RUGBY
Strong Kildare presence as Irish finish off the year with big win
By Daire Walsh
KILDARE natives Joey Carbery and Tadhg Beirne played starring roles at the Aviva Stadium last Saturday evening as Ireland rounded off 2018 in fine style with an emphatic 57-14 victory over the USA.
This makes it four consecutive wins during the November window for Joe Schmidt’s side, who lost just one of the 12 tests they played in the calendar year. It also just a single reversals in 19 competitive fixtures, stretching back to their outstanding triumph at the expense of England in the 2017 Six Nations.
Following an historic home success against the All Blacks seven days earlier, Schmidt made a total of 14 changes to his starting line-up for the visit of Gary Gold’s Statesiders. Outside centre Garry Ringrose was the sole survivor and he was joined in the back line by Athy’s Carbery.
He featured briefly off the bench in the wins over Argentina and New Zealand, while Beirne (Eadestown) missed out on the 23 for both games. He had scored a brace of tries in the November 3 success over Italy at Soldier’s Field, Chicago and was eager to make an impact alongside Iain Henderson in the second-row.
Despite registering two scores through Andrew Conway in the opening-quarter (both of them converted by Carbery), Ireland found themselves on level terms with their opponents. Carbery settled their nerves with an ice-cool three-pointer, however, and a third try from Jack Conan gave them some valuable breathing space at the break (24-14)
The Lilywhite duo subsequently combined on the restart to effectively move Ireland into an unassailable advantage. Beirne crashed over at the end of extended 52nd-minute attack and Carbery added the extras.
A first-half injury to Darren Sweetnam ensured Carbery completed the full 80 minutes, but he had to fill in at full-back for the vast majority of the action. He amassed a personal haul of 17 points over the course of the proceedings, added bonus strikes on top of additional tries for Quinn Roux, hat-trick hero Conway and John Ryan.
In the absence of a whole host of international stars, Leinster recorded an astonishing 52-7 victory over Ospreys in the Guinness PRO14. It was bright night for the Kildare contingent within Leo Cullen’s set-up and for one in particular.
Kill natives Adam Byrne and James Tracy were named in the starting team, while Jimmy O’Brien of Eadestown made his first-team debut in the second period. The ex-Newbridge College student looked comfortable in his new surroundings and will be hoping for further chances to impress throughout the current campaign.
Meanwhile, Jeremy Loughman (Athy) made his full Munster debut at Stadio Sergio Lanfranchi, where they had 25 points to spare (32-7) over Zebre on Sunday.