Six Nations: Ireland 27 Wales 17
Ireland duly backed up their bonus-point win over England and set up a Triple Crown shoot-out with Scotland on Super Saturday, while keeping their title hopes alive, but not surprisingly they didn’t scale the heights of Twickenham.
What’s more, a revived Wales played with bundles of pride, no little physicality and ambition, so much so that the Aviva crowd were fully engaged by a full-on Test match.
One again, the unpredictability of the Six Nations delivered. Despite a very bright start, Ireland could never establish a commanding lead or any degree of comfort.
Ireland beat a dogged Wales side under the lights at the Aviva
Unlike Twickenham, they couldn’t dominate the air and that has a huge effect on any game nowadays. Some of the handling was a little inaccurate, yet there was still loads of intent and brilliant attacking interplay and that the game sizzled from first to last was a credit to the Welsh. They helped make the Aviva feverish. Alex Mann made over 30 of their 240 tackles.
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Ireland had to dig deep, their defence as much as their attack winning this game. Jack Conan had 15 carries for 47m and made 13 tackles, while Rónan Kelleher, Tom O’Toole and Tadhg Beirne put in some huge shifts, as did Stuart McCloskey, while Robert Baloucoune was the most dangerous player on the pitch.
Ireland exploded out of the traps and as the waves of green attacks mounted, carrying hard into contact, they generated rapid ball with their accuracy at the breakdown, with loads of short passes intermingled with some offloading.
When Dan Edwards kicked dead from halfway, this was compounded by Tom O’Toole winning a scrum penalty, which Crowley kicked toward the corner. Cue Stuart McCloskey being launched up the middle to get Ireland on to the front foot and after 10 phases Jacob Stockdale took a strong outside-in line to break Edwards’s tackle and score, Jack Crowley converting, for what was the centre’s fourth try assist of the championship.
The prospect of a handsome Irish win briefly looked likely when Conan crashed over after another high tempo, 13-phase attack but it was ruled out on review for a previous fumble at the base by O’Toole.
Whereupon, Ireland pushed the envelope a tad, McCloskey’s long pass finding grass before Louis Rees-Zammit kicked a 50-22 off a quick throw, which led to Edwards opening their account for offside.
Nor were Ireland converting inside the Welsh 22. Dewi Lake completed a wonderful turnover to end another Irish siege, Tomos Williams’s long kick being chased for Mann to be awarded a penalty without evidence of a release. But two more tap penalties, their main source of tries, eventually led to McCloskey and Caelan Doris holding up Rhys Carré over the line.
Conan also won a fine turnover penalty in the jackal after a big hit by Nick Timoney, while in a compliment to the Welsh defence, which had upped its intensity and was cutting off the edges to Ireland’s attack by pushing hard off the outside, Ireland went route one as Nathan Doak debuted, temporarily replacing Jamison Gibson-Park.
[ Ireland’s fragility in the scrum was evident again against WalesOpens in new window ]
But on returning, Gibson-Park undid another Irish siege with a long skip pass which Mann picked off and nothing epitomised Wales’ defiance more than Dafydd Jenkins holding up Conan.
But a lineout steal by Beirne proved pivotal, Ireland battering the Welsh defence deep inside their 22 some more – the Tadhgs, Furlong and Beirne, particularly prominent – before Crowley dummied to Stockdale to take the tackle of Ben Carter and score. His poor conversion was a pity.
Yet Wales weren’t done, Williams tapping an indirect scrum penalty 45m out before they began to generate numbers out wide, Carre showing a remarkable turn of foot to beat Baloucoune’s initial tackle and finish from outside the 22, as Furlong struggled on the inside and Jamie Osborne loitered without intent.
The score was loudly hailed by the visiting supporters, though reduced in number by the Friday night kick-off and many home fans had left their seats. That left it 12-10 at the break after a ferocious first half.
A clever, pacy break by Baloucoune enabled Ireland to make inroads early in the second half, and Gibson-Park quickly tapped a penalty to feed Furlong. Beirne steamed on to the ball, as did Ryan, before Conan went over Edwards to score despite another review. Crowley’s conversion pushed Ireland 19-10 clear.
The introduction of Nicky Smith, a tricky scrummager with whom Ireland have had issues, then sparked a fight on the deck with a furious Furlong and then a scrum penalty to the corner. Cue thunderous Welsh attacking and Irish defending, Mann making inroads before Botham burrowed over to make it a two-point game again.
The Irish bench arrived, a mixture of experienced ballast and relative callowness at this level. Joe McCarthy made a critical intervention when snaffling a deflected high ball and chipping deftly ahead. Josh van der Flier’s running and passing skills then came into play as he sparked an interchange between Crowley, Stockdale, Conan and Gibson-Park in a narrow blindside corridor.
After some softening up by the forwards, the backs used an advantage play for Osborne to score off Stockdale’s pass. It was a superbly worked try, worthy of the bonus point, but inexplicably Crowley missed the conversion to leave it 24-17.
But Williams was binned for having illegally slowed down the ball and after a McCarthy lineout steal and a lovely interchange between the outstanding Baloucoune and Ciarán Frawley led to Botham being penalised for offside.
Crowley’s penalty meant the Aviva, after fully 77 minutes, could finally heave a collective sigh of relief. Phew.
SCORING SEQUENCE – 6 mins: Stockdale try, Crowley con 7-0; 17: Edwards pen 7-3; 37: Crowley try 12-3; 42: Carre try, Edwards con 12-10; Half-time 12-10; 44: Conan try, Crowley con 19-10; 63: Botham try, Edwards con 19-17; 68: Osborne try 24-17; 77: Crowley pen 27-17
IRELAND: Jamie Osborne; Robert Baloucoune, Garry Ringrose, Stuart McCloskey, Jacob Stockdale; Jack Crowley, Jamison Gibson-Park; Tom O’Toole, Rónan Kelleher, Tadhg Furlong; James Ryan, Tadhg Beirne; Jack Conan, Nick Timoney, Caelan Doris (capt). Replacements: N Doak for Gibson-Park (24-32 mins, 76), J McCarthy for Ryan, T Clarkson for Furlong, J van der Flier for Timoney (60), T Stewart for Kelleher, M Milne for O’Toole (both 64), T Farrell for Ringrose, C Frawley for Stockdale (both 69)
WALES: Louis Rees-Zammit; Ellis Mee, Eddie James, Joe Hawkins, Josh Adams; Dan Edwards, Tomos Williams; Rhys Carre, Dewi Lake (capt), Tomas Francis; Dafydd Jenkins, Ben Carter; Alex Mann, James Botham, Aaron Wainwright. Replacements: N Smith for Carre, O Crackwell for Wainwright (both 46 mins), A Griffin for Francis, R Elias for Lake, A Beard for Carter (all 57), L Hennessey for Mee (70)
Yellow card: Williams (69 mins)
Referee: K Dickson (ENG)
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