{"id":186445,"date":"2025-11-18T03:54:09","date_gmt":"2025-11-18T03:54:09","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/186445\/"},"modified":"2025-11-18T03:54:09","modified_gmt":"2025-11-18T03:54:09","slug":"ireland-reminded-naysayers-they-havent-gone-away-with-dismantling-of-australia-the-irish-times","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/186445\/","title":{"rendered":"Ireland reminded naysayers they haven\u2019t gone away with dismantling of Australia \u2013 The Irish Times"},"content":{"rendered":"

Ireland 46 Australia 19<\/p>\n

Oh ye of little faith. For three weeks, on and off the record, coaches and players alike had been telling us they had a performance like this in the making. And on a squally Saturday night in a packed Aviva, so a record win over Australia came to pass.<\/p>\n

This was a well-timed reminder to themselves, the world of punditry and the supporters that Ireland<\/a> remain a very good side.<\/p>\n

\u201cThat\u2019s a given for me,\u201d maintained Andy Farrell<\/a>, who was critical of the previous two displays but never lost faith in his team\u2019s ability. \u201cWe\u2019re a very good side. There\u2019s no doubt about that. You could put in all sorts of reasons of why the first performance or the second performance or whatever, but that\u2019s never been in doubt, in my mind anyway.\u201d<\/p>\n

Breaking free, in some respects from their own shackles, Ireland shot out of the blocks and then finished with a flourish, the replacements contributing to a true squad effort. They bookended the game with a Mack Hansen<\/a> hat-trick in the first half-hour and another three tries in an expressive and clinical last 10 minutes. <\/p>\n

\u201cSometimes you prepare really well and it doesn\u2019t transfer,\u201d reflected Farrell. \u201cWe had an unbelievable warm-up out there today and I was going, \u2018wow, if Carlsberg could do warm-ups, that would be it. But that doesn\u2019t transfer either sometimes. I\u2019ve seen unbelievably rubbish warm-ups and seen teams play well. So, it\u2019s nice that we prepare well and we\u2019ve got a performance on the back of it.\u201d<\/p>\n

There was also the palpable ripple effects of the international football team\u2019s memorable night last Thursday.<\/p>\n

\u201cYeah, it was class,\u201d said Jack Conan of Ireland\u2019s 2-0 win over Portugal<\/a> \u2013 and this was before Sunday\u2019s extraordinary events in Budapest. \u201cA few of the lads went who weren\u2019t involved and everyone\u2019s kind of jealous that they went and a lot of us didn\u2019t go, but it was on in the team room and we were loving it. <\/p>\n

\u201cYou looked at Thursday night and the atmosphere here and it was class. You know, Aaron Rowe singing Amhr\u00e1n na bhFiann, which was brilliant and the lads would know him quite well. We were loving that and even just the performance and the doggedness of how the lads played on Thursday night was unreal,\u201d added Conan.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe loved it and yeah, we talked about riding that wave of momentum.\u201d<\/p>\n

The same can be said of the coming week and surfing an even bigger wave in the light of the Republic of Ireland\u2019s dramatic 3-2 win in Budapest<\/a>, as Farrell\u2019s team prepare to welcome the all-conquering, multi-faceted South Africa. <\/p>\n

After their ominous 14-man win over France in Paris, Rassie Erasmus rested most of his frontliners for Saturday\u2019s imperious 32-14 win over Italy in Turin<\/a>, again achieved despite playing the majority of the game with 14 men.<\/p>\n

They arrive as the world\u2019s number one side and back-to-back world champions. <\/p>\n

\u201cYeah, it\u2019s great,\u201d said Farrell of a perfectly scripted finale to the Autumn Nations Series and at an ideal kick-off time, 5.40pm, next Saturday.<\/p>\n

\"RobbieRobbie Henshaw celebrates with Ireland teammates after his try against Australia on Saturday added gloss to the scoreline. Photograph: Gary Carr\/Inpho <\/p>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s a fantastic place to be, isn\u2019t it? The best in the world, everyone\u2019s talking about them and the type of rugby that they\u2019re playing. A rich vein of form and rightly so. They\u2019ve played some brilliant stuff.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s a fantastic way to finish off our autumn. The last game at the Aviva. We\u2019ll certainly enjoy this win, but the lads will be back on task and they\u2019ll know what it means to everyone in Irish rugby as well, so we\u2019ll look forward to that.\u201d<\/p>\n

Yet again, all Farrell\u2019s selection hunches were vindicated, not least Hansen at full-back. He completed only the second first-half hat-trick of tries by an Irish player in Test history. The first to do it was Eugene Davy in 1930, in a 14-11 win over Scotland at Murrayfield. <\/p>\n

[\u00a0\u2018The worst team in Wallabies history\u2019: Australian media show displeasure at Ireland defeatOpens in new window<\/a>\u00a0]<\/p>\n

