Wales vs Ireland - Six Nations

First topic message reminder :

Date - Saturday 2nd February 2013, KO 13:30
Venue - Millennium Stadium, Cardiff Wales

Coverage - Watch live on BBC One NI, BBC One HD
Internet - http://www.bbc.co.uk/sport/0/rugby-union/
Radio - BBC Radio Ulster
Replay the Game - BBC iPlayer

Wales Team

15 L Halfpenny
14 A Cuthbert
13 J Davies
12 J Roberts
11 G North
10 D Biggar
09 M Phillips
01 G Jenkins
02 M Rees
03 A Jones
04 A Coombs
05 I Evans
06 A Shingler
08 T Faletau
07 S Warburton (capt)

Replacements

16 K Owens
17 C Mitchell
18 P James
19 O Kohn
20 J Tipuric
21 L Williams
22 S Williams
23 J Hook


Ireland Team

01 Cian Healy
02 Rory Best
03 Mike Ross
03 Donnacha Ryan
05 Mike McCarthy
06 Peter O'Mahony
07 Sean O'Brien
08 Jamie Heaslip (c)
09 Conor Murray
10 Jonathan Sexton
11 Simon Zebo
12 Gordon Darcy
13 Brian O'Driscoll
14 Craig Gilroy
15 Rob Kearney

Replacements

16 Sean Cronin
17 Dave Kilcoyne
18 Declan Fitzpatrick
19 Donnacha O'Callaghan
20 Chris Henry
21 Eoin Reddan
22 Ronan O'Gara
23 Keith Earls



TOURNAMENT RECORD

MATCH FACTS

HEAD-TO-HEAD
These two nations have clashed on 118 occasions since 1882. Wales have 65 wins; Ireland 47.

Wales have won their last three Tests against Ireland; two in the Six Nations, one at the 2011 Rugby World Cup.

Since 1985 Ireland have won 10 and drawn one in Cardiff, with Wales picking up just two wins.

Legendary Irish fly-half Ronan O'Gara has scored 100 points in 14 appearances against Wales. O'Gara and centre Brian
O'Driscoll are the record caps holders for Ireland against Wales.

WALES

Have lost their last seven games, their worst run since 2003 (when they lost 10 on the spin).
Should Ireland win this fixture, Wales would have lost five consecutive home games for the first time in their history (they lost four at home during that 10-defeat run back in 2003).
Have scored just seven tries in their last seven matches.
The Wales pack retained possession at 96% of their own put-ins during last season's Six Nations. However, they did win just 22 scrums across the whole tournament - fewer than any other side.
Alex Cuthbert made seven clean breaks in last season's Six Nations, more than any other player.

IRELAND

Prior to the win over Argentina in their final match of 2012 Ireland had lost five straight Tests, scoring just two tries in the process (this excludes XV versus Fiji). It was their worst run since 1998.
Ireland were top points scorers in last year's Six Nations, racking up 121 in total (an average of over 24 per match). This included 13 tries, the most they had scored in the competition since 2007.


Games played between Ireland and Wales: 118 18.13%
Games won by Wales: 65 55.08%
Games lost by Wales: 47 39.83%
Games drawn: 6 5.08%

Most wins in a row for Wales over Ireland: 5

Most wins in a row for Ireland over Wales: 5

Average Pts Per Game 13

Heaviest Defeat 3rd of Feb 2002 Ireland 54 - 10 Wales

Recent Record between Ireland and Wales

2012 - Ireland 21-23 Wales
2011 - Ireland 10-22 Wales (RWC)
2011 - Wales 19-13 Ireland
2010 - Ireland 27-12 Wales
2009 - Wales 15-17 Ireland
2008 - Ireland 12-16 Wales

Why didn't Philips leave that?

Wales have really found their mojo again.Ireland must hit back with the next score.

I wonder if there'll be a citing then? No news about the incident earlier, but I definitely saw Sexytoes with his hands over his face.

Think Sexton got trodden on, not sure how severe it was as he seems undamaged now. If you're going to deliberately slow the ball down though close to your line then you take the chance of these things happening.

Live by the sword...

Just saw a replay, nothing in it but you can understand why Ireland wanted to try to highlight it and maybe milk a pen.

Cari wrote:I wonder if there'll be a citing then? No news about the incident earlier, but I definitely saw Sexytoes with his hands over his face.

It looked like a welsh player who was on the ground in the ruck

wow wales..


GREAT GAME!!!!!

Ireland on the ropes here. They look knackered

Wow Poite gave us a penalty that's a rare event this half

At least we can put to bed that Phillips is a scrum half

God, Ireland are so passive defensively! You can't just stand off a team with so many strike runners and let them run at you. Its ridiculous.

Massive difference a yellow card has made.

Ah OK, I didn;t actually see what happened...

Wow, game on! imagine if Wales had started like this...

Sob as hooker?

Mon Jonny, get us going again here.

Notch wrote:God, Ireland are so passive defensively! You can't just stand off a team with so many strike runners and let them run at you. Its ridiculous.

Agree. The D has been very poor.

Great spirit from Wales now!

Has Phillips come off? TF for that.

Golden wrote:

Cari wrote:I wonder if there'll be a citing then? No news about the incident earlier, but I definitely saw Sexytoes with his hands over his face.

It looked like a welsh player who was on the ground in the ruck

It was a welsh player with blue head gear on. He was pushing on the ruck, not sure if he knew where he was putting his feet.

Yeah, Phillips is off.

No support for o brien

That was stupid from O'Brien. He just ran hard at them with absolutely no regard to support.

Spear tackle by North?

What's with the welsh players screaming at the ref.

What kind of throw in was that?

Grind this out Ireland.

Garry Owen????? Why

Shocking lineout again. Oh Gilroy gets the ball...he's been quiet in this match.

MON Ireland! Slow it down FFS! Get Rory back on and finish this. He is a huge loss.

Great fight back by the Welsh but not sure if they have enough time...

Squandered a try scoring chance and now a lineout. Idiots

Penalty to Wales cause SOB lost his head again.

Horrendous decision again from the refs. Committed to tackle.

Don't think that was a pen

What a rediculous decision by poite

Disgraceful decision from the ref given nothing to Ireland this half

Another schitt lineout. Good attacking position wasted.

It really is the battle of who is the worse coach in many way. Ireland lost last year because we stood off them and let them run at us and build momentum.

How are we defending against them this year?

I thought it was a pen, he left his feet after the ball was kicked.

Best back on

Some awful charity decisions going to Wales. Why cant we get a decent ref v Wales?

Thank God Best is back.

SirJohnnyEnglish wrote:Disgraceful decision from the ref given nothing to Ireland this half

SOB thing wasn't a pen on replay in my opinion, but was such a close call that you can't really blame Poite.

C'mon Rory. I'm annoyed by how we've lost our compsure this half. Who is 15 points ahead again? Come on lads.

Are Ireland loosing it?

Fitzpatrick on

Literally nail biting stuff

I don't think Wales can win this now, but get another score to make it respectable, lads....

No try, that hit the base of the post!

Try surely

Feck sake another yellow