There was probably a lesson here. There was probably something to learn about defeat and adversity at the Aviva on Saturday night. Within four minutes of the second half, Australia turned a 20-14 deficit into a 24-20 lead and Ireland were beaten.
They had been brave, they had been resolute and they had nobody to blame except a schedule which asked them to play Australia a week after a battle against the All Blacks.
Now with key men gone, Ireland would face the inevitable. This was another familiar tale from Irish rugby lore: the heroic hour before tiredness takes over, before the demands are too much for a small country facing a traditional superpower.
It wouldn’t have been the first familiar tale of the past seven days. All week people had been looking for someone to blame. After the defeat to New Zealand, Ireland wrapped up warm in the comfort blanket of outrage.
Well, some people did. Joe Schmidt’s Ireland had other plans and they had other plans when Australia took the lead on Saturday as well.
Astonishingly, Ireland came back when Keith Earls scored a remarkable try and Paddy Jackson’s conversion gave them a three-point lead which they clung to, becoming the first Irish side to beat South Africa, New Zealand and Australia in the same year.
Australia. too, felt they knew how the game was going and even when it was over, they couldn’t work out how it had turned out differently. Will Genia sat on the Aviva pitch long after his team-mates had left, trying to solve the puzzle, trying to understand why a team that had looked beaten had won.
Australia had to figure things out all day. When Garry Ringrose somehow ran under the Australian defence to score his first try for Ireland after 33 minutes on Saturday, the referee Jerome Garces had a conversation with his TMO.
“I don’t know how number 12 scored the try.” It was an understandable question. Ringrose had picked up a ball that had bounced once, moved sideways and then charged directly for the line with no Australian capable of stopping him. It was a try which demonstrated his immense gifts, but it was one which would have led Australia to ask the same question as the referee.
By that stage, Ireland led 15-0 with Paddy Jackson’s conversion giving them a 17-point cushion and a chance to forget the unpleasantness of the past week, maybe even a chance to forget the past, specifically all had taken place at the same venue, at the same time a week before.
But Australia did ask the same question as the referee and they began to hunt Ireland down, scoring three tries between the last minute of the first half and the 17th of the second.
Ireland were wilting, having lost Rob Kearney, Jared Payne and Andrew Trimble by half-time. Australia may have been provoked into life, but they had been helped by the loss of these Irish players.
But Schmidt is a remarkable coach in charge of a resolute group of players. They lost some before the end, men like Tadhg Furlong and Rory Best whose hundredth cap turned out to be as memorable a day as he could have hoped for. But others remained.
Ireland had waited 111 years to beat New Zealand, but the return last Saturday showed that it will require more than one victory for the country to lose the sense that someone is out to get them.
Schmidt’s plans seemed to be upended as the team news was predictable but ominous before kick-off with the loss of Sean O’Brien.
Yet if New Zealand’s intent was clear in the opening spell last Saturday, Ireland delivered an equally emphatic message in the first minutes here, a message which soon stretched on for most of the half.
But if Schmidt’s Ireland were showing how to deal with a setback, Ireland – as represented by the crowd – were fearful of another stitch up.
They booed when Dean Mumm was only sent to the sin-bin for dumping Tadgh Furlong recklessly, and while they had a point, it seemed strange that the crowd appeared to be only realising in recent days what a dangerous sport rugby can be.
When Iain Henderson scored Ireland’s first try 90 seconds after Mumm’s departure, everyone could relax briefly. Ireland led 17-0 and had controlled things. But the loss of so many key players ensured that it was bound to turn.
It did turn but then it turned again. “There’s a lot of off-the-ball stuff,” an Australian complained to the referee, a reminder that whatever dark arts take place on a rugby field, Ireland is capable of delivering them as well.
But they worked on other aspects too. “You’re a very good ref,” Rory Best told Garces late in the game as he made the referee aware of the barrack-room lawyering that Ireland felt the Australians were indulging in. But he was also making the referee aware that Ireland were in control, that were no panic, and, in fact, there was time for some diplomacy.
There might have been a lesson to be learned, if anyone could take it on board amid the tension and the noise, but there wasn’t any cause to worry. Joe Schmidt’s Ireland had got this.