\u201cWell, he gets rugby,\u201d said Farrell of Hansen. \u201cHe can make a difference within the game. And also he\u2019s got a good feel in the backfield. He understands the depth perception and all of that. He\u2019s obviously very good in the air and in conditions like that, it\u2019s always going to help any team. <\/p>\n

\u201cHe\u2019s always been very good in the air. His skillset lends it to being that. He\u2019s been brought up playing 10, 15 and wing. That\u2019s why he\u2019s such a nice player to watch.\u201d <\/p>\n

It helped that the lineout delivered a perfect 10 and the Paddy McCarthy-infused scrum was potent, with Dan Sheehan and Caelan Doris delivering big games in a strong Irish pack. <\/p>\n

The confidence to stay positive, to keep trying things even after the inevitable mistakes on such a greasy surface and on such a wet and windy night, in many ways emanated from the calmness and inventiveness of Sam Prendergast.<\/p>\n

Here, in tandem with Jamison Gibson-Park, who seems somehow to be playing at 100 miles an hour while in cruise control, Prendergast was the orchestrator in chief of the Irish game.<\/p>\n

As well as his easy-on-the-eye control and array of passes, he and Gibson-Park terrorised the Wallabies back three, and particularly Max Jorgensen, with their aerial bombardment and variety of kicks.<\/p>\n

The reconfigured backrow, with Doris at seven for the first 50 minutes, perhaps had one eye on the Springboks. The same may also be said for playing Gibson-Park at fullback for the last 10 minutes in considering a 6-2 bench split.<\/p>\n

Gibson-Park applied the coup de grace with a cross-kick for Robbie Henshaw to score Ireland\u2019s sixth try with the last play.<\/p>\n

\u201cHe\u2019s going to start at seven next week,\u201d quipped Farrell. \u201cHe was playing touch rugby and just enjoying himself. He\u2019s just enjoying himself. He\u2019s tough, strong as well. What a player.\u201d<\/p>\n

While the unlucky Stuart McCloskey suffered a recurrence of the groin issues which forced him off in Chicago, Farrell expects to have Josh van der Flier and Garry Ringrose back in the mix. In a positive way, he has a number of selection considerations. <\/p>\n

Scoring sequence \u2013 6 mins:<\/b> Hansen try, S Prendergast con 7-0; 11:<\/b> Hansen try, S Prendergast con 14-0; 18: <\/b>Ikitau try, O\u2019Connor con 14-7; 28:<\/b> Hansen try 19-14; 40: <\/b>McReight try, O\u2019Connor con 19-14; Half-time 19-14<\/b>; 57:<\/b> Prendergast dg 22-14; 63<\/b>: Crowley pen 25-14; 70: <\/b>Doris try, Crowley con 32-14; 74:<\/b> Pollard try 32-19; 78: <\/b>Baird try, Crowley con 39-19; 81:<\/b> Henshaw try, Crowley con 46-19<\/p>\n

IRELAND:<\/b> M Hansen; T O\u2019Brien, R Henshaw, S McCloskey, J Lowe; S Prendergast, J Gibson-Park; P McCarthy, D Sheehan, T Furlong, J Ryan, T Beirne, R Baird, C Doris (capt), J Conan.<\/p>\n

Replacements: <\/b>B Aki for McCloskey (28 mins), A Porter for McCarthy, N Timoney for Conan (both 48), R Kelleher for Sheehan, T Clarkson for Furlong, C Prendergast for Ryan (all 58), J Crowley for S Prendergast (61), C Casey for Gibson-Park (71), Gibson-Park for Hansen, Furlong for Clarkson (both 72).<\/p>\n

AUSTRALIA:<\/b> M Jorgensen; F Daugunu, J Suaalii, L Ikitau, H Potter, J O\u2019Connor, J Gordon; A Bell, M Faessler, A Alaalatoa, J Williams, T Hooper, R Valetini, F McReight, H Wilson (capt).<\/p>\n

Replacements:<\/b> B Pollard for Faessler, T Robertson for Bell (both 54 mins), N Frost for Williams (55), A Kellaway for Daugunu (59), Z Nonggorr for Alaalatoa (61), C Tizzano for Valetini (63), R Lonergan for Gordon, T Edmed for O\u2019Connor (both 71).<\/p>\n

Referee: <\/b>K Dickson (RFU).<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Ireland 46 Australia 19 Oh ye of little faith. For three weeks, on and off the record, coaches…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":186446,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[76],"tags":[70904,75579,18,19,17,34132,104817,80310,104818,40692,39462,132],"class_list":{"0":"post-186445","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-sports","8":"tag-andy-farrell","9":"tag-autumn-nations-series","10":"tag-eire","11":"tag-ie","12":"tag-ireland","13":"tag-ireland-rugby","14":"tag-jack-conan","15":"tag-mack-hansen","16":"tag-rassie-erasmus","17":"tag-sam-prendergast","18":"tag-south-africa-rugby","19":"tag-sports"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@ie\/115568683807365122","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/186445","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=186445"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/186445\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/186446"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=186445"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=186445"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=186445"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}