Ireland managed their second victory in the Autumn International series tonight. Declan Kidney’s side ran out 41-6 winners over a weak Fiji at the RDS. The scoring started early first from the boot of Leinster’s Jonathan Sexton who must have been under massive pressure to keep a smile on Declan Kidneys face. The penalty kick was successful in the high wind and rain and put to rest any nerves that Sexton would have had. The first Try of the afternoon came on 18 minutes, after 3 scrums in a row on the 5 meter line, Eoin Reddan supplied Keith Earls with a lovely flick and Earls spotted a huge gap in defence and was under the posts to give Sexton an easy conversion. Fiji in the first half had 3 kicks at goal but only one of them went over from the boot of Nicky Little. Ireland went in with a 13-3 lead at half time lead.
Ireland came out all guns blazing for the second half with the impressive Jonathan Sexton kicking down the throats of the opposition. A penalty soon came on 45 minutes for Fiji though, Little knocked over the ball from the Ireland offside which had the score at 13-6. Things looked a little bad for Ireland after the loss of Denis Leamy in the lead up to that penalty Ireland were back on the front foot a minute later Sextons restart. Baikeinuku at 12 tries to get through midfield. As the ball goes out the line O’Driscoll intercepts from a Little pass and under the posts again easy conversion for sexton and Ireland were at 20-6. It was plain sailing from there on and Ireland got another try a 8, 9 move almost put O’Leary in. The play was then switched to the left wing. The ball then went through the hands from O’Driscoll to D’Arcy and Earls got a second try, going over unmarked on the left. Sexton kicked from the touchline outside the 22-metre line and got it! an improved scoreline 27-6. The try scoring didn’t stop there, Great trys from Rob Kearney and the returning Shane Horgan and further conversions from Sexton gave the final score a much respected score 41 points to six. One more game for Ireland, they welcome Tri Nations champions South Africa to Croke Park.
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