Ouch! Croke Park was a real kick in the guts

 

47 Have your say

Wallabies v Ireland, Croke Park November 16, 2009. Wallabies drew with Ireland 20 all. Photo by Pothale

Wallabies v Ireland, Croke Park November 16, 2009. Wallabies drew with Ireland 20 all. Photo by Pothale

What an empty feeling it was after the game at Croke Park. The most disappointing thing about the game was probably not the draw, it was the fact that we were only seven points ahead with ten minutes to go.

We missed too many opportunities to score and it’s something that we’ll have to work on in our last three tour matches.

We put ourselves in a lot of scoring positions and then got impatient and turned the ball over at the breakdown or knocked on, or something, and against a team with the experience of the Irish, and leadership of the likes of O’Driscoll (playing in his 100th test), that’s always going to come back to bite you.

Ireland are probably saying the same thing – they missed a few scoring opportunities, too.

There’s never too much time to wallow in the “what could’ve been’s” in rugby. We’re now in Edinburgh and I’m certain that we’ll learn from the experience at Croke and build on that performance this weekend against Scotland.

Croke Park at near capacity was an opportunity that not many people get to experience and I loved it. It’s the first time I have ever seen a crowd fall silent for an opposition kicker, and “shhhhh” anyone who tried to jeer.

And then they even applauded after Gits knocked a penalty or conversion over. It’s great to see that in sport and sadly it doesn’t seem to happen anywhere else.

If I was a kicker, I think the silence would probably throw me off more than having the stadium booing. But I guess I’ll never know.

The Irish anthems were great, too. They really get into it and the crowd just had the big band and drums to back them – no anthem singers or microphones required.

It’s a kick in the guts to be out of the hunt for a grand slam, but we still have the chance to finish the tour undefeated, which is obviously now our goal.

Despite the result against Ireland, there are a lot of positives to come out of the game.

Our frontrow did very well and dominated in the scrums – they have been working hard under the watchful eye of Patricio ‘Pato’ Noriega and are starting to reap the rewards of all the extra scrum sessions.

It makes such a difference as a backrower in terms of running lines (in attack and defence) off the scrum when it’s going forward. It gives you a tiny jump on your opposite number and you can get to the first breakdown that bit quicker.

So hopefully that can be the standard we maintain for the rest of the tour.

The lineout is obviously an area that we have to keep working on and we’ve already started working on it at training this week.

I thought the intensity at the breakdown was right up there. It was obviously a focus area for both teams. From watching their games in the Six Nations earlier in the year, we knew this was definitely an area that they would contest really hard – especially with the inside-knowledge of Les Kiss, who is on the Irish coaching team, having coached a lot of us either at the Waratahs or with Australia A and other programs.

I guess that is another challenge with the way rugby is going, with players and coaches changing clubs more frequently all over the world. There’s a lot more knowledge and analysis done on players and teams leading into games.

There is definitely no shortage of quality Aussie coaches over here: Michael Cheika at Leinster, Tony McGahan with Munster, the list goes on.

But back to the breakdown.

I thought Kaplan did a good job there as he was consistent. As a loose-forward, you can change the way you play at the breakdown as long as the refs are consistent with their interpretations of the laws.

So I think the problem is not so much how they interpret the laws, but rather that they go by this for the whole game. And I thought Kaplan did well.

Onto the game this weekend …

Scotland are now being coached by former England coach Andy Robinson, so I think they’ll definitely be a tougher outfit (he’s come out in the papers this week saying so much and we are in no way underestimating them this weekend).

They’ve gone with the same team that beat Fiji and they’ll be happy with nothing short of another win.

==
Scotland v Wallabies Test Rugby Kick Off Time: 17:15 GMT (Edinburgh)

TV Times Scotland v Wallabies: Ten Network
SYDNEY 04:00 – 06:00 (Sun – 22/11/09)
MELBOURNE 04:00 – 06:00 (Sun – 22/11/09)
BRISBANE 03:00 – 05:00 (Sun – 22/11/09)
PERTH 01:00 – 03:00 (Sun – 22/11/09)
ADELAIDE 03:30 – 05:30 (Sun – 22/11/09)

Scotland v Qantas Wallabies (Replay – ONE HD only)
SYDNEY 20:00 – Sun 22/11/09
BRISBANE 20:00 – Sun 22/11/09

TV Times Scotland v Wallabies: FOX SPORTS
SYDNEY 04:15 – 06:00 (Sun – 22/11/09)
MELBOURNE 04:15 – 06:00 (Sun – 22/11/09)
BRISBANE 03:15 – 05:00 (Sun – 22/11/09)
PERTH 01:15 – 03:00 (Sun – 22/11/09)
ADELAIDE 03:45 – 05:30 (Sun – 22/11/09)

David Pocock is a current Wallaby and columnist for The Roar. The ex-Zimbabwean plays for the Western Force in the Super 14 competition. He is the founder of the charity Eightytwenty Vision.
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