IT WASN’T exactly the point-a-minute annihilation of their previous meeting in New Hampshire four summers ago, but once Ireland gave themselves a shake after a lacklustre first half it became a rout, not quite of America’s nightmares, but bad enough for the once-game visitors to concede the half century before Rob Dickson mercifully brought an end to this damp and dreary day.
If the match was tame, then at least there were some nice stories at the end. Marcus Horan, the victim of an unfounded and, frankly, scandalous charge of racism by the Ospreys, bounced back from the trauma to deliver a try-scoring, try-making performance in his first start for Ireland in a year. You have to go way back to the beating of Fiji in the spring of 2002 to find Frankie Sheahan’s last start but for a man who has known troubled times he, too, stood up extremely well yesterday in dirty conditions for a hooker.
Tommy Bowe, the 20-year-old Ulster wing, scored a try on his debut; Eric Miller, the nearly man of Irish rugby, was back to something approaching his barnstorming best while David Humphreys fired over nine kicks from nine attempts and became the first Irishman in history to hit the 500-point mark. There’s a caveat when it comes to the fly-half, though. For an hour he was dreadful, making a series of awful errors and he really only started to hum when the tries started to flow, by which time he was hardly needed. Then again, he had Guy Easterby alongside him, which can’t have been easy. Eddie O’Sullivan will be thankful for his first-choice half-backs, put it that way.
Especially when the news of Argentina’s extraordinary 24-14 victory over the French came through from Marseille. France simply do not lose in Marseille so the Pumas’ victory there is a massive statement of intent ahead of Saturday’s Test, particularly when you consider the number of quality players they are without on this tour. This week promises to be every bit as intense as the South Africa game.
And a damn sight more intense than yesterday. The USA were blitzed by seven tries to nil in the end — six of them coming in the second half, two for Geordan Murphy and one each for Horan, Sheahan, Bowe, Miller and Peter Stringer, who marked his 50th Test with the last score of the day. So, it turned into a cruise but it was choppy out there for a long time.
The Americans won’t have to look hard to find a bright side to the day. They were pretty comfortable throughout that first half and were behind only 13-6 at its conclusion, this after they had their blindside flanker, Brian Surgener, sin-binned in the 28th minute. They even managed to win the 10-minute spell 3-0. They also suffered a cruel break when Dickson failed to spot a Brian O’Driscoll blatant forward pass to Murphy for Ireland’s second try two minutes into the second half.
That brought it to 20-6, a converted Miller try that owed much to Horan and Murphy and two penalties from Humphreys already having been registered in that tedious first half as against two penalties for Mike Hercus. Still, it took Ireland another 13 minutes to break the Americans down again, which came as little surprise since O’Sullivan’s team had precious little control at half-back.
The third strike had its origins in a surge from Denis Leamy, the Munster flanker who got through a lot of work on his debut. Two passes later and Murphy was dummying Francois Viljoen, the full-back, to score at the posts. At 27-6 and the traffic heading only one way you feared for the Americans in the 25 minutes that remained.
Ireland’s scrum was now dominating where before it had a job in establishing a decent platform and the lineout was steady, too. Steadier by far than the Americans, who had 16 lineouts in the match and managed to lose eight of them. When Ireland followed up Murphy’s second try with one for Bowe within four minutes, memories of the 83-3 embarrassment of 2000 began to resurface.
The impressive Donncha O’Callaghan spent the day reminding Malcolm O’Kelly that he is still rather keen on playing for Ireland on a more permanent basis. It was an O’Callaghan lineout take on the east stand side that started the move that led to Bowe’s special moment. Humphreys’ risky skip-pass looked for a second as if it was going to end it abruptly, but he found his target, O’Driscoll, and then Horgan put the Ulsterman away in the corner. Humphreys ’ conversion was marvellous.
Ahead 34-6, there were tries now asking to be scored and Horan needed no second invitation. In the 65th minute he was held up fractionally short of the line but he wasn’t to be denied for long. Moments later, the prop picked up at the side of a ruck and a brick wall wouldn’t have stopped him scoring from there.
He wasn’t finished either. Sheahan scored six minutes later and he owed it all to his Munster colleague. Horan came darting in from the right and when he hit the floor the chance was presented to Sheahan on a plate. He accepted it gladly.
It was only his second try for his country, the first coming three years ago against Samoa. Humphreys converted but then you expected the Ulsterman to put them over from anywhere at that point, the composure now returned to his game. That was his eighth successful kick at goal from eight attempts and he would have had a chance of a ninth soon after had Bowe not failed to spot Murphy in open space outside him. A final opportunity would come his way, however.
The Test was in injury-time when Ireland shoved the Americans off their own scrum. When they reset, Anthony Foley fed Stringer and he nipped in for try number seven which left Humphreys seeking kick number nine, which he duly launched between the sticks in an effortless sweep of his right boot. Funny day for the fly-half. Not that there were many laughs to be had.
STAR MAN: Eric Miller (Ireland)
Ireland: G Murphy; S Horgan, B O’Driscoll (G Dempsey 77min), K Maggs, T Bowe; D Humphreys, G Easterby (P Stringer 67min); M Horan, F Sheahan, J Hayes (S Best 69min), D O’Callaghan, P O’Connell (L Cullen 69min), S Easterby (A Foley 73min), E Miller, D Leamy
USA: F Viljoen; A Lakomskis, P Emerick, S Sika, D Fee (A Tuipulotu 40min); M Hercus, M Timoteo (D Williams 62min); M MacDonald, M Wyatt, J Waasdorp, A Parker, G Klerck, B Surgener, K Schubert, T Petruzzella (F Mo’unga 49min) Yellow Card: B Surgener (28min)
