WALLABY WOES

If you haven’t been to the Roe Park Resort in Limavady, you really ought to, it’s a fantastic place to stay.

That’s where I had the displeasure of watching Ireland struggle against Australia. In fact, struggle isn’t even the right word, that’s how badly Ireland played. How ironic then that the one time that we threatened their try line, Sean Cronin crossed the line, only for it to be ruled out by the TMO. It summed up our night really: we weren’t at the races and we duly paid for it. Add into the mix that Jonathan Sexton and Rob Kearney came off injured and Joe Schmidt’s worries will have only increased.

Let’s add in a little bit of perspective, shall we? Coming into this match, Australia hadn’t won two matches in a row all season. No I’m not joking – all season. They were hammered by the Lions on their own turf over the summer, they only won two of their Rugby Championship matches (against winless Argentina), and they were fairly subdued by England only two weeks ago.

In other words, they came to the Aviva Stadium on Saturday night not exactly filled with confidence. With a less-than-stellar record looming over them all season, as well as several overwhelming player issues to deal with as well, Australian rugby was not in a great place coming into this match, and the reality is that Ireland should have defeated them. As we come to the tenth anniversary of the 2003 World Cup final, it shows just how far Australia have fallen in those ten years.

They were made to look good on Saturday night. There were a few players who didn’t let themselves down in a green shirt, let’s give them that – Fergus McFadden and Devin Toner to name but two – but Ireland as a collective unit were not good. For long spells in that match the defence were wandering around the midfield aimlessly, the attack did not have any sort of intent or cutting edge, and as far as the kicking game went, well if it was poor against Samoa it was dismal against Australia. Both Jonny Sexton and his replacement Ian Madigan did nothing but stick the ball down the throat of Israel Folau all night, and the former League player wasn’t going to drop anything. Tactically, that was a very poor call.

Joe Schmidt now faces the worrying reality that the undefeated All Blacks are the next visitors to Dublin, and they have one goal in mind: to win the match to become the first ever side to go a calendar year unbeaten. In contrast, Ireland haven’t won a match against any of the top five teams in the world since March 2011, a 24-8 win over England in the Six Nations. Doesn’t exactly fill you with confidence as an Ireland fan, does it?

It will be interesting to see how Schmidt approaches the match as well. He’s talked about wanting to build a squad for him to choose from ahead of the 2015 Rugby World Cup, and rightly so, if Ireland have any dreams of winning the World Cup they need a pool of around thirty to forty top quality players to choose from. They will not come from sitting back at Carton House twiddling their thumbs while the same twenty-three players line out for every international.

In my opinion (and call me biased), Dan Tuohy has to be given a shot, even off the bench. So far Mike McCarthy has done nothing of considerable note in an Ireland shirt and Tuohy has been the in-form lock in Ireland so far this season. Declan Fitzpatrick must also be brought onto the bench, Stephen Archer was well out of his depth on Saturday night.

In fact, Sunday’s match may end up being a case of damage limitation for Schmidt and his players. The All Blacks are the best team in the world for a reason – they are by a very long way the best team in the world. Spearheaded by the experience of Richie McCaw, Kieran Read and Dan Carter, while having the skill of Ben Smith, Julian Savea and Charles Piutau in the backs, they are possibly one of the strongest rugby sides to ever grace the rugby pitch. They could lose an entire team to injury, and probably still be the strongest side on the planet.

So there we go: an easy task for Ireland this weekend. I’m not sure I’ll be able to watch, and if I do I certainly won’t be expecting anything brilliant. Maybe I’m simply pessimistic, but if Saturday’s match was anything to go by then we definitely have nothing to look forward to on Sunday afternoon. Ireland will need something close to a miracle – and in my opinion that’ll simply be to avoid being hammered at the hands of the All Blacks.

Oh, did I mention the Roe Park has a golf course?