Although disjointed at times, Ireland ran out convincing 52-21 winners over a determined Canada team in tonight’s opening fixture of the GUINNESS Series. Eight was the magic number at the Aviva Stadium with Ireland scoring eight tries and giving debuts to eight players.
Captained by Peter O’Mahony in his first international outing since last year’s Rugby World Cup, Ireland mixed the good with the bad in the first half as they edged into a 21-14 lead for half-time.
A lovely link-up between Connacht team-mates Finlay Bealham and Tiernan O’Halloran saw the impressive full-back cut a great line through midfield in the 37th minute, surging clear to score from 40 metres out. Paddy Jackson landed his third successful conversion for a seven-point buffer.
Now coached by former Ulster boss Mark Anscombe, Canada had done well to bounce back from a 14-0 deficit after 21 minutes. Their physical forwards grew into the game, providing the platform for Taylor Paris’ 28th-minute maul try.
Paris’ wing colleague DTH van der Merwe, who had a terrific individual battle with Keith Earls, was the first Canadian to score, seizing Luke Marshall’s high, hanging pass to run in an intercept effort from inside the hosts’ 22.
Marshall’s error – as Ireland tried to attack from deep – came just moments after he had touched down at the other end, profiting from Jackson’s looping pass after the out-half had combined to good effect with Earls.
Joe Schmidt’s men were on the scoreboard inside six minutes, debutant Billy Holland’s well-won lineout setting up a maul and with the Canadian defence sucked in, Kieran Marmion broke on the blindside to feed Earls with the scoring pass for his 18th international try.
Noticeable errors crept into Ireland’s play in the second quarter, combined with Canada gaining momentum through their directness, but defence-splitting runs from the fit-again Sean O’Brien, Sean Cronin, new centre Garry Ringrose and Ultan Dillane showed the damage that could be done.
Into the second half, Ireland resumed in dominant form and used their scrum to force a 44th minute penalty try after props Cian Healy and Bealham had their opposite numbers in all sorts of bother. Jackson tapped over the simple conversion for 28-14.
Stubborn defence from Canada, allied to some Irish handling errors in advanced positions, prevented Ireland from adding to their try tally. They were then stung when the visitors used numbers on the left to put full-back Matt Evans crashing over past his opposite number O’Halloran. The tip of the ball was grounded before O’Halloran managed to hold up Evans in the left corner.
Gordon McRorie made it three conversions out of three for the hard-working Canadians, however that proved to be their final score in Dublin as Ireland, with the injection of fresh legs from the bench, stretched clear with four unanswered tries between the 59th and 81st minutes.
They immediately cancelled out Evans’ effort with Earls and Cronin combining to win the restart, the home pack hammering up towards the posts until second row and man-of-the-match Dillane powered over with a neat finish out on the left.
Further scrum pressure, this time with Dave Kilcoyne and debutants John Ryan and James Tracy on the field, laid the foundations for try number six, scored by a diving Marmion – the third Connacht player to get on the scoresheet – as the set piece advanced over the whitewash.
The Irish bench was emptied as Dan Leavy, Luke McGrath and Niyi Adeolokun all made their senior bows and Joey Carbery, who played the final 20 minutes of last week’s historic victory over New Zealand, entered the fray along with experienced lock Donnacha Ryan.
As Canada struggled to get back into scoring range, Ringrose and Kilcoyne were at the heart of the pacy attack that led to O’Halloran’s 77th-minute try, the young centre and replacement prop piling forward with ball in hand before quick recycling and Carbery and Ringrose’s pinpoint passes put the Galway man diving over by the left corner flag.
Carbery went close with the difficult conversion and also watched his injury-time kick come back off the right hand post, although Ireland were already through the 50-point barrier – for the third successive home match against Canada – thanks to new hooker Tracy’s dummy and scramble over the line, following more good work by the eager Kilcoyne and McGrath.
Giving his reaction to his young, new-look side’s performance, Ireland head coach Schmidt said afterwards: “We knew that Canada would put pressure on us and we probably weren’t as cohesive as we’d have liked to have been after a couple of trainings. But it was great to see the players keep their cool and build back their lead.
“It was good and bad really. There was some really good patches and it was good to see those (new) players out there, but at the same time there was some messy patches and I think the error count stacked up.
“There’s a few guys out there who did quite well. It was good to get some of the experienced guys some minutes up and at the same time some of the younger guys impressed.”
With the focus now switching to new Saturday’s rematch with New Zealand, he added: “I’ll have a look at the footage and that’ll give me a better indication, along with the other coaches, and we’ll get together and have a look at training.”
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