- Ireland ended their Autumn schedule by beating Australia at the Aviva Stadium
- Gus McCarthy scored the game’s winning try in the 76th minute on Saturday
- It was Ireland coach Andy Farrell’s last game before going on tour with the Lions
Ireland signed off on their autumn campaign with a hard-fought win against Joe Schmidt’s Wallabies on Saturday and head coach Andy Farrell, who was overseeing his final game in charge before his Lions sabbatical next year, hailed the grit of his players on a tough night for the hosts.
Australia surged into a 10-0 lead thanks to a Max Jorgensen score and the boot of Noah Lolesio, with a try from Josh van der Flier keeping Ireland in the hunt during an error-strewn first half.
Caelan Doris crashed over the line after the break to wrestle the lead back, but Lolesio continued to punish Farrell’s side from the kicking tee and it took a late try from replacement hooker Gus McCarthy to secure a tense win at the Aviva Stadium.
Andy Farrell revealed it took some fairly frank chat at the half-time break to turn things around.
‘He (Doris) led the way with the honesty as well,’ the Ireland head coach stated, praising his skipper.
‘We were feeling sorry for ourselves a little bit because I understand it’s human nature, and we had enough possession and territory to win the game twice over in the first half and we spilled enough ball and made enough errors in the first half to lose two matches as well. We were feeling sorry for ourselves but you’ve no right to think that everything’s going to go your own way, all singing, all dancing the whole time.
Ireland finished their Autumn on a high by beating Australia at the Aviva Stadium on Saturday
Leinster hooker Gus McCarthy (centre) scored the game’s winning try in the 76th minute
Saturday’s win was Ireland coach Andy Farrell’s last game before going on tour with the Lions
‘So with that in mind, we got over ourselves and I thought we came back strong. The big picture of the game is that I’m really proud of the victory because it was hard-fought against a bit of adversity, so delighted to get the win.’
Not for the first time this month, Ireland lacked accuracy, making 28 handling errors and conceding 20 turnovers.
It’s been a worrying theme across this autumn series after sloppy displays against New Zealand and Argentina.
‘I mean, if you look at them, there were 14 of them in the first half, that’s a hell of a lot,’ said Farrell on Ireland’s high error count.
‘You obviously take the positives from the fact of being down there in the right parts of the field but I mean, some of them were simple ball in hand and some of them were lineout stuff. A lot of them were a bit fancy — not seeing the pass, just presuming that people are going to be there. Our timing was off a little bit.’
Farrell hailed the performances of Sam Prendergast, making only his second Test start, and fellow outside-half Jack Crowley, who delivered some big moments from the bench. ‘I thought Sam had some lovely stuff. He made some errors, some kicks that weren’t perfect.
‘His touch-finding kicks were outstanding and it’s a real feature. Some of the kicks he put up in the air were obviously too long and we needed to fix that, it allowed them to relieve a bit of territory.
‘But equally I thought Jack was excellent when he came on. He took hold of the game.’
