Your Player Ratings As Ireland Clinch Series Over Australia In Sydney
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It’s coming home.
The Landsdowne Cup is coming home to Ireland after Joe Schmidt’s men secured a huge 20-16 series victory over Australia this morning at the Allianz Stadium in Sydney.
It was a bruising Test match, with both sides leaving everything they had on the pitch. But there could only be one winner and that was Ireland, who in truth – probably just about deserved it over all across the three games.
Anyway… here are your player ratings.
Rob Kearney – 5
One-dimensional in attack and made no attempt to tackle for Australia’s second-half try. A shocker.
Keith Earls – 8
Saved Kearney’s bacon on several occasions. Solid shift.
Robbie Henshaw – 7
Is he a Test thirteen? Probably not. Much better at 12. Slipping off tackles again.
Bundee Aki – 8.5
Couple of excellent turnovers. A really solid shift from Aki. Incredible defensively.
Jacob Stockdale – 6
Couple of good line-breaks, but not great in defence at times.
Johnny Sexton – 7
Not one of his best games, but steadied the ship and kicked some valuable scores.
Conor Murray – 8
Kicked well and controlled proceedings.
Jack McGrath – 7
Solid shift but didn’t do enough to overtake Healy in the long-term.
Niall Scannell – 7.5
His throw for Stander’s try was sumptuous. Some excellent work in the loose too.
Tadhg Furlong – 7.5
Some big carries but scrum wasn’t as steady as normal
Devin Toner – 7.5
Made some very import restart catches and was effective once again in the latch.
James Ryan – 8
Tackled like a mad man and carried really well.
CJ Stander – 9
13 tackles and umpteen carries. Back to his best. Some monstrous yards.
Peter O’Mahony – 7
Only lasted 30+ minutes after a nasty collision in the air. Good shift from the captain up until then.
Jack Conan – 8
Some incredible work in defence and carried very well.
Replacements:
Jordi Murphy (for O’Mahony 29) – 7.5
Cian Healy (for McGrath ’56) – 6.5
Rob Herring (for Scannell ’56) – 6.5
Jordan Larmour (for Kearney ’58) – 7.5
John Ryan (for Furlong ’67) – 6
Tadhg Beirne (for Conan ’69) – 6
