Finlay Bealham's incredible 'double-shift' against All Blacks does the Connacht tight-head credit
"I got a mouthful of water and then unfortunately for Tom he went down and I knew I was back on.."
Finlay Bealham didn't just put in one solid shift against the All Blacks at the Aviva, he put in two!
No sooner had Andy Farrell decided his Connacht star had done enough and called him ashore in the 58th minute than he had to go back on in the 59th as his replacement Tom O'Toole picked up an injury right off.
Bealham barely had the water bottle ready for a deserved drink when he was being dragged back to the sideline "I only got a bare sup..." he noted afterwards of a match that he knew was going to be 'absolute war' from the get-go.
READ MORE: Ireland 13-23 New Zealand: Andy Farrell's side suffer rare home defeat in rusty performance
READ MORE: Ireland v New Zealand: Player ratings as hosts outplayed at Aviva Stadium
Completing 79 minutes on the night against such bruising opposition was a worthy return from Tadhg Furlong's stand-in.
"I got a mouthful of water," said a tired tight-head, "and then unfortunately for Tom he went down and I knew I was back on. I tried to get my head around that and get into the action.
"It was a tough, tough game physically. I was blowing a bit at the end but it was tough.
"Physically they are right up there, they're a world class team with some unbelievable individuals and they were really good in terms of ruck pressure, and we couldn't get into our flow attack-wise.
"Every time you play them you know it's going to be an absolute war, and today was a war again. They were the better team on the night.
Bealham is confident Ireland can regroup by next Friday as they face Argentina at the same venue.
"We've world class coaches, world class players, and we want to analyse it properly and see where it went wrong and things we can improve on. There are a few areas, like discipline and a few things in the tackle.
"It's hard to remember everything from the game. It was a disappointing dressing room. It's always tough to lose at home. We got into a huddle and just said 'No sulking'. We'll get on with it and learn from the mistakes we made.
"We have an incredibly tough test match against Argentina next Friday and we'll look to fix the stuff we can be better at, get back on the horse. We'll look back on it and analyse it and fix it for next week. I'm sure, knowing the group, we'll fix a lot of that.
"Everyone is obviously bitterly disappointed. Look, we are not feeling sorry for ourselves, there's still three games to go in this series, and we'll dust ourselves off."
Get the latest sports headlines straight to your inbox by signing up for free email alerts.
Related
Share this page
Guest Posts by Easy Branches
