Felix Jones scores

By Gary Watton
November 20 2014

After the impressive triumph against the mighty Springboks eight days earlier, Ireland followed those heroics with a convincing victory against Georgia. The men from eastern Europe may be much smaller fish than the South Africans, but they were a potential banana skin, not least against an Ireland reserve team.

The hosts only led nine-nil at the interval, courtesy of a trio of penalties from the excellent Madigan, but there was always the feeling that one try might lead to another, and when the vistors were handicapped by one man in the sin bin, the home team capitalised with an avalanche of six second-half tries. The replacements Ah You, Copeland, and Olding all enjoyed superb cameos, while Dave Foley justifiably earned himself the man of the match accolade.

More than merely a glorified practice session, this contest was an opportunity for several fringe players to stake a claim to get upgraded to the first XV's matchday squad and to force themselves into the reckoning for the forthcoming Six Nations and World Cup tournaments. Foley and Madigan certainly did their utmost. Admittedly the latter is highly unlikely to displace the world-class Sexton, but he has now cemented his place as a worthy understudy and a possibility for a berth in the centre, especially with Jared Payne unavailable for the Australia encounter.

The only bad news was the discovery of a brain-related injury for Ulster's Chris Henry which is liable to render him unavailable for a few months. However, as this tremendous win demonstrated, Ireland do indeed possess strength in depth, and once again have exploded the myth that without O'Driscoll they cannot cope. Australia will be a definite step up in class this weekend, but the Irish have the personnel to avenge last November's disappointing defeat. Ireland have now been elevated to number three in the IRB world rankings. Let us hope that they can produce a performance befitting their lofty status.

IRELAND 49 Georgia 7; at Dublin; 16th November 2014

15 Jones (2 TRIES)

14 Gilroy

13 Cave replaced by Olding (TRY)

12 D'Arcy

11 Zebo (TRY)

10 Madigan (3 penalties, 5 conversions) 

9 Reddan (captain)

8 Diack

7 O'Donnell

6 Ryan

5 McCarthy

4 Foley

3 Ross

2 Strauss (TRY)

1 Kilcoyne (TRY)