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Ireland A take Churchill plate

Sunday 22nd June 2008

Ireland A have won the Plate final of the Barclays Churchill Cup, downing the Argentina Pumas 33-8 at Toyota Park in Bridgeview, Illinois.

Jonny Sexton led the Irish way with an 18-point haul and a full house of scoring, with a try, conversion, two penalties and a dropped goal.

Sexton slotting a simple 18-metre effort from dead centre of the posts to give his side the early lead, and Denis Fogarty peeled off a rolling maul after seven minutes to make it 8-0.

Sexton landed two more penalties in a stagnant first half to make it 14-0.

A sustained period of pressure coming from an Irish ruck right on half-time finally saw the ball released down the line where outside centre Darren Cave was tackled but managed to touch down for Ireland's second try of the game. Sexton converted to put the Irish into a healthy half time lead of 21-0.

Argentina started the second half brightly, seeing one penalty from Ignacio Mieres drift wide, and another - as a result of a fight - hit the target. Mieres missed another shortly after, in Argentina's best spell of the game.

A great break from Ireland's inside centre Keith Earls in the 63rd minute saw a great interplay that ended with Sexton scoring a try under the posts. The fly-half converted his own score and Ireland were on the front foot again at 28-3.

Argentina scored their first try of the afternoon with a well-timed pass that had Gabriel Ascarate across in the 69th minute. The conversion was missed by Mieres.

Ireland sealed the game with a well-worked try from the midfield, with Ian Keatly touching down in the corner. The conversion was missed but Ireland won convincingley 33-8.

A late brawl marred proceedings, with Juan Pablo Lagarrique and Michael Ross sent off by USA referee Chris Henshall.

The scorers:

For Ireland A:
Tries: Fogarty, Cave, Sexton, Keatly
Cons: Sexton 2
Pens: Sexton 2
Drop goal: Sexton

For Argentina Pumas:
Try: Ascarate
Pen: Mieres

Ireland: 15 Denis Hurley, 14 Mark McCrea, 13 Darren Cave, 12 Keith Earls, 11 Brian Tuohy, 10 Jonny Sexton, 9 Frank Murphy, 8 Roger Wilson, 7 Johnny O'Connor, 6 Neil Best, 5 Bob Casey, 4 Donnacha Ryan, 3 Michael Ross, 2 Denis Fogarty, 1 Cian Healy.
Replacements: 16 Tom Court, 17 Sean Cronin, 18 Trevor Hogan, 19 David Pollock, 20 Paul Marshall, 21 Ian Keatley, 22 Fergus McFadden.

Argentina Pumas: 15 Lucas Barrera Oro, 14 Gonzalo Comacho, 13 Juan Ignacio Gauthier (C), 12 Federico Amelong, 11 Francisco Merello, 10 Ignacio Mieres, 9 Francisco Albarracin, 8 Alejandro Abadie, 7 Genaro Fessia, 6 Augustin Creevy, 5 Felipe Aranguren, 4 Juan Pablo Lagarrique, 3 Juan Pablo Orlandi, 2 Rodrigo Maria, 1 Daniel Rodriguez.
Replacements: 16 Francisco Gomez Kodela, 17 Felipe Bettolli, 18 Leonardo Senatore, 19 Federico Genoud, 20 Lucio Lopez Fleming, 21 Benjamin Urdapiletta, 22 Gabriel Ascarate.

Referee: Chris Henshall