
Keith Earls: 8
A relatively quiet game for the Munster winger but was as bright as ever whenever the ball came his way, showing great hands with an offload after a Johnny Sexton cross-field kick which had shades of Paris about it, but his best work was again done without the ball.
Robbie Henshaw: 7
Conceded a penalty for a high-tackle on Israel Folau, which Bernard Foley crucially skewed wide, and overall missed a couple of tackles in midfield, but it another tireless shift from the Leinster centre. Made five meaty carries to get front-foot ball for Ireland.
Bundee Aki: 9
Recalled to the side due to Garry Ringrose’s foot injury, the Connacht man stepped up, and how. Silenced his critics after the first Test with a huge display throughout the 80 minutes.
Utterly immense in defence, proving to be a brick wall in green, while a couple of massive hits left Mark Robson on Sky Sports exalting ‘he loves hitting human beings and he’s very good at it.’ Arguably his best performance for Ireland.
Jacob Stockdale: 6
Was eager to make his mark on the Test match after sitting out last week but lead with a forearm on a carry early on and was sent to the bin, leading to further frustration for the young winger.
Didn’t get a whole lot of the ball and ran out of space more than once, although made an important late tackle on replacement scrum-half Joe Powell when Ireland were under the pump.
Johnny Sexton: 9
Balls of steel. Floored by a crunching Koroibete hit but after staying down and requiring treatment, showed unbelievable composure — once again — to land a clutch penalty with a couple of minutes remaining, made even sweeter by the booing Aussies in the background. A warrior, a big-game player.
Conor Murray: 8
Was caught offside after Stockdale hacked clear in the first half but, as we’ve come to expect from arguably the best scrum-half in the world, pulled the strings for Ireland. It’s a given, but he kicked smartly.
Jack McGrath: 7
Was very solid in defence throughout but the Irish scrum found itself under serious pressure at times, and you feel McGrath hasn’t done quite enough to force himself ahead of Cian Healy in the pecking order. Replaced by his Leinster team-mate after 56 minutes.
Niall Scannell: 7
A late call-up following Sean Cronin’s unfortunate withdrawal with a hamstring injury, and again showed the depth in the position with an excellent display, particularly in the loose. The lineout wasn’t as steady as it has been, but he produced when it mattered, finding Jordi Murphy in the build-up to CJ Stander’s try. Made way for Rob Herring before the hour mark.
Tadhg Furlong: 7
He was at it again at the breakdown with a couple of ferocious clear outs, one of which forced Michael Hooper off injured in the first half. Didn’t have it all his own way at scrum time but got through a mountain of work as usual. Relentless.
Devin Toner: 7
Didn’t scale the heights of last week’s performance in Melbourne but made a couple of important gathers from restarts. Knocking the ball on after a period of Ireland territory the one obvious blot on his copybook.
James Ryan: 8
An incredible season for the young second row ended with another Trojan effort, tackling like a man possessed — 13 in total — and was effective with the ball in hand. Was part of a brilliant counter-ruck on the right wing in the second half alongside Aki and Earls.
CJ Stander: 9
A ninth Ireland try capped a man-of-the-match performance, showing huge strength in the carry and his work on the other side of the ball was crucial in helping Ireland over the line. 15 carries and 12 tackles is a snapshot of his impact. Goes to the well time and time again.
Peter O’Mahony: 7
Suffered two heavy landings in aerial clashes with Folau, and while he bounced back to his feet to force a trademark early turnover, wasn’t able to carry on after the second incident on the half-hour mark.
Jack Conan: 8
A big chance for Conan on the big stage and he stood up with an impressive 70-minute shift at the back of the scrum. Ireland’s work-rate in defence was relentless, typified by the Leinster number eight’s energy and dynamism. He made 20 tackles in a stoic effort before coming off for Tadhg Beirne.
Replacements:
Big contributions again by Murphy and Jordan Larmour, as the former came off the bench to replace O’Mahony and ensured there was no let up in aggression at the breakdown. Played a big part in Stander’s try.
Larmour again saw plenty of game time in Sydney as he deputised for Kearney at fullback for the final 20 minutes, producing a brilliant high take against Folau. Was name checked by Schmidt in his post-match interview.
Herring, Healy, John Ryan and Beirne all helped see out the win, but Ross Byrne must wait for his debut after being one of two unused replacements alongside Kieran Marmion.
