RUGBY
Carbery plays his part as Ireland finish off 2016 with exhilarating win
By Daire Walsh
IT was another occasion to remember at the Aviva Stadium on Saturday evening, when Ireland became the first team since England in 2003 to claim victories over the three major southern hemisphere nations in a single calendar year.
Following on from their previous groundbreaking triumphs against South Africa and New Zealand, Joe Schmidt’s charges defeated Australia in their final game of 2016.
After an often bruising encounter with the All Blacks in the same venue seven days earlier, it was anticipated that Ireland would get a similar challenge from a team that are coached by former Leinster supremo Michael Cheika.
Indeed, his successor at the RDS, Joe Schmidt, was forced to make alterations to his team because of injuries sustained by Jonathan Sexton, Robbie Henshaw and Sean O’Brien, but in-game switches also proved to be the order of the day for the Kiwi and his backroom team.
Munster’s Simon Zebo replaced Rob Kearney when he suffered a head injury 12 minutes into the contest, and when Andrew Trimble was also forced out of the action on the half-hour, Athy’s Joey Carbery was pressed into the action.
By this point, Ireland held a 10-0 lead thanks to five points apiece from Paddy Jackson and Iain Henderson (try), but despite having to significantly re-jig their backline, Garry Ringrose increased their advantage with a converted 34th-minute score.
It had been a hugely impressive opening period for the hosts, but Australia did finish the half with a try from winger Dane Haylett-Petty. Indeed, Ireland’s woes were further compounded by the loss of the influential Jared Payne during the break.
Kieran Marmion was his replacement, and this meant that Ireland’s back-up out-half and scrum-half were lining out at full-back and right-wing respectively. Understandably, it was during the third-quarter that Australia started to get on top of the proceedings, and with a try from Tevita Kuridrani being complimented by the place-kicking of Bernard Foley, they found themselves in the ascendancy on the hour mark.
Naas native Jamie Heaslip made way for Peter O’Mahony after another typically busy performance, but courtesy of a Jackson conversion on top of a Keith Earls try, Ireland held out for a magnificent 27-24 success.
However, it was another difficult day at the office for the Ireland Women at the UCD Bowl on Sunday, as Tom Tierney’s side suffered a 38-8 defeat at the hands of New Zealand in their final November Series clash in the Belfield venue.
Portia Woodman and Selica Winata contributed a combined tally of five tries for the Black Ferns, and even though Niamh Kavanagh secured a final-minute touchdown for Ireland, they ultimately ended their series with a third consecutive loss.
Meanwhile, Leinster fell to second place in the Guinness PRO12 table with a 38-29 reversal to Scarlets, but with the Kill duo of Adam Byrne (who got on the scoresheet once again) and James Tracy playing significant roles, they did come away with a try bonus in the end.