Injuries Take Toll As Ireland ‘A’ Suffer Bristol Defeat

‘A’ MEN’S INTERNATIONAL MATCH:

Sunday, February 23 –

ENGLAND ‘A’ 28 IRELAND ‘A’ 12, Ashton Gate, Bristol
Scorers: England ‘A’: Tries: Ollie Hassell-Collins, Jack van Poortvliet, Greg Fisilau, Penalty try; Cons: Charlie Atkinson 3, Penalty try con
Ireland ‘A’: Tries: Shayne Bolton, Hugh Gavin; Con: Nathan Doak
HT: England ‘A’ 14 Ireland ‘A’ 5

Coached by Mike Prendergast, the Ireland ‘A’ team went with a six-two bench split, and a cruel run of luck saw both of their out-halves, Ciarán Frawley and Harry Byrne, sidelined after head injury assessments.

Diarmuid Barron (HIA), Oli Jager, and Shane Daly, who was stretchered off with a worrying hamstring injury, also unfortunately had their time on the pitch cut short.

This was the first Ireland ‘A’ fixture since November 2022’s clash with the All Blacks XV in Dublin. In comparison, twelve members of the English squad brought together by Lee Blackett had played for England ‘A’ last year against either Portugal or Australia ‘A’.

Despite struggling at lineout time, Ireland ‘A’ hung in there with some tenacious defending to only trail 14-5 at half-time. Alex Kendellen and centres Hugh Gavin and Jude Postlethwaite were among the players to impress as the visitors had to continually rejig.

Connacht’s Shayne Bolton also had some big moments, taking his 17th-minute try well after Postlethwaite’s decoy run had opened up the space for Frawley and captain Max Deegan to brilliantly put the winger over in the left corner.

Ireland ‘A’ had gone close to scoring before that, with props Jack Aungier and Tom O’Toole both held up, but the home side added to an Ollie Hassell-Collins effort when their captain Jack van van Poortvliet darted through a gap for a slick solo score.

At that stage Byrne had to go off on the back of Daly’s injury-enforced loss, meaning Leinster scrum half Fintan Gunne entered the game on the wing with Tommy O’Brien shifting to full-back.

In worsening soggy conditions during the third quarter, Prendergast’s side dug in defensively despite struggling for territory and the stop-start nature of proceedings.

The excellent Gavin and O’Toole, who was part of a dominant Irish scrum in the first half, intervened to keep the scoreline at 14-5. Number 8 Sean Jansen maintained a high work-rate, particularly as the team’s leading ball carrier.

However, with Frawley leaving the pitch by the hour mark, the visitors had more reshuffling to do and ended the match with Doak at out-half, Gunne in his usual scrum half role, and Deegan having to fill in on the wing.

Just under seven minutes from the end, a more cohesive England ‘A’ effectively sealed the result when replacement Greg Fisilau broke clear from a ruck to grab their third converted try. It was a score that was coming, with George Hendy denied earlier on by a knock-on.

Darragh Murray had also done well to hold up Tarek Haffar, and Ireland ‘A’ rallied with a quick-fire score from Gavin, who muscled his way over after an initial maul had gone close. Doak’s well-struck conversion brought it back to a nine-point deficit.

Nonetheless, England ‘A’ made it a four tries-to-two victory with a subsequent penalty try. Deegan was adjudged to have deliberately knocked on Jack Kenningham’s pass to a hat-trick-hunting Hassell Collins.

The Ireland ‘A’ captain watched the final moments from the sin bin, but led the team very well in tough circumstances. Despite the injuries, it was still a very useful run-out in green for players who are hoping to be involved in the senior team’s summer tour to Georgia and Portugal.

With Andy Farrell, Simon Easterby, and IRFU Performance Director David Humphreys amongst the crowd at Ashton Gate, Prendergast was pleased with how his injury-hit team stuck together against an English outfit with a lot of Premiership experience in their ranks.

“We had a bit of a mix of youth and experience, that middle-aged group, guys who’ve been capped and just to see some of the depth and how, I suppose, in terms of the rugby IQ I was really impressed,” said the Ireland ‘A’ head coach.

