Greatest Irish win? You be the judge
Coach Declan Kidney prefers historians to debate whether Ireland’s heart-pumping World Cup victory over Australia was its greatest but he says it was nice to finally get one over the Wallabies.
The redoubtable men in green produced one of their most spirited performances to fluster and harry the Tri-Nations champions to an abject 15-6 defeat in what felt a ‘home ground’ atmosphere at Auckland’s Eden Park on Saturday.
The driven Irish stunned the Wallabies with their ferocity and commitment to pressure them into error and take charge of Pool C after two games and throw World Cup quarter-final forecasts out the window.
Such was the tactical supremacy and forwards dominance that Kidney was asked whether it was Ireland’s greatest-ever rugby performance ranking alongside the Emerald Isle’s Grand Slam triumphs of 1948 and 2009.
“I think when you’re involved in the middle of something it’s probably not fair to say,” Kidney said.
“It’s a privilege to be working with the lads and it’s a privilege to be here and we’ll enjoy the night but historians can look back and say that.
“We’ve had a few close calls in the past against Australia, but I think it’s fair for others to decide that question… it’s a good reason for a party.”
It was Ireland’s first victory over Australia in five World Cup encounters after the heartbreak of two one-point defeats – 19-18 in the 1991 quarterfinals and 17-16 in the pool phase in 2003.
“We’re fairly pleased with it,” Kidney grinned in a massive understatement. “I suppose when you’ve played a team five times in a competition it’s nice to get one over them eventually.
“But it will be meaningless if we don’t win the other two matches because we’re a long way from qualifying out of our group yet.”
Wing Keith Earls was a little more emphatic about Ireland’s effort: “It’s massive. It’s up there with Grand Slams, to beat the Tri Nations champions.”
Kidney quipped that a southern versus northern hemisphere final on October 23 would not be such a bad outcome after the Wallabies messed up their path through the knockout stages.
“You guys (Tri-Nations teams) play a lot against one another, so you guys can play it out against one another so you have one half and the Six Nations teams have the other,” he said.
“It’s only a World Cup when a southern hemisphere team plays a northern hemisphere team in the final.”
Ireland’s eloquent skipper Brian O’Driscoll said his team’s job was only half-done for the tournament despite scaling the heights to topple the Wallabies, who were crowned southern hemisphere Tri-Nations champions only last month.
“We were mentally in a place where we felt we owed ourselves a big performance as much as we owed one to the Irish public,” he said.
“It’s a good win, but I’m not sitting here with the Webb Ellis Cup beside me, it’s a win and we’re in a pool stage and we’ve got to get four wins.
“Yes, it’s great because we’ve done something we haven’t done before but let’s not over-sell it too.
“It’s a means to an end and we have to accept that as it is and enjoy the moment, but not get lost in the moment.”
Flyhalf Jonathan Sexton said it was a “pretty special day” for the Irish team.
“We played with a lot of emotion, there were a lot of things said on match eve and we carried that through today,” Sexton said.
“It felt like a home game at times. We had a good game plan, we carried it out exactly the way we planned and we just played the conditions.”
Ireland next play Russia in Rotorua next Sunday followed by Italy in Dunedin on October 2.
AFP
