Ireland v Australia Sunday 11.05am (Live on Sky Sports 1)
(We’ll be following all the events in Brisbane live on JOE’s match tracker from 10.30 Saturday morning in our rugby section.)
Having travelled to the southern hemisphere with the aim of making a serious statement of intent ahead of the World Cup next Autumn, Ireland need a good performance against Australia in Brisbane to save face and salvage what has been a disappointing summer tour so far.
The prospect of beating either New Zealand or Australia on their own patch was widely touted before Declan Kidney and his squad left the country, but what we’ve seen so far is just how far Ireland lag behind the cream of the southern hemisphere.
The simple fact is that Ireland remain without a win after two games on tour, but that would be to overlook some of the positives gained in defeat to the New Zealand Maoris last weekend. Certainly, at the start of the tour, it would have been nearly impossible to predict the team that will line out at the Suncorp Stadium on Saturday morning.
While injury (John Muldoon, Jerry Flannery) and other circumstances (Jamie Heaslip’s suspension, David Wallace’s paternity leave) have contributed to the new look Ireland side, some excellent performances by some of the less established members of Kidney’s squad have also forced his hand somewhat, although he will welcome the selection headache he had on his hands for the Wallaby test and will have again next season.
Paddy Wallace was excellent against the NZ Maori side
Of the fifteen to start on Saturday, Ulster duo Paddy Wallace and Andrew Trimble and the Munster pairing of Niall Ronan and Tony Buckley have perhaps the best chance of establishing themselves as a permanent part of Kidney’s first team plans. The former pair have been around for a while but Trimble’s direct running caused the All-Blacks plenty of problems and some of Wallace’s touches against the Maoris were sublime.
Ronan was another man who excelled against the Maoris and looks like he could be a permanent successor to David Wallace for both Munster and Ireland even if he will line out at blind-side rather than open-side flanker against Australia. The fact that John Hayes is not even on the replacements speaks volumes for Tony Buckley’s display against the All-Blacks, but obituaries being written about the Bull’s career are a tad premature just yet.
Australia are coming into the game on the back of a defeat to England last weekend and a not entirely convincing win over the same opposition a week earlier. While they possess some exciting talent in the back division in the shape of James O’Connor, Matt Giteau and Quade Cooper, they are there to be got at in the forwards and the set pieces (as referred to by JOE columnist Jerry Flannery in this week’s column) are an area in which Ireland could achieve some joy.
Having already lost Digby Ioane and Will Genia to injury, the loss of the influential Nathan Sharpe is a big blow for the Wallabies, who will be looking to recover instantly from the England defeat ahead of the Tri-Nations, which begins next month.
Teams:
Ireland: Kearney (Leinster); Bowe (Ospreys), O’Driscoll (Leinster, Capt.), Wallace (Ulster), Trimble (Ulster); Sexton (Leinster), O’Leary (Munster); Healy (Leinster), Cronin (Connacht), Buckley (Munster), O’Callaghan (Munster), O’Driscoll (Munster), Ronan (Munster), Jennings (Leinster), Henry (Ulster).
Replacements: Varley (Munster), Court (Ulster), Tuohy (Ulster), Ruddock (Leinster), Reddan (Leinster), O’Gara (Munster), Murphy (Leicester).
Australia: James O’Connor; Drew Mitchell, Rob Horne, Matt Giteau, Adam Ashley-Cooper; Quade Cooper, Luke Burgess; Ben Daley, Saia Faingaa, Salesi Ma’afu; Dean Mumm, Mark Chisholm; Rocky Elsom, David Pocock, Richard Brown.
Replacements: Huia Edmonds, James Slipper, Mitchell Chapman, Matt Hodgson, Josh Valentine, Berrick Barnes, Kurtley Beale.
Odds:
Australia 2/9, Ireland 3/1, Draw 25/1
JOE Prediction:
We can’t see anything other than another defeat for the Irish side, but it shouldn’t be anywhere near the massacre suffered at the hands of the All Blacks.
Conor Heneghan
