Ireland 35 Fiji 17
Following last week’s epic, this was always likely to be a case of After the Lord Mayor’s Ball and so it proved. On the plus side, Ireland’s 11th successive home win means they can equal the all-time Irish record of a dozen by beating Australia, themselves beaten by Italy in a simultaneous kick-off, in next Saturday night’s Nations Series finale.
On the negative side, after Robbie Henshaw’s hamstring went again within five minutes of his return, Joey Carbery and Jimmy O’Brien both departed with HIAs, never to reappear.
Carbery was the victim of a disgraceful high hit by Albert Tuisue which deservedly earned the Gloucester flanker a 46th minute red card. The Fijians decorated the game with its two best tries by a distance, but also true to type their discipline collapsed.
Their set-piece and defence has improved immeasurably, and they stayed in the contest throughout, even when down to 14 men for 44 minutes and 13 men for 10 of those minutes. But then again, they get plenty of practice.
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Mathieu Raynal was in one of his particularly fastidious moves (as evidenced by the 14-10 penalty count in Ireland’s favour) and once again we had another near two-hour match, leaving a virtually complete stadium for a 1pm kick-off to resort to Mexican Waves – always a commentary on a game.
There were three debutants, with Jeremy Loughman again showing some nice touches in open play, while Jack Crowley and Cian Prendergast – and their families – will also rightly remember this day more than most.
Ireland subdued Fiji with the quality of their lineout and maul, and the straight carrying of their forwards, easily the best feature of their performance. Kieran Treadwell carried hard, Tadhg Beirne was a standout performer and Nick Timoney’s two tries and workload earned him the man of the match award.
But errors abounded (there were 14 handling errors), the execution in the opposition 22 was particularly poor (witness five tries from over eight minutes in countless visits there) and there was both a lack of depth and too much lateral running to Ireland’s phased, attacking game. Admittedly, the 27-point handicap seemed excessive and so it proved too.
After their war dance, the Cibi, the Fijians lived up their nickname by flying out of the traps. Although Teti Tela pulled a 40 metre penalty wide, from Carbery’s long restart they went through two phases before keeping their depth and width to outflank a slightly bunched Irish defence.
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Captain Waisea Nayacalevu and fullback Seteriki Tuicuvu worked the ball wide to left-winger Vinaya Habosi who sped up the touchline to escape Jamison Gibson-Park’s despairing tackle and passed inside for the classy Nayacalevu centre Kalaveti Ravouvou for the easiest of run-ins. Henshaw, left very isolated in the outside centre channel, must have over extended and aggravated his hamstring there. That stunned the Irish crowd and the Irish team into life.
Recycling and working their patterns, Carbery went up the line with a penalty and after Nick Timoney broke strongly off the maul the pack kept it to themselves before the Ulster flanker muscled over himself.
The pattern appeared to have been repeated when Kieran Treadwell powered over, but Levani Botia did brilliantly to keep the ball off the ground, only for the Fijian tighthead Manasa Saulo to be binned for offside after their loosehead Eroni Mawi had twice brought down mauls. Ireland used their numerical advantage for the pack to maul over the line, Timoney grounding his second try.
Tela trimmed the lead with a penalty after a faintly ridiculous offside against Kieran Treadwell when being in front of a clearance to touch, before a double tackle by Timoney and Doris forced a spillage from Botia. Furlong gathered the loose ball for Ireland to go through the phases again, Jimmy O’Brien straightened well but was held up just short before Gibson-Park looped a try-scoring pass to Baloucoune in the corner.
After a thoroughly ridiculous penalty against Fiji for one player moving in front of a box kick to touch, Ireland pounded the Fijian line but Jack Conan was tackled into touch.
A good defensive read by Ringrose and Beirne’s counter-ruck led to Furlong again pouncing on the loose ball before Hansen’s chip and chase earned another attacking lineout. But Loughman was pinged for holding on with the last play of the half, leaving Ireland 21-10 ahead at the break.
Six minutes into the second half came Tuisue’s red card. Carbery had already been tackled by Bill Mata when the Gloucester flanker lined up the Irish outhalf and caught him with a no-arms head to the neck/chin. Tuisue could easily have pulled out of the tackle. It was also highly dangerous and Raynal had no option but to brandish a red.
Jack Crowley’s debut drew a roar, but one felt for Carbery, who sustained a fractured wrist in the corresponding game five years ago. He departed for an HIA and didn’t return.
Ratuniyarawa was soon binned as well for collapsing a maul. Ireland opted for a scrum but were pinged for pushing through the mark against six men. Two more penalties against Ireland even had 13-man Fiji knocking inside the Irish 22 but Cian Prendergast, also on debut, earned a turnover after being harshly penalised by one of the touch judges at the previous ruck. But having applied width to the left and right, Hansen curiously opted for a miscued crosskick to O’Brien against 13 men.
