Ireland ease past Fijians
21 Nov 2009
Ireland scored four second-half tries on their way to a comfortable 41-6 victory over Fiji in Dublin.
After a rather dull first half display in which Keith Earls’ try was the only real highlight, Ireland stepped it up in the second half to secure a convincing win.
Earls got the first try of the game when he finished off a brilliantly worked set play after some good work by the Irish heavies in an attacking scrum.
Impressive young flyhalf Johnny Sexton nailed the resulting conversion after his earlier penalty had put the Irish in front in the 9th minute.
However, the Irish failed to kick on in what was a very disappointing first-half display from the hosts, who went in at half-time with a 13-3 lead.
Irish fans would have been hoping for an improved performance from their team in the second stanza and their team answered the call with four tries, including a second for Earls and a cameo intercept try from skipper Brian O’Driscoll.
While their work at scrum time and the Man of the Match performance from Sexton would have pleased the Irish coaching staff, their inability to truly put the islanders to the sword might be a slight cause for concern ahead of their crunch tie with the Springboks at Croke Park next week.
By Andrew Worling
14 Comments
21 Nov 2009, 21:14 pm
Paddy dragons…………
21 Nov 2009, 21:28 pm
You guys should be happy we have a conservative coach…..
Otherwise you’d be witnessing the next class 10 of the NH given his rightful chance next week…..
It will however be O’Gara inspite of Sexton’s phenomenal display tonight……
21 Nov 2009, 21:47 pm
“their inability to truly put the islanders to the sword”
Sorry what game were you watching?…..
21 Nov 2009, 21:51 pm
Crunch Clash coming up next week. I hope BJ, Smit & Beast will make up our front row, and Deysel starts….
22 Nov 2009, 02:36 am
41-6 sounds pretty much like sword-putting to me. Not as good as 49-0 though, one must say.
Forty-nine to nil! Wow!
22 Nov 2009, 06:28 am
Well done the Paddys!
My 2 favorite teams up against each other nect week…..Guiness will flow….Boks need to select team carefully.
22 Nov 2009, 09:51 am
#3 Just Another Paddy:
Paddy your team scored 21 points in the last 20 minutes, I just felt they should have put more than 50 past Fiji.
22 Nov 2009, 10:18 am
Fair enough Andy,
We were good though, given the conditions. Hope we raise it for your boys though. The oz performance wasn’t enough…..
….And please god Sexton get’s his chance….
22 Nov 2009, 10:37 am
Still though putting 40 on a top 10 team isn’t too shabby for a second team. We could have scored about 4 more trys except for stupid mistakes.
22 Nov 2009, 10:40 am
“their inability to truly put the islanders to the sword” France put 40 points on a team and it’s all praise on this site, then Ireland puts 40 points on a higher ranked and better team and it’s the above. Hmm.
22 Nov 2009, 10:43 am
#9 jockstrap: Mate, well done to Scotland. Damn brilliant. I was off my feet screaming at the end. Then Oz went over for that try in the end and thought they would steal it from the Scots and Gits missed the conversion. Just went wild.
Had my mates sending me a few sms’es from Murrayfield. They must have had a party until the wee hours…….hehehe.
So happy for them and you too.
22 Nov 2009, 10:44 am
#10 jockstrap: Sorry mate I have you mixed up with my mate here. JockBok. Still are you Scottish? Must be with a jock in your nic.
22 Nov 2009, 10:45 am
#6 grant10: Grant all my favourite teams won yesterday.
First our beloved Bokke, Then Scotland then ABs.
22 Nov 2009, 10:56 am
#13 Puma: good on you puma….i would have preferred the poms to beat the kiwis….but not a bad day….thrilled for the Scots!
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