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Expectations are higher than ever but for possibly the first time this team have an absolute belief they can exceed them. Roll on November #wallopallblacks
Aki is a better option at 12 than Henshaw, and Ringrose is the best 13. Henshaw needs to up his game. He doesnt seem to marshall the defensive line at all.
@IR1111: You’re wrong about Henshaw in general but he hasn’t been up to scratch on this tour. I think it’s been more his actual tackling rather than his decision making. But we’re very lucky to have the options at centre that we have. Henshaw will show his class again. Bundee was very good today but his passing can be poor at times.
@IR1111: Wish Farrell was available.
Him and ringrose at 12 & 13 resectively would be really interesting to see, would make for an athletic ball playing
Central partnership experiment and I’d move Robbie back to fullback(I think his talents are wasted at 12 or 13!)
Its a total pipe dream though!
@Elton Heffernan:
What am I wrong about in general? He is 2nd choice 13 and 2nd choice 12. He isntquite as good as either of the 1st choices in their respective position
@IR1111: With everyone available Henshaw-Ringrose is the 1st choice partnership of that there is little doubt.
@Elton Heffernan: Aki at 12 and Ringrose at 13 is the first choice partnership – of that there is no doubt!
@IR1111: Maybe Henshaw could play fullback?
Thought Conan was very good today. Nothing outstanding but did his job in D and carried powerfully. Aki worth calling out too. Very good today also. Kearney didn’t have his best tour I don’t think, and we may be looking back in regret at not giving Larmour or Conway a start at 15 12 months down the line. Not calling for him to be dropped, he’s probably had his best season in 6-7 years but would have liked to have seen how either of the above would have reacted!
Good tour still worried about lack of trys when dominating. We seem to leave quite a few chances behind us but how this team is evolving each season I would expect that rectified by November.
Squad is packed full of leaders that is the way an international team should be. Delighted for the squad as some far from first choice players mad it difficult for joe not to start if it was around the corner. They’ve earned a well earned break and roll on next season
Great heart by them all, was really impressed with how Toner took ownership of the line out after a couple of shaky ones by throwing to himself, then for the try went to the back to catch them by surprise. Awesome stuff
I thought Stockdale didn’t have a bad game. Actually thought he was better than Earls. Thought CJ, Aki, Conan and Toner were the standouts. Larmour was brilliant in the minutes he got.
@William Finnegan: in fairness to Earls there wasn’t much played down his channel. The Aussies targeted the Stockdale channel, and only for some inaccurate passing they could’ve put 2 or even 3 in that corner, so where was Stockdale in those instances? Also Ireland were also going through that channel moving forward. Stockdale is an incredible talent going forward but has been caught out defensively several times. Earls just didn’t see much play.
@SPQH: most of the times Stockdale was in the wrong place was because Henshaw was in the wrong place
Super test match. Not sure I’d agree with all the ratings but who cares. We got the result and have cemented our position as second in the world. The team really stood up to it in the last quarter when the wallabies were throwing the kitchen sink at them. There are some genuine top class players on that team. Furlong, Ryan, stander, o mahony, Sexton, Murray would start for any team in the world.
I thought Dev was better than you call it and his drive got us over for the maul try. He gets an 8.
Just heading back home from the game now. Electric atmosphere. May as well have been played in the Aviva there was that many Irish at it. Pity about the ref at the end. Stupid we all had to wait to celebrate properly
Delighted for Jack Conan. He’s been great when he’s come in both in 6 Nations and here. Reality of modern day rugby is we need a squad of over 50 players to compete properly for those jerseys and cover injuries. Back row especially is crazy, with Sean O’Brien, van der flier and Tommy O’Donnell not even considered due to injury. Guys like Conan trust the coach and know that they can do a job when called upon. Still think we need to unearth another 2nd row, scrum half and possibly loose head before the World Cup.
@Armchair Follower: Do you not think Ryan, Beirne, Toner, Henderson & Dillane are not enough of a 2nd row panel?
@Bobby Jo Baker: not so sure about Dillane and Beirne hasn’t been around the squad a wet week so he’s yet to prove himself. We can always be or do better!!
@Bobby Jo Baker: and Roux…
@Hardly Normal: Definitely Beirne needs a bit of time to bed into Joe’s systems but I think he more than proved himself over the past 2 seasons with the Scarlets. Not too many locks can step an English international back the way he did for his European try of the season! We’ll be well stocked in lock dept come the WC!
