This was a big win for Ireland.

They needed it in the way you can only need a win when you’ve been on a bad run and, one way or the other, they got it. There is real value in that. Whatever about the quality of the performance – and there were real issues that ran throughout this game that were present in all of Ireland’s recent grim defeats – having the grit to stick it out in the face of almost an entire second half of pressure is to be admired. This group play for each other and it’s great to see.

After a week of noise about everything wrong with women’s rugby in Ireland, this was a good reminder of what they are all there for – to win games, have each other’s back out there, and find a way to overcome adversity together. Plenty of lessons there for everyone, I think.

♛ ♛ ♛

The game itself felt like it was being played out in a phonebox from really early on.

The USA have big ball carriers and a will to find them with the ball in hand. It’s probably their best quality as a team so it’s no surprise to see them go after it on most of their possessions. Ireland, for the most part, defended them really well so a lot of the early going in this game was both teams making handling errors under pressure in the middle of the field. As good as the USA were in contact, they were equally poor in their kicking off #9 and #10. In some ways it was a double edged sword where, yes, they were good with the ball in hand but a lot of their work in this area seemed to be directly related to their inability to generate any kind of coherant kicking game bar “get it outta here” exits.

That said, though, the USA produced a number of opportunities ball in hand. This one, straight from the kickoff, could have easily been a try inside the first minute or so if the pass had gone away to the overlap and the windows of opportunity just kept coming until Stacey Flood was able to lift the siege with a vital breakdown turnover.

This was just one sequence of play in between long bouts of pressure, flow, handling error, scrum sequences that Ireland came out on top of generally, due to excellent scrummaging. Peat and Moloney did a real number on their opposition but Leah Lyons was by far the dominant player in my opinion – regularly striding through the loosehead like she was a finishing tape at a 100m sprint.

You can see how bitty and lacking flow the game was with these early game sequences. Both Ireland and the USA threatened to break through in the early going, with the USA looking slightly more dangerous, right up to the point of actually finishing off the opportunities. That was balanced out by Ireland’s more intelligent kicking game.

That said, the USA will wonder how they ended up losing this game. Sure, they were a washout in the scrum and struggled to kick with any coherence, but they had more than enough opportunities, especially with Ireland’s discipline costing us metres that the USA’s kicking game was unable to generate at times.

Were it not for the scrum, Ireland would have really struggled to maintain a platform in this game but it would be equally true to say that of the outstanding Beibhinn Parsons. When Ireland managed to get the ball to Parsons, we looked infinitely more likely to do everything from make ground to score tries. This was a good example. The Irish scrum moved forward, Stacey Flood found an excellent kick to the space behind the edge defender and, sure, the bounce helped but the second Parsons took this ball on the 10m line, I had TRY written on my live notes of the game. That’s how quick, how lethal, how good Parsons is.

That is not an easy try to finish but she makes it look like something anyone could do. It isn’t. That kind of finish is the work of a very special player and Parsons is a very special player.

You could be forgiven, then, for trying to build an attack around maximising the number of touches that she gets in a game at all times but we didn’t really do that. She was consistently dangerous whenever she got the ball but I felt we didn’t utilize her electric, game changing pace and power to the level we could and probably should.

This was part of a wider problem that I’ve had with Ireland’s attacking work across 2021. Everything seems very disjointed, individualistic and boiler plate. Elite modern attack is incredibly integrated and multi-optional but Ireland seem to be running quite isolated, mono-optional schemes.

Training time and cohesion plays a part in this too, obviously, and this being the first hit out for the group since the World Cup Qualifiers with a number of new combinations can’t be ignored either, but Ireland’s issues with the ball in hand levered a lot of pressure back onto us, especially in the second half.

That was visible on our work on transition – which left a lot to be desired in general – and on our strike plays from everything to confused running lines to straight up poor passing.

Parsons excellent try aside and our excellent close range maul work accepted, we struggled to generate positive attacking momentum on our own possession consistently.

That meant we spent a lot of the second half without the ball and mostly in our own half. USA scored a fantastic try right after the halftime break to bring the game back to 12-10. We managed to strike back with a try immediately that ultimately won the game but it was in spite of our attacking work, not really because of it. Just watch this entire sequence and watch how quickly our attacking shape disintegrates.

What got us into the 22? The dominant scrummaging of the Irish pack with Leah Lyons absolutely bulling through the USA shove. We went quickly as the USA snoozed, we won another penalty and from there, our close range maul did the business once again and Peat scored shortly after.

That stretched the lead out to 17-10 and, from there, Ireland produced one of the gutsiest, grittiest display of last ditch defence I’ve seen in a number of years. The USA kept coming and Ireland kept turning them back, often on the tryline or just before it.

Ireland held out and eventually worked back up the field, let the maul go to work and earned a penalty in the last few minutes that sealed the game.

It was far from perfect, there were real issues throughout on the offensive side of the ball but man, the scrum, maul and last ditch scramble defence showed you how good these women are and how much they give a shit, to be blunt.

Working with the desire that’s there and the quality we know is there too, there’ll be a lot to build on going forward.

Guts, grit and determination will only take you so far in this game but you can’t go anywhere without them.

Notable Players

Maeve Óg O’Leary came off the bench for Ciara Griffin – a total legend, by the way – and made an immediate impact in saving a try that could have well tied the game and turned the momentum fully towards the USA. She made another huge play later in the half at a key moment.

Just look at this;

Look at how easily she beats people, look at her pace, look at her finishing – she’s the real deal and will be a key foundation stone for this team moving forward. ★★★★

Leah Lyons was the standout player on the pitch for me. She scored a try, sure, and it was well deserved.

But her scrummaging for 54 minutes was a core component of Ireland’s win. In a game with a lot of handling errors, Lyons turned the game Ireland’s way with the kind of monstrous scrummaging every prop dreams of. Outstanding, game winning stuff. ★★★★★

The Wally Ratings: USA (H)

The Wally Ratings explainer page is here.  

Players are rated based on their time on the pitch, if they were playing notably out of position, and on the overall curve of the team performance. DNP means the player did not feature and N/A means they weren’t on the pitch long enough to warrant a fair rating.