'We've got to be smarter when we come under pressure' - Ireland lose control against USA

IRELAND WERE LEFT reeling from a damaging end-game as Scott Bemand’s side let a commanding lead slip as they fell to a 40-36 loss in their WXV Global Series opener in Tallaght.

Ireland stormed into a 17-0 lead inside the opening 20 minutes and spent a total of 63 minutes in the lead, but the USA surged back to outscore their hosts 28-5 in the closing half-hour.

“A game of two halves,” said Bemand.

“I think we’ve probably shown some of the absolute quality rugby, the game that we want to play, and then we’ve shown some bits where USA, using a good power game, have got on top of us and we haven’t been able to wrestle momentum back.

“Probably the headline learnings for us is when we’re good, I thought we looked really good and when teams get momentum on top of us we’ve got to be cuter in terms of how we stop that momentum and arrest it and get back on top.”

Ireland started confidently with three early tries, and led 24-12 at half-time, playing some incisive attacking rugby across the opening period.

“We’re pretty process orientated, so the feeling in the changing room was pretty calm (at half time).

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“We understood what happened, how we’d got on top, and we had a real sense of clarity in terms of what we needed to do.

“I think towards the end of that first half we just sensed that our energy and speed to get back in the game, whether it be as a tackler to roll out the way, to allow our jackal game, our breakdown pressure game to get going, we just sort of sensed there were some elements that we needed to be faster, have a bit more energy to.

“We prided ourselves to go out in the second half with that.

“As you know, a little bit of inaccuracy, a little bit of momentum, they had a scrum and they played out and got around the corner and got a penalty, and then it became a bit of a sequence really of penalty against, penalty against. I think the penalty count second half was 8-6, but until we got a run of penalties right at the end it was 8-2.

“So we’ve got to be smarter when we come under pressure in terms of how we deal with that, how we solution-find to a problem because USA, once they got in and got an opportunity to get their maul game going, they were accurate with that.”

While it was a bitterly disappointing start to Ireland’s WXV Global Series campaign, the result marked a statement win for the visiting US Eagles side, coached by Skerries man Jack Hanratty.

“Honestly, I think my biggest worry in the first half… Ireland are very clinical, they were clinical in the Six Nations, we saw that,” Hanratty said.

“And we also did some analysis that it’s their dominance in the first 20 minutes, they scored a lot of points in the first 20 minutes, and I felt like we kind of fell into that again.

“I thought we gave away some cheap scores, our first phase possession was poor, we knew what we wanted to do, but we didn’t really earn to get there.

“At half time, everyone was quite calm. We talked about little details and specifics that we needed to change. And then, although that first kick-off was one of those ones like, this is going to be a long day, but as soon as that changed, as soon as that bit of belief was there and we started earning penalties, as opposed to it being sloppy penalties, then we were able to go to a clinical set piece.

“We’ve talked a lot about, you can’t compete with the top five unless you’ve got a clinical set piece, and I put a huge amount of respect on the amount of work that went on, the detail, and obviously it paid dividends today.

“We’ve said for years that, before my time, that the Eagles could peak with the best 15 and could compete with everyone as the best 15, but it wasn’t a 23 group. And I thought today, one of the best feelings is the fact that the 23 got a victory, and it certainly wasn’t just 15.

“For me, amazing being here with my friends and family, amazing to bring it back to Skerries, who I hope will ignite their own women’s rugby programme,” he added.

“They’ve still got some work to do there, but it was brilliant to go out (to Skerries RFC last week). We had a job to do here, so for me personally, it was the exact same work week, but I did say to them to pack rain jackets, and it hasn’t rained once, so I feel like I need to get the trust back with the group!”