EMERGING IRELAND ARE two from two on their tour to South Africa and head coach Simon Easterby felt his young squad handled today’s meeting with Super Rugby side Western Force impressively as a burning sun made for difficult playing conditions in Bloemfontein.
Easterby’s team flew out of the blocks to score three tries in the opening 20 minutes, before relying on some big defensive stands to see the game out as fatigue kicked in across the second period.
Jude Postlethwaite, Chay Mullins, Sean Jansen and captain Alex Kendellen were the try-scorers as a heavily-rotated Emerging Ireland team built a healthy 26-14 by half time, before holding out to win 29-24.
“We certainly came out of the blocks quickly and had a very good opening 20 minutes,” Easterby said.
“Maybe the water break disrupted our flow a little bit, but yeah, I think overall we’ll definitely feel like there’s things that we’ve left out there, opportunities. But we talked about bringing our game to them today and making sure that we attack the game with and without the ball and I think certainly in that first 20 minutes, we showed how connected we were, and it was too much for them in that first 20.
“They’re a team that have been together a good while in this preseason block for them, and the majority of those players are playing Super Rugby together for the Western Force, so it’s a really big result for us as a team that’s only been together for 11 or 12 days, so it’s a really big performance.”
Easterby’s players will feel they should have been more clinical in Bloemfontein. After that excellent opening quarter, Emerging Ireland only added one further try through Munster’s Kendellen on the stroke of half-time – with a sole Sam Prendergast penalty their only points in a scrappy second period.
“We were really keen to step up, it just felt like that if we played on top of them and were connected and we were in the game as much as we could be, then we would be hard to play against, hard to defend. That showed up in those first three tries and we probably left a few out there as well.
“After that the game was a bit stop-start. The other side of that is it’s a credit to the lads the way that they stuck in the game, the opportunities that we presented them in the second half, and we were able to stop them scoring right at the end. Alex got the final turnover right at the end to seal the win.
“From both sides of the ball there was lots of stuff that we were really pleased with. There will be things that we want to keep working on and getting better at for the game against the Cheetahs.”
“It was very hot and it was tough out there,” added Kendellen, “but I think we stepped up and we showed what we were about.
“We were extremely connected in the first 20 minutes. There’s obviously things we’ve got to work on, being more clinical in that 22 is definitely going to be one.
“It was tough out there, but it was enjoyable.”
Easterby also confirmed there are no fresh injuries concerns ahead of Wednesday’s meeting with the Cheetahs.
