Ireland's lack of depth exposed in close Fiji scare
A much-changed Ireland were pushed all the way as they scraped to a 23-20 victory over Fiji in Dublin.
Seven days on from his side's impressive thrashing of South Africa, Ireland coach Joe Schmidt made 13 alterations to his starting XV but initially watched on with comfort as tries from Darren Sweetnam, Dave Kearney and Jack Conan put the hosts in command.
Fiji refused to give in, however, and pulled level when Henry Seniloli's eye-catching score was followed by Timoci Nagusa intercepting a Kearney pass to go over in the 45th minute.
There were no further tries, but Ireland sneaked home courtesy of a second penalty from replacement fly-half Ian Keatley, whose first three-pointer had been cancelled out almost immediately by Ben Volavola.
Joey Carbery, the man Keatley came on for with 16 minutes remaining, shone in the first period for Ireland and laid on the first try for Sweetnam after breaking the Fiji line with a delightful step inside.
Although Volavola kicked a penalty in response, Ireland looked capable of recording a handsome win when Kearney went over on the left and Conan broke clear from halfway to touch down following one of Fiji's many handling errors.
However, the visitors' enterprise was rewarded when a thrilling counter-attack saw Nemani Nadolo collect his own kick and cut inside to put Seniloli over for a try Volavola converted with the last action of the half.
Nagusa then telegraphed an ill-advised pass from Kearney and Volavola again added the extras to level the scores.
It was therefore left to Keatley to seal victory for Ireland, his second successful kick coming after Kini Murimurivalu had been penalised for a lifting tackle on Cian Healy.
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So if this ain’t the best Irish team ever then who exactly is? I don’t remember any other Irish team being this good & winning a series in the Land of the Long White Cloud. Yes I may rip them often for 8 X QF RWC exits & twice not even making it to the QF, but they’re a damn good team who many think can only improve, including me!
Go to commentsNot a squeek out of Leinster for weeks about this match. So quiet. The first team have been quitely building for this encounter under Nienaber’s direction. All fresh, all highly motivated. They are expecting a season’s best performance from Northhampton. They will match that. They will be fresher and apparently they will have 80,000 out of the 83,000 shouting for them. I do expect Northhampton to turn up big time. Not to be missed. On a tangent it is evident how the loss of a few Premiership teams has in some respect helped other Premiership teams and England. More quality over less teams makes the teams better, which has a knock on effect on England. Not the only factor contributing to England’s rise but one of them.
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