Eagles hit by all the elements

Ireland v USA: A damp squib of an affair perhaps, and one that will merely constitute a footnote in history, but given the circumstances and the conditions this was by no means an entirely useless exercise.

Neither coaches nor teams were swinging from the chandeliers afterwards but offered this scoreline at the start, and certainly at the half-way point, Ireland would have been the ones to bite your hand off.

Your sympathy was more inclined to go out to the home side at the start of the day, especially the players who had come for this game. Placed in something of a no-win situation after the events of the previous Saturday, and knowing full well that none of them had much chance of forcing their way into next week's starting line-up to face the Pumas, one can only imagine their choice of language when they arose from their slumber and opened their curtains.

Playing into the teeth of a typically capricious wind in the first half with a proverbial bar of soap compounded matters for the rejigged and relatively unfamiliar Irish team. But with the elements behind them, they found their rhythm in the second period, and with David Humphreys' immaculate place-kicking turning every try into a seven pointer, by the end your sympathy was back where you would expect it to be.

Good people fighting a difficult battle and chronically short of funding and time together, as the hidings meted out to Romania, Japan and Canada the previous week underlined, the dice is loaded even more heavily against the second-tier nations at this time of the year than it even is at World Cup time. At least then they've been in camp a while.

However, the Eagles, having been called up from off-season hibernation to come together for the first time since last June, inevitably lost out to Ireland's superior fitness, preparation and match time. This was underlined amid a 35-point haul in the last 25 minutes. The USA will at least have benefited from a rare run-out together as they fly on to Italy today for the second leg of their brief tour.

It was their decided misfortune that one of their two players based in mainland Britain, and one of their two key performers, should have such an off day. Maybe it was the heavy responsibilities he carried, or the conditions, but given an equal share of the territorial graph in the opening half, the Sale outhalf Mike Hercus undid much of the advantage which the Eagles had in the first 40 minutes with an edgy, error-strewn performance.

Nonetheless, in the cold light of day, the Eagles should be grateful the wind and rain undoubtedly prevented them from suffering a bigger beating. The bar of soap was spilled on countless occasions, not only stopping Irish moves in their tracks but also ensuring more stoppages for scrums, which had to be regularly reset. Ruck ball was also slower to recycle, allowing both sides more time to reset their defence.

Passes, and especially close-in off-loads, didn't stick like they would have on a dry day and, as Eddie O'Sullivan admitted afterwards, Ireland were perhaps culpable of forcing the off-loads a bit too much and of not playing more territory.

Not only would they have created more chances on a drier day, they'd have taken more too. Witness the inability of Brian O'Driscoll and Shane Horgan to convert what would normally be a fairly routine two-on-one out wide.

Nevertheless, a sufficient platform was laid for the unsurprising second-half deluge of points. Ireland's defence had less questions asked of it than the previous week but, even so, kept their shape and missed only one tackle all day.

The scrums and lineouts were pretty solid in the conditions and they made serious inroads into a USA lineout which eventually crumbled, coughing up eight of its 16 throws.

The seven replacements from a week ago, and perhaps next week, all grew in stature as the game progressed in their first outings for three weeks and, of course, Denis Leamy and Tommy Bowe were blooded at this level.

The debutants went well, Bowe's gather and counter-attack and Leamy's sharp exchange of passes with Donncha O'Callaghan and rumble provided the go-forward ball from which Shane Horgan put over the all-action man of the match Eric Miller for the sole first-half try.

No one mastered the soap completely, and it was Leamy's misfortune that it spilled from his grasp on three occasions - counting a fourth, high, one-hand take when being hit from behind would be cruel. But he tackled well when Ireland were obliged to defend, in the opening quarter especially, and carried the ball with his customary strength. It should be the first of many.

Although it was a day more suitable for forwards to shine, notably Marcus Horan, Paul O'Connell and Miller, Bowe made the most of what came his way, as ever O'Driscoll showed he doesn't shirk the dirty work and Shane Horgan again looked in prime nick.

After the break, Geordan Murphy opened the floodgates by gliding in effortlessly for a couple of typically classy tries. Restored to his more effective and less wasteful position at full back, he might have had a couple more had Kevin Maggs, from one his trademark charges, and Bowe spotted the full back's support runs over their shoulders.

This was perhaps the most significant and abiding memory from this encounter. No Irish player runs these trailers better than Murphy though, a la Christian Cullen at Munster, they're not always spotted by team-mates. If Ireland are to add this extra dimension to their game, then Murphy will have to be restored to starting team permanently.

Bowe was rewarded with an excellently worked set-piece try in the corner after O'Driscoll had taken out two players and made a brilliant offload. Cue the Munstermen: Horan and Frankie Sheahan burrowed over in turn before Peter Stringer scored a sharply-taken try in the corner off an Anthony Foley pick-up and feed at the base of a scrum. A fitting way to mark his relatively unheralded 50th Test.

SCORING SEQUENCE: 8 mins: Humphreys pen, 3-0; 18 mins: Hercus pen, 3-3; 19 mins: Humphreys pen, 6-3; 25 mins: Miller try, Humphreys con, 13-3; 34 mins: Hercus pen 13-6; half-time: 13-6; 41 mins: Murphy try, Humphreys con, 20-6; 56 mins: Murphy try, Humphreys con, 27-6; 59 mins: Bowe try, Humphreys con, 34-6; 65 mins: Horan try, Humphreys con, 41-6; 71 mins: Sheahan try, Humphreys con, 48-6; 80 mins: Stringer try, Humphreys con, 55-6.

IRELAND: G Murphy (Leicester); S Horgan (Leinster), B O'Driscoll (Leinster, capt), K Maggs (Ulster), T Bowe (Ulster), D Humphreys (Ulster), G Easterby (Leinster); M Horan (Munster), F Sheahan (Munster), J Hayes (Munster), D O'Callaghan (Munster), P O'Connell (Munster), S Easterby (Llanelli), E Miller (Leinster), D Leamy (Munster). Replacements: P Stringer (Munster) for G Easterby (67 mins), S Best (Ulster) for Hayes, L Cullen (Leinster) for O'Connell (both 69 mins), A Foley (Munster) for S Easterby (72 mins), G Dempsey (Leinster) for O'Driscoll (67 mins).

USA: F Viljoen (Washington); A Lakomskis (Belmont Shore), P Emerick (Catania, Ita), S Sika (Brigham Young University), D Fee (Chicago Lions); M Hercus (Sale Sharks, Eng), M Timoteo (Golden Gate); M MacDonald (University of California), M Wyatt (Ombac, San Diego), J Waasdorp (Warringah, Australia), A Parker (Gentlemen of Aspen), G Klerck (Benetton Treviso, Ita), B Surgener (Back Pay), K Schubert (Cardiff Blues, capt), T Petruzzella (California Polytechnic University). Replacements: A Tuipulotu (Gentlemen of Aspen) for Fee (half-time), F Mo'unga (Gentlemen of Aspen) for Petruzzella (48 mins), D Williams (Chicago Lions) for Timoteo (62 mins), J Gouws (Santa Monica) for Schubert (67 mins). Sin-binned: Surgener (27-37 mins).

Referee: R Dickson (Scotland).