JOE SCHMIDT HAILED Joey Carbery for the way the Munster out-half bounced back from a shaky start in Edinburgh to guide Ireland to a 22-13 victory following the early loss of Johnny Sexton.
Carbery endured a difficult introduction at Murrayfield when his flat pass was picked off by Finn Russell, with the Scotland out-half streaking clear for Sam Johnson to cut Ireland’s lead.
But the 23-year-old showed admirable resolve to recover from the early setback and produce a commanding performance in the pivot, the standout moment being his break and pass for Keith Earls’ try in the near corner.
Carbery grew in stature as the second half developed, kicking excellently for touch and producing a number of big moments in defence, which Schmidt was quick to reference in his post-match thoughts.
“There were bits of his game that he’ll look back at and he’ll be going ‘I can do this a little bit better, I can be a little bit more dominant here, I can give us a bit more direction here’, but I thought he made some super tackles, epitomised by his final tackle in the game where he gave us an opportunity to turn the ball over when we really wanted it back,” the Ireland head coach said.
“I thought he was brave and accurate and I think he’ll grow as a result of getting the opportunity.”
Overall, Schmidt was relieved his side were able to recover from last week’s defeat to England to get their Six Nations title defence up and running, but admits Ireland are still ‘lacking in tempo’.
“We just muscled our way through it,” he added.
It wasn’t the prettiest game, we got a peach of a set-piece try and we got a couple of broken field running tries. We restricted them to an intercept try, so from that perspective, it was a massive defensive effort.
“We weren’t spectacular and didn’t play particularly well. Our lineout and scrum, those set-pieces were fundamental for us.
We’re lacking a tempo in a game. We’re not quite hitting our rhythm, and our ball is being slowed. There’s a bit of anxiety [after last week] and we had to endure some tough moments, and I’m really proud of the way the players did.”
Subscribe to our new podcast, The42 Rugby Weekly, here:
Bar the intercept, I thought he was really quite good.
Put players through gaps and kept things flatter.
With Sexton potentially out for a bit, this is his chance I guess.
@Rollander: he is The Future…and same like stockdale’s kick ahead for his try against the all blacks, superb mental strength by JC too today.
@Trev: carberry was the unpredictability Ireland needed. Sexton obviously targeted but fair play joey. Too flat for the Scottish try but beyond that did well.
Carbery was good when he came on. The intercept I’m fine with, it was a nice flat pass that was picked off nicely by Russell. I’d rather he kept playing those passes and have the odd one picked off, than slow passes to someone 5 yards behind him. He is a stone cold killer from the tee tho, massive improvement since he left
@William Finnegan: my thoughts exactly.
@William Finnegan: agree with that, I now see fullback as Ireland’s weakest position. Kearney proved today that at international level you need to be a specialist fullback, it’s fine to have a winger on the bench to cover fullback but if Kearney is injured before the game, it should be a specialist starting. The problem is that we don’t have one at international level.
Shakey start but then started to show what he can do, his break for Earl’s try was quality, could have done with Cooney on earlier, Murray still looks off, don’t get why Joe left him on so long
@Umpaloompa: Very disappointing performance from Murray. Senseless kicking all game and way too slow at the breakdown. We have better options at 9.
@Gerry Maher: what?
@William Finnegan: I’d agree with you on that, chase was not Murray and I think it was so absent was a ploy. For him to say Murray was slow was a joke, he played what was in front of him and kept pace as was needed most of the time.
Joey is a Rolls Royce of a player. The break and pass for Earls try was sublime
What muppet said Earls is deadwood. Great in defence, always working, always looking for the ball. Of course he makes mistakes, show me any great player who doesn’t. Like O’Mahony gives 100% always
I’m not in . Poor performance from Ireland today
@Frank Lucas: Poor from both teams to be fair.
@Frank Lucas: I think Ireland were disciplined, Scotland tried to cause chaos and we didn’t give up penalties and won. Tough game but they did what they needed to after last week. Well done
I may get stuck for this but I would start joey over jonny goin on current form.. thought joey was outstanding
@jonathan edge: *stick
@jonathan edge: The problem with throwing words like “outstanding” around every time someone plays well, or in this case fairly well, is that when they do play outstandingly you don’t have a word to describe it.
Can never understand why Schmidt leaves it so late to bring on Cooney, and Carberry, as was the case last week. Least we forget, Murray was out for a long time, and this has been evident from his last two performances. His passing yesterday was dismal, bring on Cooney with 20 minutes to go, he’s a busy scrum half, crisp passer of the ball, sometimes Murray looks like he’s waiting to be served tea and a biscuit at the back of the scrum.
I always thought Peter Gabriel supported by orchestra with his song ‘red rain’ as a thing of beauty. But there was nothing beautiful about Ireland today. Just boring rubbish
@Brian Jones: just like your comment then…
Can people get a grip. Stockdale fantastic, Kearney and earl’s dead wood. Can we move on from these players. They offer nothing
@Brian Jones: Kearney is far from dead wood
@Brian Jones: Kearney? I thought he had a very good game. He might have knocked on the odd time but overall, I wouldnt agree with ya on that one.
@Brian Jones: I thought RK had his best attacking game in quite some time today
@Brian Jones: dunno watch match you were watching today Kearney was my man of the match
@Brian Jones: who would you replace RK with?
@Brian Jones: I have been guilty of being over critical of Kearney in the past but I thought he had a great game today!
@Eoin Murphy: Touché
@Brian Jones: Kearney..91 meters, 6 clean breaks, 5 defenders beaten. Hands down the best Irish attacker today.
@Sam Harms: kearney was not only superb tonight but was a real contender for motm! Emd of. He has been and still is the best 15 in Ireland.
@Brian Jones: Kearney was awesome tonight. He is the only option at 15 and proved again today what a class act he is. Waa probably motm. The only player that made a line break and every time he had the ball created chaos and had the skill and experience not to throw a stupid ofload, kept the ball and presented it every time. Pure class!!
@Sam Harms: explain what he offers. I seem to have missed that press release
@Brian Jones: Do your own research you lazy shite
@Martin Quinn: Spot on Martin, some of these guys just shoot from the hip without having a pistol (not to mind a holster)
@Brian Jones: You haven’t answered the question of who would you replace them with?
@Martin Quinn: like yourself Martin,
@Brian Jones: you’ve pretty much disqualified yourself with this nonsense.