The Irish pack even had the indignity of a maul being held before shunting the Fijian scrum off its own ball for Craig Casey to give Hansen an untouched run-in.
But, back to 14 men, Fiji scored their second contender for try of the match, Jiuta Wainiqolo coming off his wing to take Tuicuvu’s offload, accelerate past McCloskey and Baloucoune, and give a try-scoring, no-look, one-handed offload inside for the replacement scrumhalf Simione Kuruvoli.
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After good work by Tom O’Toole and Beirne, Ringrose’s pass to Baloucoune was forward, and Crowley’s 50/22 went dead. By then, entering the last 10 minutes of a match that had lost its way, the crowd decided to entertain themselves with a boisterous sequence of Mexican waves.
Chants of “Ire-land, Ire-land” pre-empted Max Deegan outdoing Crowley with a 50/22, before he was launched at the Fijian defence by Timoney’s pass off the tail, Ireland again went route one for Cian Healy to be helped over the line by Beirne.
To complete Andy Farrell’s woes, Jimmy O’Brien didn’t see out the game when departing for an HIA. Gibson-Park came on to the right-wing, with Baloucoune switching across and Hansen to fullback. But one last strike play didn’t come off in the face of the flying Fijians’ defence, which rather summed up the day.
Scoring sequence: 4 mins Ravouvou try, Tela con 0-7; 15 mins Timoney try, Carbery con 7-7; 20 mins Timoney try, Carbery con 14-7; 23 mins tela pen 14-10; 25 mins Baloucoune try, Carbery con 21-10; (half-time 21-10); 61 mins Hansen try, Crowley con 28-10: 64 mins Kuruvoli try, Volavola con 28-17; 74 mins Healy try, Crowley con 35-17.
IRELAND: Jimmy O’Brien (Leinster/Naas); Robert Baloucoune (Ulster/Enniskillen), Robbie Henshaw (Leinster/Buccaneers), Stuart McCloskey (Ulster/Bangor), Mack Hansen (Connacht); Joey Carbery (Munster/Clontarf), Jamison Gibson-Park (Leinster); Jeremy Loughman (Munster/Garryowen), Rob Herring (Ulster/Ballynahinch), Tadhg Furlong (Leinster/Clontarf, CAPT), Kieran Treadwell (Ulster/Ballymena), Tadhg Beirne (Munster/Lansdowne), Caelan Doris (Leinster/St Mary’s College), Nick Timoney (Ulster/Banbridge), Jack Conan (Leinster/Old Belvedere).
Replacements: Garry Ringrose (Leinster/UCD) for Henshaw (5 mins), Jack Crowley (Munster/Cork Constitution) for Carbery (46 mins), Tom O’Toole (Ulster/Ballynahinch) for Furlong, Cian Prendergast (Connacht) for Treadwell, Craig Casey (Munster/Shannon) for Gibson-Park (all 50 mins), Max Deegan (Leinster/Lansdowne) for Doris (60 mins), Cian Healy (Leinster/Clontarf) for Loughman (63 mins), Dan Sheehan (Leinster/Lansdowne) for Herring (73 mins), Gibson-Park for O’Brien (77 mins).
FIJI: Seteriki Tuicuvu (Brive); Jiuta Wainiqolo (Toulon), Waisea Nayacalevu (Toulon), Kalaveti Ravouvou (Fijian Drua), Vinaya Habosi (Fijian Drua); Teti Tela (Fijian Drua), Frank Lomani (Fijian Drua); Eroni Mawi (Saracens), Samuel Matavesi (Northampton), Manasa Saulo (Fijian Drua), Isoa Nasilasila (North Harbour, NZ), Ratu Leone Rotuisolia (Fijian Drua), Albert Tuisue (Gloucester), Levani Botia (La Rochelle), Viliame Mata (Edinburgh).
Replacements: Apisalome Ratuniyarawa (London Irish) for Ratu Leone Rotuisolia (24 mins), Lee-Roy Atalifo (Edinburgh) for Tuisue (27-30 mins), and Saulo (mins), Ben Volavola (Racing 92) for Tela (44 mins), Simione Kuruvoli (Fijian Drua) for Lomani (48 mins), John Dyer (Biarritz) for Botia (55 mins), Adrea Cocagi (Castres) for Ravouvou (59=8 mins), Livai Natave (Fijian Drua) for Mawi (59 mins), Masulame Dolokoto (Glasgow) for Matavese (76 mins).
Sinbinned: Saulo (20-30 mns), Ratuniyarawa (51-61 mins).
Sent-off: Tuisue (46 mins).
Referee: Mathieu Raynal (France).
