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Ireland: ‘It’s just getting into the groove of all that again’
By Liam Heagney
Ireland – and Bryan Mollen – breathed a huge sigh of relief in the Far East on Friday after a hard-fought 12-7 win over Samoa prevented a disastrous opening day from happening to them at the Hong Kong 7s.
The Irish opened their campaign with a morning defeat against South Africa, a team they had beaten in the pool stages on the previous two legs of the HSBC SVNS circuit in Vancouver and Los Angeles.
Those results led to the South Africans making a change to the management and a rejuvenated team now under the command of Philip Snyman burst into life, scoring twice off scrum ball and then through possession following a no-release penalty to lead 17-0 at the break.
They then added to that advantage shortly into the second half with a fourth try before the Irish charged back into the contest, their fightback to a 17-22 losing bonus point defeat assisted by the sending of South Africa’s Justin Geduld for a high tackle.
That left Ireland needing to pull it out of the bag against the Samoans and they eventually got over the line, second-half tries from Terry Kennedy and Zac Ward rescuing them after they had trailed 0-7 at the break.
With their remedial job done, Ireland huddled at the bottom of the tunnel in the Hong Kong Stadium for a rallying pep talk before Mollen put into words the defiance that enabled them to stay in the trophy hunt ahead of Saturday’s final pool game versus Spain.
“We said we have just got to keep believing in ourselves,” explained Mollen to RugbyPass. “We put in two slow starts where we kept coughing up the ball. If we have the trust to hold onto that ball and put teams through it, we know we will come out on the right side.
“So it’s just getting into the groove of all that again… we just say, ‘Keep hanging onto that ball and keep working together and we will be alright’.”
Knock-ons and penalties hurt in those repeat slow starts. “It’s a bit of humidity, all that kind of stuff, a bounce of a ball at times. We were just not switched on but in that game there (against Samoa), we managed to turn it around.
“The subs coming on managed to click a little bit better, same as we did against South Africa. We just left it a bit too late. They put 22 points and it’s hard to come back from that.”
For Mollen, a try-scorer off the bench against South Africa, being back in Hong Kong for the first time in five years has been a thrill. “I have missed a few this year, I got injured once or twice and a bit of rotation as well.
“I’m just happy to come back. It’s my first time back in Hong Kong since we qualified in 2019 so it means the world to me and I’m happy every time I can put on an Irish jersey. It means the world.”
Ireland were well supported on day one in Hong Kong. “It’s huge. Just having as many green jerseys as we can see in the stand gives us that extra little buzz and that little lift that we need.
"We get great support anywhere in the world we go, and Hong Kong is so special because there is always a load of Irish that come out for us.”
- Click here to follow all the action live from Hong Kong on RugbyPass TV
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Latest Comments
Lakai? Hell no, Kirifi is the like for like. I could never imagine Lakai throwing a dummy like Ardie, his had’s and offload are probably his best asset. Still a good option to replace Ardies function within the group. Happy for that to phase in slowly over the next two years.
Kirifi is someone demanding attention as Ardie’s/the teams go to back up option though. Like with you’re Kaino ref though, happy for that to reverse back again if Lakai simply starts outperforming him again. The Kaino role has really been filled by Cane (perhaps because they didn’t find a replacement) and the 6’s that have been used are more like a Read/Jones/Flavell/Fifita.
I really do like the idea of that rock being a little bigger and a little tougher than Cane though. Miracle looks like that guy, and there are few possible young kiwis coming through too. Barrett over Vaa’i for me, he just has a little of the mongrol and flair you also want.
Go to commentsI think you have gone in the wrong direction here Nick. I think you need to delve down into the rules etc around Moana Pacifica’s selection policies and then you need to understand that a lot of KIWI BORN rugby players have PI heritage. It appears ok for the 4 home nations to pillage NZ born players constantly without retribution but you want to question whether NZ BORN players should be eligible for NZ? Seems a real agenda in there.
Go back and look at the actual Aims and agenda for MP becoming a entity and you see lots of things enshrined in policy that you arnt mentioning here. EG there is an allowance for a percentage of MP to be NZ eligible. This was done so MP could actually become competitive. Lets be real. If it wasnt this way then MP would not be competitive.
There also seems to be some sort of claim ( mainly from the NH ) that NZ is “cashing in” on MP, which , quite frankly is a major error. Are you aware of how much MP costs NZR Financially?
39 NZ born rugby players played at the last world cup for Samoa or Tonga. PLUS plenty for Scotland, England, Ireland and Wales.
Taumoefolau is a BORN AND BRED NZer. However I very strongly doubt he will be an AB, but who do you believe he should be allowed to play for? Levi Aumua is ALSO a born and bred Kiwi.
Aumua was eligible to represent Samoa and Fiji for the Pacific Nations Cup in July that year but ended up playing for neither. He IS eligible for his nation of Birth too Nick
He is a Kiwi. Are you saying an NZ born, raised Kiwi cant play for NZ now?
Sorry Nick Kiwi born and bred actually qualify for NZ.
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