No. By this time everyone was standing, and cheering.
I told you. Tell one, tell all. Gone are the days of wretched green-and-gold slog-a-thons, of the ball being advanced centimetres at a time before being spilled. No more shall we see 80 minutes of endless collapsed scrums and eternal attempts at force-em-backs kicking to try to eke out tepid wins, or at least limit the damage.
Tate McDermott of Australia is tackled by Craig Casey and Josh van der Flier.Credit: Getty Images
This was rugby as it was always meant to be played, with the ball in hand, crashing the line, chipping and chasing, sending the ball wide, attempting and sometimes pulling off miracle passes, of tackling themselves red-raw for eighty minutes on end despite Ireland being so often camped in the Wallaby’s 22 they could quite legitimately have opened a ranger’s hut there.
Yes, a penalty a converted try for Ireland captain Caelan Doris half way though the second half gave the locals a narrow lead for the first time of 15-13, but two kicked penalties for Australia by Noah Lolesio still saw the Wallabies leading 19-15 with ten minutes to go.
Get it? Against the No.2-ranked side in the world, playing at home in Dublin in front of 65,000 rabid supporters, the Wallabies were playing out of their gum-tree!
The final minutes were all drama, as Ireland’s hooker Gus McCarthy try from a rolling maul snatched back the lead from the invaders, and the match finished as it was always going to, going right down to the wire.
The fact that this epic battle finished with Ireland winning by three points changed nothing of the essential news: somehow, after last year’s disaster, Australia doesn’t just have a competitive team, we have a potentially great one, capable of wonderfully entertaining rugby.
We’ve got props like Taniela Tupou who can do intercepts, charge 40 metres, split the field and attempt – if on this occasion not quite pull off – a pass of Campese-like genius.
We’ve got wingers like Kellaway, who can wrap up Irish props on the fly a metre out of the Australian line, hold them up over the line, and get the ball back for Australia.
Fraser McReight attempts a charge down.Credit: Getty Images
We have man-mountains like Fraser McReight who was so busy on the day you’d swear there were three of him out there. (Memo: Joe Schmidt. Enough, please, of rotating or resting McReight. Pick him, every time. He is the McReight bloke for the gig, every time.) Rob Valetini, also had a wonderful game and together with skipper Harry Wilson, Australia now have a seriously formidable back-row.
Out in the backs, Joseph-Aukuso Suaalii might have been less spectacular than he was against England, but still managed to draw two defenders nearly every time, freeing up the men outside him, and it was his turnover work in the air that was the foundation stone for Jorgensen’s try.
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This team is coming together, and after just one year of Joe Schmidt in command, Australia is not only competitive once more in the international arena, they are wonderfully, spectacularly, dangerous. The next time we will see them in action will be against the Lions in June next year, and their form on this tour bodes wonderfully well, to see a Series for the Ages.
Congratulations to the lot of them, and welcome home, you beautiful bastards.