Ring-rusty Irish made to dig deep for victory

Warren Gatland was entitled to look relieved. Not because Ireland had snatched respectability from the jaws of embarrassment after a five-try salvo in the last half-hour had overturned a 26-10 deficit, but because the game had served to give his side a kick up the derriere.

Perhaps there was a residue of old loyalties to his former province, but Gatland took an understandably pragmatic attitude to this less than outstanding effort; pointing out that a cricket score (be it the English rugby team or cricket team) would have been of no benefit to anybody. Indeed, had Connacht been inflicted with another 60 or 70-pointer it wouldn't have served much purpose to either side, while it would have told the Irish management little.

It had panned out exactly as he had expected. "We knew we would be rusty," Gatland said and the wry smile acknowledged that for the first 50 minutes Ireland would have been more suited to reddish-brown jerseys than the traditional green.

"The players are disappointed because it didn't happen as easily as they thought it would, but from my point of view it helps us to focus on the areas we need to focus on. They slowed our ruck ball down but in the second-half we quickened up our ruck ball and looked a lot sharper."

The run-out may have been more beneficial for Ireland as a unit than it was for any individuals or the selectors who must choose a 30-man squad for the World Cup in a week's time.

Certainly this 80 minutes will have helped point Ireland towards corrective measures in readiness for next Saturday's Test at home to Argentina; primarily the need to work on their defensive organisation and quicken up the speed of their ruck ball.

However, quite what the Irish management will have learnt about key individuals prior to pruning their preliminary World Cup squad of 34 down to 30 within the next eight or nine days is open to debate.

For example, the Connacht halves, Conor McGuinness and Eric Elwood, went very well, the former crisply varying his options off the base of rucks in cleverly unleashing Connacht's big target runners through the Irish fringe defence in the build-up to two of their three tries.

However, there still wasn't compelling evidence of a revival of the McGuinness break, and after he had departed, his rival for a World Cup slot, Brian O'Meara, augmented a sound, if less influential outing with a try, albeit one of several soft tries of dubious merit.

James Topping, after an edgy first 10 minutes, went looking for work pretty effectively, and ultimately scored one try while setting up another. By comparison, Matt Mostyn wasn't particularly inspiring in a low-key performance, but then Topping is coming from further down the pecking order.

Elsewhere, the most encouraging sight was a fitter looking Jeremy Davidson giving arguably his most hard-working 80 minutes in an Irish shirt for some time; tackling big and winning plenty of good line-out ball. The three initial Irish subs all made an impact; Paddy Johns in particular. His bristling, physical cameo served to underline his importance to the pack's rucking and close-in work. The old warrior isn't about to ride off into the sunset just yet.

Double try scorer Alan Quinlan and David Wallace gave some real presence to what had been a lightweight Connacht back-row, while the props, especially John Maher, had big games. Indeed, he was the best prop on the pitch.

"It's difficult to motivate yourself for a game like that," maintained Irish captain Dion O'Cuinneagain. "We did a lot of fitness work in the build-up to this game and Gatty didn't give us a rest all week, so we felt a bit tired, and it's also difficult going up against a side with Conor McGuinness and Eric Elwood, who know all your line-out options, know all your scrum options and are telling everyone in the (Connacht) team what you're going to do."

Secrecy and the protection of team calls also manifested themselves in the sight of Connacht going into lengthy huddles before each of their line-outs. It later transpired that Connacht coach Glenn Ross didn't want the guesting Munster pair of Alan Quinlan to learn of the team's line-out calls, so each one had to be discussed through in plain English.

Strictly speaking, the huddle is now outlawed from competitive games and although Murray Whyte was lenient in the first-half eventually his patience ran out, along with O'Cuinneagain's.

"Top-class rugby is about the speed you play it and if the opposition are taking a two-minute rest before each line-out it reduces the pace of the game," said O'Cuinneagain. "In the second half, they didn't get away with that and there was far more rhythm to our game."

Much more of this and the CIA will be called in for some espionage training. However, it also enabled Ireland's superior fitness to become more of a factor, and, as a further aside, it also saw O'Cuinneagain come more into the game. The looser it is, the more phases the ball goes through, then the more effective O'Cuinneagain becomes.

Nor was it a co-incidence that O'Cuinneagain's most effective quarter came following his switch to the blind side after Eric Miller came on for Trevor Brennan, well though the latter had played with some big hits, ball-carrying and restart work.

Ross understandably took some encouragement from Connacht's mini-revival in fortune without shouting from the rooftops about it. Acknowledging that the infusion of Alan Quinlan and David Wallace had a very positive effect, Ross conceded that Connacht tightened up their game, played to their strengths and tightened up their defence before ultimately their legs crumbled a tad.

By comparison, Gatland seemed in a distant, reflective mood. All the while, the make-up of the final 30-man squad will exercise his mind this week, but thoughts must also turn to next Saturday's opponents, Argentina; the Pumas convincing win over Five Nations' champions Scotland at Murrayfield having sharpened the focus on that game.

"Whether they've changed from their traditional game of being very, very strong up front in terms of scrumagging or not, we'll just need to have a look at that. But we're expecting a pretty tough battle up front."

Scoring sequence: 4 mins: Quinlan try, Elwood conversion 7-0; 14: Maggs try, Humphreys conversion 7-7; 22: Humphreys penalty 7-10; 26: Elwood penalty 10-10; 36: Deane try 15-10; 40: Elwood penalty 18-10; 44: Elwood penalty 21-10; 47: Quinlan try 26-10; 53: Miller try, Humphreys conversion 26-17; 57: Topping try, Humphreys conversion 26-24; 60: Nesdale try, Humphreys conversion 26-31; 68: O'Meara try, Humphreys conversion 26-38; 80: Mullins try 26-43.

Connacht XV: S Allnutt; P Duignan, M Deane, M Murphy, N Carolan; E Elwood (capt), C McGuinness; J Maher, S McDonald, M Cahill, C Rigney, A Quinlan, B Gavin, D Wallace. Replacements: A Kearney for Rigney (60 mins); S McIvor for McGuinness (61 mins); E Brennan for Wallace (62 mins); G Brady for Deane (71 mins).

Ireland: C O'Shea; J Topping, B O'Driscoll, K Maggs, M Mostyn; D Humphreys, B O'Meara; J Fitzpatrick, R Nesdale, A McKeen, J Davidson, M O'Kelly, T Brennan, D O'Cuinneagain, A Ward. Replacements: P Wallace for McKeen, P Johns for Davidson, E Miller for Brennan (all 49 mins); M Mullins for Maggs, R O'Gara for Humphreys (69 mins).

Referee: M Whyte (Leinster).