“Collectively the lads stuck in there. All the adversity, all the changes that went on, guys coming off, our ability to stick in the fight was really, really good.

“Performance wise, I though Alex Kendellen was really, really good and played 80 minutes, Nathan Doak played really well, Hugh Gavin in midfield carried really well, he’s a robust player. Those are probably the three players but, collectively, they all stuck in there and stuck together.”

He added: “We never like losing, no one does. We’re a competitive nation and to lose the game is obviously really disappointing. I suppose if we’re honest, a lot of things didn’t go our way in terms of losing three players to HIA.

“I hate looking for excuses but I haven’t been involved in a game that has this much disruption. We lost two 10s and a couple of guys stayed on who were carrying injuries.

“Look, sometimes that’s the six-two (split) and there’s always going to be risk but there was a reason we went for it.

“We knew that England ‘A’ were going to be physical and we needed a bit of oomph off our bench. We probably unloaded our bench earlier than we imagined and that happens.

“I couldn’t fault the effort of the lads for sticking in there and you could see it in the second half, the penalty count in the first 20 minutes started to go high and we ended up with someone like Max Deegan on the wing as well.

“It’s challenging enough already having people in for a week and getting them together. Then you’re asking people to learn different roles on top of what they’re trying to get done in a week. A good learning for all of us, me, the staff, the players included.”

ENGLAND ‘A’: Joe Carpenter (Sale Sharks/West Park Leeds RUFC); Tobias Elliott (Saracens/Harrow Rugby Club), Max Ojomoh (Bath/Chippenham RFC), Will Butt (Bath/Wimborne RFC), Ollie Hassell-Collins (Leicester Tigers/Newbury RFC); Charlie Atkinson (Gloucester/Oxford RFC), Jack van Poortvliet (Leicester Tigers/North Walsham RFC) (capt); Phil Brantingham (Saracens/Northern FC), Curtis Langdon (Northampton Saints/Hornets Rugby Club), George Kloska (Bristol Bears/St. Brendan’s RFC), Hugh Tizard (Saracens/Guildfordians RFC), Tom Lockett (Northampton Saints/Northampton Saints), Tom Pearson (Northampton Saints/Bromyard Rugby Club), Jack Kenningham (Harlequins/Richmond RFC), Alfie Barbeary (Bath/Banbury RUFC).

Replacements: Gabriel Oghre (Bristol Bears/Walcot RFC), Tarek Haffar (Northampton Saints/Grasshoppers RFC), Luke Green (Northampton Saints/Richmond RFC), Richard Capstick (Exeter Chiefs/Taunton Rugby Football Club), Greg Fisilau (Exeter Chiefs/Devonport Services RFC), Will Porter (Harlequins/Amersham and Chiltern RFC), Jamie Shillcock (Leicester Tigers/Southam RUFC), George Hendy (Northampton Saints/Shipston-on-Stour RFC).

IRELAND ‘A’: Shane Daly (Cork Constitution FC/Munster); Tommy O’Brien (Blackrock College RFC/Leinster), Jude Postlethwaite (City of Armagh RFC/Ulster), Hugh Gavin (Galwegians RFC/Connacht), Shayne Bolton (Connacht); Ciarán Frawley (UCD RFC/Leinster), Nathan Doak (Banbridge RFC/Ulster); Tom O’Toole (Ballynahinch RFC/Ulster), Diarmuid Barron (Garryowen FC/Munster), Jack Aungier (Clontarf FC/Connacht), Evan O’Connell (Young Munster RFC/Munster), Darragh Murray (Buccaneers RFC/Connacht), Max Deegan (Lansdowne FC/Leinster) (capt), Alex Kendellen (UCC RFC/Munster), Sean Jansen (Connacht).

Replacements: Stephen Smyth (Old Wesley RFC/Leinster), Paddy McCarthy (Dublin University FC/Leinster), Oli Jager (Munster), Conor O’Tighearnaigh (UCD RFC/Leinster), Alex Soroka (Clontarf FC/Leinster), Fintan Gunne (Terenure College RFC/Leinster), Harry Byrne (UCD RFC/Leinster), Brian Gleeson (Garryowen FC/Munster).

Referee: Ben Breakspear (WRU)