Ireland 27; Wales 17
SCORERS Ireland - Tries: Stockdale, Crowley, Conan, Osborne Cons: Crowley 2 Pen: Crowley. Wales - Tries: Carre, Botham Cons: Edwards 2 Pen: Edwards.
Ireland is on something of a fact-finding mission about itself. Clearly we are not as good as we appeared against England or as bad as we showed against France.
Hopefully we are a bit better than we’ve shown against Italy and finally against Wales on Friday night as mediocrity will not see us compete against high-riding Scotland this weekend after their excellence in putting 50 points on the scoreboard against France in Murrayfield on Saturday.
That said, Ireland’s performances must also be measured against the fact that Italy have now beaten Scotland and England (in the latter instance, for the first time ever) so Ireland’s hard fought win last week against them might be better than it first appeared.
Ireland star Tadhg Beirne was quick to point out, as was man of the match Jack Conan that Friday’s victory was “a proper Test match against Wales” with Lions Man of the Series Beirne also pointing to how good Ireland’s defense was in keeping their opponents at bay in what he termed a different type of positive performance.
“It was a challenge we put to ourselves, to get that physicality part right and be where we were against England. Today I thought the physicality piece was brilliant from us. I thought we met them every time in defense. They [had] some really good patches. Unfortunately, we let a few tries in and we'll have to look at those, but I'd be pretty pleased with the physicality part and how we played today,” he said on television after the game.
The lock, who went into the back row late in the game, further explained: “He [Farrell] was saying that if we keep at it and we actually work together more as a team in terms of our shape, rather than going to the lines on our own, I think the spaces would open up. We felt like they were probably over-folding at times and there was space on the negative sides. So we were kind of just saying to look out for those moments and just to get the first try and then try to build a score from there.
“But you've got to give credit to them. They came back into it and unfortunately [we] leaked a try there and it ended up being quite a tight game. We were probably overplaying in our half a little bit and giving them opportunities to turn the ball over or put pressure on us.
“So it was very much let's be smarter in terms of the tactical battle and just keep pounding the rock because it felt like when we had the ball, we had a lot of opportunities to score. So it was just about getting the ball in the right areas of the field,” he added.
With all sides now taking points from each other in the Six Nations, it is never a bad night when you win a game and take a bonus-point as well.
We were nowhere near as spectacular or as attractive to look at as when we dismantled England in Twickenham a fortnight previously.
Indeed, it will probably take the outcome of the coming weekend’s game against the Scots before we can properly evaluate our season — a defeat would mean a mediocre series while a win would see us win a Triple Crown and be alive for a championship win — depending on how result goes between France and England in Paris. That game is always hard to predict but Irish fans will be hoping that the English avoid a fourth loss in a row.
Head Coach Farrell picked a side that normally would be played against weaker opposition but by night’s end Wales had proven themselves to be an improving outfit.
It meant Ireland had to dig deep with the personnel on view before eventually getting the four tries through from Jacob Stockdale, Jack Crowley, both in the first half, and from Jack Conan and finally Jamie Osborne in the second moiety.
After the feel-good scores from Stockdale and Crowley and the disappointment of a Conan first-half effort being chalked off after prop Tom O’Toole was adjudged to have knocked on in the build up, it was Wales who took over and were bringing the game to Ireland.
This culminated in Rhys Carre getting in for an excellent solo try late in the half to leave just two points in it at the break 12-10.
The home side needed a good start after the break to restore confidence and got it when top man Conan used his bulk and heft to squeeze over for a tonic score. Wales had tasted the good wine though and kept coming back for more and were rewarded when James Botham touched down to leave it precarious on the scoreboard once more for Ireland.
Indeed the thought of an upset victory began to surface in the mind. That thought was very much alive until full-back Jamie Osborne was released at the end of a slick move to touch down for the bonus try and Wales were condemned to a 15th successive defeat in that moment.
Ireland: J Osborne; R Baloucoune, G Ringrose, S McCloskey, J Stockdale; J Crowley, J Gibson-Park; T O'Toole, R Kelleher, T Furlong, J Ryan, T Beirne, J Conan, N Timoney, C Doris (capt). Replacements: T Stewart, M Milne, T Clarkson, J McCarthy, J Van der Flier, N Doak, C Farrell, C Frawley.
