At the finish it wasn’t readily apparent who was at the end of yet another enervating season and who was not even at the halfway point. It can get like that when the margins are tight and the mind takes over. For Australia they were trying to get beyond break-even in their campaign, another brick in the defensive wall against the Lions next summer. Ireland were in similar statistical mode: two from four this month would not have been a good look. With the bean counters at their end-of-match positions, Ireland managed to avoid that.
In a week dominated by Andy Farrell picking a novice at No 10, it was fitting that another from the same age bracket nudged Ireland into the safe zone. The replacement hooker Gus McCarthy brought something extra to a game where it was badly needed. His late try off a maul put Ireland in credit. By then the other new kid on the block, Sam Prendergast, had played a hugely positive part in a game ruined by the time wasted to set scrums, and the number of handling errors that led to those scrums. Somewhere in between those two pitfalls was a game of rugby looking for some attention. So, far from perfect, but something positive for both sides to take away.