@Armchair Follower: Jean Klyne Munster is Irish qualified from November I think.
Scannell has looked very good at hooker. If he stays injury free he will compete with Rory next season for the jersey
@IR1111: And he’s the only contender we have at the moment who’s still in his 20′s so maybe should look at giving him more exposure than the other contenders.
@Elton Heffernan: what age is Rob Herring? Joe seems to rate him enough to start him away in Australia
Great win for the lads. This is a game we would have lost before JS came on board. We are settling ourselves up well coming up to a world cup. My only concern is that as good as he is at 12 Henshaw struggles defensively against better teams when he plays 13. Obviously Ringrose will be the main man when fit and we have another season to see what Farrell can do. But for now I’d much rather see Henshaw cover fullback than outside centre. Was also great to see Larmour play so well defensively. We know what he can do going forward but he’s shown he’s improving and the nitty-gritty stuff too.
@Ger: Noit so sure about Henshaw at fullback- if you think he can be a bit of a liability defensively at outside centre I’d be thinking twice about putting him covering the whole backfield – especially the way Joe has 15 playing. I agree we definitely need to get our 15 stocks up and Larmour has that x factor there, is improving defensively, has great speed and might see more action than he does on the wing.
@Bobby Jo Baker: You say you are “not so sure about Henshaw at fullback”. Based on what? Honest question. Had he tried and failed there at this level then fair enough. But he hasn’t. Your comment sounds like a sound bite. The fact is Henshaw has played one professional season as a fullback, playing Pro14 & Champions Cup while O’Halloran was injured. And that is all you or I, or anyone of us, has seen him at fullback. In that season he was IRFU young player of the year and Connacht’s Senior player of the year.
@Bobby Jo Baker: He has played there before. Actually it was his original position before he was switched to midfield when BOD was retiring. Believe it or not defending from fullback is a lot easier than defending from 13. You have a much better view of what’s ahead of you and it’s often more like an old fashioned sweeper in football. Defending 13 is much more fluid and instinct based. I agree Larmour will also be an excellent option in that position, as will Conway. I’ve just yet to see Henshaw really shine at 13, especially against strong opposition.
I think it’s become evident that CJ is much more suited at blind side flanker . He’s a fantastic number 8 but I’d definitely regard him as the best number 6 in the entire world
He was the best forward in the 6 Nations in 2016 & 2017 when he played at 6
The only massive problem is I’d regard O’Mahony as the second best blindside going . He’s a menace at the breakdown and is undroppable . So then he’d be shifted to openside (7).
However everyone is aware the amount of quality 7s . Could a backrow of 6. Stander 7. O’Mahony 8. O’Brien 20. Leavy work ? On paper it’s very unorthodox but consider the fact it plays to the players strengths CJ can do his big carries and grunt work , O’Mahony can poach to his hearts content and O’Brien has the hands and footballing skills required for number 8.
@John Carey: SOB, Leavy and JvDF are all much better opensides than POM. If CJ plays 6, I don’t think POM makes the match day squad if everyone is for. POM deserves to start, but not at 7
Henshaw, Stander and Scannell were our best performers today. I think Conan was anonymous, doesn’t offer nearly enough for a number 8 at this level. Muarray played well except for a terrible decision to box kick the ball back to the Aussies close to the end when they were very dangerous.
@Simon Brogan: I disagree re Henshaw, but for the rest of it I’d agree with you.
Accurate and objective ratings, well done.
Starting 15 against the ABs next November :
15. Kearney 14. Earls 13. Ringrose 12. Aki 11. Stockdale 10. Sexton 9. Murray 8. Stander 7. Leavy 6. O’Mahony 5. Berne 4. Ryan 3. Ringrose 2. Best 1. McGrath.
Subs: Healy, Scannell, Porter, Henderson, Van der Flier, Carbery, McGrath, Larmour.
@Brian Valès: Yeah. Ringrose is our best tighthead by far
@Mark Fitzmaurice: Joe bringing on Carbery for Dev has changed the game. But I don’t know if I like Ringrose playing two positions at the same time
Obviously I meant Furlong at 3.
@Martin Quinn: Who? Beirne? If you’re referring to Beirne, yes, in light of how outrageously dominant he’s been with the Scarlets, I’m pretty confident he is going to be a pillar both of Munster and Ireland for the next few years, at 5, 6 or 8.