5 hours ago
4
Never in the Five and Six Nations history between Ireland and Wales have the scales been so lopsided as they prepared to play in Dublin. When referee Karl Dickson wrapped it up on a beautiful spring night those scales had shifted. Not quite enough to give Wales a win they would have celebrated like a Championship, but enough to leave their hosts as shaken as they were stirred.
You couldn’t claim Ireland didn’t deserve to win given their dominance and efficiency in that last quarter of the field, but it was a battle that will force Andy Farrell to revisit the quality of Ireland’s attack.
Top of the list for Steve Tandy surely was to get through the opening negotiations without conceding key points. That one went south inside six minutes when Jacob Stockdale chose a perfect line to punish Dan Edwards from close in. If Wales were concerned about the absence of Sam Costelow then that didn’t look good; and if some questioned the presence of Stockdale then that too was good for the winger. That it was his 20th try emphasised his pedigree.
It’s hard to know how Wales would have reacted longer term if they had conceded again on 11 minutes when Jack Conan got over. To go 14 points down so quickly would have been a load on their backs. To avoid that second try on a TMO intervention was a lifeline. And how they reacted.
What unfolded was a really good contest where Wales defended accurately and persistently, shutting off Ireland’s back door options, and picking off three points through Edwards at the first opportunity.
It was a clear signal of intent from the away team, backed up by huge resistance. It forced Ireland to shift from back door to front door, though it looked as enervating for the carriers as the defenders. At times like that you check the resources on the bench.
By half time the picture had changed significantly: 12-10 in Ireland’s favour. Alex Mann had played his part in saving a certain try with a goalline interception at the end of the first quarter, as did Rhys Carré in time added on. His burst for the Irish line, leaving his direct scrum opponent Tadhg Furlong in his wake, was one he will relive and retell for as long as he has breath in his body. Wales looked part exhausted, part refreshed, as they headed to the changing rooms.
For Andy Farrell and his captain, Caelan Doris, the challenge was how to balance their choice between direct and out the back in their phase attack. Their try for Jack Crowley seven minutes before the break had come after a mountain of work, so either there had to be an easier way or they would run out of juice. The alternative was that the sheer effort for Wales would do them in.
The try for Conan on 44 minutes – it needed sign-off from the TMO – suggested they would stick with direct selling for the moment, enjoying the extras for Crowley given it was close to the posts. Did 19-10 feel like a comfortable lead for Ireland? The barometer that is the mood of the crowd suggested otherwise, that they would need a tilt in Ireland’s favour from the bench.
When Tom Clarkson and Joe McCarthy got their freedom to join in, just before the hour mark, it coincided with Wales’s second sustained visit of the half to the Ireland 22. Turning pressure into points has not been their strong suit, but when James Botham squeezed over by the posts it allowed Edwards to make it a two point game.
This was well removed from the script – a nail-biting final quarter – where Ireland needed a dubious bonus point try by Jamie Osborne which featured two critical passes from Stockdale: one forward; one not. For Crowley to miss the conversion was a self-induced stress.
With one game to go in this campaign Farrell will be acknowledging that if necessity is the mother of invention then injury is opportunity’s best friend. If not for the crisis at loosehead he would never have opted to shift Tom O’Toole across the front row. Or to revise his opinion on Stuart McCloskey or Robert Baloucoune, both of whom were excellent again here. O’Toole’s workrate in this battle was first class and his scrummaging was not an issue.
At the end of the November series did he reckon that by spring Ulster would look a lot like Ireland dressed in white? The unprompted stuff comes in the shape of Edwin Edogbo, Nathan Doak and Tom Stewart being part of the club that will have access to international tickets for the rest of their natural born lives.
Against Scotland next Saturday the coach will be fishing in the same pond of players – 33 across the four games so far – hoping that it’s enough.
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