IRELAND 35-17 FIJI
Chalk and cheese compared to last week at the Aviva Stadium as much-changed Ireland maintained their winning streak with a five-try home win against Fiji's 14 men.
After the intensity and excitement of the victory over South Africa came this middle match of the series and the opportunity for Andy Farrell to mix things up for another look at some fringe men.
Seven days ago, with the contest still in the balance late on, the home crowd urged on their team with a passionate rendition of The Fields of Athenry.
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This time, though, the Mexican Wave was back in vogue with 10 minutes to go, a fair indication of how different a game this was.
The bar was set by Ireland's frontliners against the Springboks and, with nine changes on board from the start of this one, the gap between Andy Farrell's top dogs and the next best was illustrated again.
Nick Timoney's quickfire brace of first-half tries will definitely have helped his cause, Kieran Treadwell made a big first half impact while debutants Cian Prendergast and Jack Crowley did well off the bench.
But despite the four tries scored by the home side, Farrell won't be impressed given all the tries that were left behind given how much time Ireland spent in Fiji's 22.
And that with the visitors effectively down a man for over half the game, with Manasa Saulo sin-binned in the first half - leaving Fiji down to 13 for 10 minutes - and then Albert Tuisue red-carded early in the second.
The Fijians were pretty much at full strength for this one after putting it up to Scotland for an hour last week.
Along with some joyous attacking play - and two memorable tries to go with that - there was also that physicality that the Pacific Islanders are renowned for.
Joey Carbery's latest outing at 10 ended with Tuisue's reckless 46th minute challenge and Robbie Henshaw's return lasted less than five minutes, with a late HIA for Jimmy O'Brien and some injury issues for Tadhg Beirne in the last quarter could rule them out for next week's clash with Australia.
Carbery opened up with a deft chip to the left wing to Mack Hansen but, moments later, Treadwell was isolated at the ruck and Fiji's Teti Tela had a penalty attempt 30 metres out, only to miss.
However the visitors fared much better as they received Carbery's restart, with Vinaya Habosi lighting up the Aviva with a run that burned Jamison Gibson-Park on the left flank.
Ireland's defensive cover was nowhere as the ball was slipped inside by Waisea Nayacalevu to his centre partner Kalaveti Ravouvou, who cruised in behind the posts. Tela's conversion made it 7-0 to Fiji with less than five minutes on the clock.
Worse still, Henshaw was gone before Carbery could kick off again and his long-time centre partner Garry Ringrose replaced him.
The hosts needed to shake themselves into life. A promising attack ended with a Stuart McCloskey grubber into touch and, while that was better, it was panic stations again when Setareki Tuicuvu's brilliant off-load out of two tackles set Habosi free again, though Ireland shut the door this time.
And, a quarter of an hour in, they struck for the first time with the damage done from a lineout maul.
Timoney broke off to punch a hole in Fiji's cover and Treadwell trucked the ball up close to the visitors' line before Timoney finished the job under the posts, making the conversion easy for Carbery.
The hosts scored a second try within four minutes of the first, as they did last week. However Treadwell's effort was rightly chalked off as Levani Botia got in underneath the second row to prevent the grounding.
Fiji's reprieve was short-lived. Ref Mathieu Reynal showed the yellow card to tighthead Saulo for being offside in that Ireland attack, Carbery kicked the resulting penalty to the corner and it was Timoney who scored again as the lineout maul rumbled over off Tadhg Beirne's take in the air.
Carbery added the extras but Ireland's seven point lead was quickly reduced to four when Treadwell got ahead of Carbery's kick and was pinged for offside, with Tela making no mistake this time.
A third Ireland try followed after 25 minutes, a big Caelan Doris hit turning over possession and setting up a lovely skip pass from Gibson-Park to the unmarked Rob Baloucoune on the right flank.
Before Carbery could attempt the conversion, Reynal had another look at a possible Jimmy O'Brien double-movement in the run-up to the score and deemed it 50-50 and the score stood.
That was lucky for O'Brien, making his full Test debut, as he had ignored a two-man overlap to go for the try himself.
Carbery nailed the tough two-pointer for a 21-10 lead that held until the break, with Ireland missing several chances to add to their advantage.
Hansen dropped the ball forward with one defender to beat in the left corner, while on the other side Jack Conan was bundled into touch as Gibson-Park and Carbery attacked the blind side.
Then just before half-time, Hansen's chip ahead saw three Irishmen turn their sights to a fourth try only for Jiuta Wainiqolo's timely intervention into touch.
Ireland started the second half in promising fashion, only for Frank Lomani's brilliant blindside surge off a Fiji scrum in their own 22 to bring the play back into the host's half.
However the Pacific Islanders couldn't capitalise and even lost Tela, the only recognised out-half, to injury in the 44th minute.
Within two minutes they were also coming to terms with having to play with 14 men for the remainder.
Carbery delayed a pass and he was hit high by Tuisue, who made no attempt to wrap the arms and was red carded. Carbery's game was also over, but at least he was able to get up and walk off the pitch.
He was replaced by debutant Crowley and, while the young Corkman enjoyed some good moments, generally the next 15 minutes was awful to watch from an Ireland perspective as error followed error and the game was blighted by disruptions and stoppages.
The hosts' fourth try did come eventually and, in the 61st minute, Gibson-Park's replacement Craig Casey burst into space on the blindside and laid the five-pointer on a plate for Hansen.
Crowley split the posts with the tough conversion.
However just two minutes later it was Fiji who produced another show-stopper of a score as off-loads by Tuicuvu and Habosi sent sub Simione Kuruvoli in for his side's second try, with Tela's replacement Ben Volvola adding the two extra points.
Having threatened to spark into life, the game reverted to a more pedestrian pace but at least the crowd got to cheer an 11th try for sub Cian Healy in what was his 120th Ireland appearance as he latched onto Max Deegan's assist.
Crowley knocked over the conversion to complete the scoring.
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