Championship minutes prove crucial in Sydney thriller

As Ireland celebrated in Sydney on Saturday night and the Wallabies left wounded, it felt like we had watched last year's second British and Irish Lions Test all over again.

The magnitude of Ireland's 33-31 win wasn't on the same scale as the Melbourne Cricket Ground last July, but the flow of the game mirrored it.

The obvious place to start is Hugo Keenen’s influence; last year’s matchwinner played a similar role for Ireland yesterday, albeit with his great intervention coming late in the first half rather than in the second, as he pulled off a heroic last-ditch tackle on Joseph-Aukuso Suaalii to prevent Australia running away with the game.

Just like last year’s second Test, Joe Schmidt’s side were carving Ireland up from all angles, and when Max Jorgensen intercepted Sam Prendergast and played Ryan Lonergan in for their fourth try, it looked like Australia’s eight-year wait for a win against Ireland was about to end.

On both occasions, Andy Farrell’s side sealed their wins with late tries, but the winning and losing of the game was in the championship minutes either side of half time, rather than what happened at the end.

In that second Lions Test, they rallied before half time to score two tries and get back into the contest. Yesterday, Keenan’s tackle on Suaalii and the following try by Jamison Gibson-Park resulted in a 14-point swing.

"Leading 24-12, we missed two line breaks. When you don't convert, you pay the price," Australia head coach Schmidt (below) said after the game.

"It was nice to be able to work them around a little bit, but at the same time, their scramble, Hugo Keenan's tackle on Joseph Suaalii, that sort of stuff is the nature of the Irish. They are not going to give you anything for free."

As good as Keenan’s tackle was, Gibson-Park's try to close out the half shortly after just heightened the importance.

It was a thrilling score, as Ireland ran the ball from their own 22, going touchline to touchline to drag the Australian defence around, before Garry Ringrose played Jack Conan into space, and his pass back inside sent Gibson-Park clear.

The execution was perfect, but the intent was even better. After a chastening first half, Ireland could have been forgiven for just kicking to touch when they had a scrum on the edge of their own 22 with the clock in the red, bringing a fortunate 12-point deficit into the half time break.

Instead, they rolled the dice and ultimately changed the complexion of the contest.

"It was important that we weren't aiming for half time and there was no mindset to kick it out and restart in the second half," Ireland captain Dan Sheehan (below) said.

"I thought it was brilliant that we kept attacking the game [with the clock] in the red. And that was a big try for us to make sure we sort of switched momentum going into the second half.

"Obviously, we had a lot to work on. We weren't happy with the first half, but it did help that we knew that we could prove it to ourselves that we were able to fix things on the run and sort of get over the line from our own 22.

"So that was promising and it sort of gave us a bit of belief that, when we did our stuff right, the way we envisioned it before the game, we could see it worked, but we just needed to doit on more occasions in the first half."

Keenan and Tate McDermott traded tries after half time, which kept five points between the teams for much of the second half.

Ireland’s dominance of the second half wasn’t reflected on the scoreboard as they let multiple chances slip by; a lineout lost deep in the Australian 22, James Ryan’s knock-on five metres from the line, as well as a try for Sheehan which was ruled out by the TMO for obstruction.

But despite so many opportunities falling away, the Ireland insisted he never lost belief.

"I think we were playing in the right areas of the field, so the way rugby is these days, it's hard to get out of there.

"We just needed to make sure we were doing our best to keep pounding the rock, I suppose. And eventually we got over, but it did take a few times.

"I had full faith in the lads that they had good composure. I thought the bench brought great energy when they came on. And we needed it because that first half was tough," he added.

When the adrenaline rush of the win wears off, there will be a lot of introspection and review as to how Ireland got themselves into a position where they were 24-12 down in their opening Nations Championship fixture.

There were four lost lineouts at crucial stages, and some scrum difficulty during the second half. Defensively, Ireland looked lost in the first half, with players struggling to get on the same page as each other.

And with Saturday’s opponents, Japan, producing an impressive win against Italy in their Nations Championship opener yesterday, Sheehan knows Ireland cannot afford similar mistakes in the next two weeks.

"We need to be a bit more clinical, I think," Sheehan said.

"A big focus for us in the last week was our conversion rate in the 22, which was a bit sloppy.

"I don't know the stats or anything on it, but, you know, we probably should have come up with a bit more there and quicker when we did.

"I really enjoyed getting the win there. It kicks us off in the right direction now, going to Newcastle next week.

"So another big Test next week. We'll look forward to that, and we need to rip into it. Two more big games that we need to prepare for."

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