Wales v Ireland 6N Championship Saturday 4th February 2023

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Venue: Principality Stadium, Cardiff Date: Saturday, 4 February Kick-off: 14:15 GMT

Wales: L Williams; Adams, North, Hawkins, Dyer; Biggar, T Williams; G Thomas, Owens (capt), Francis, Beard, Alun Wyn Jones, Morgan, Tipuric, Faletau.

Replacements: Baldwin, Carre, Lewis, Jenkins, Reffell, Webb, O Williams, Cuthbert.

Ireland: Keenan; Hansen, Ringrose, McCloskey, Lowe; Sexton, Gibson-Park; Porter, Sheehan, Bealham; Beirne, Ryan; O'Mahony, Van der Flier, Doris.

Replacements: Herring, Healy, O'Toole, Henderson, Conan, Murray, Byrne, Aki.

I think the stats probably reflect the likelihood that the game was over at half time and Wales turned it on for the second half and Ireland fell off a bit.

Fter the losss to Ireland how many change will Gatland ,ake for next week game? or do you think he will fo with the same side?

Collapse2005 wrote:I think the stats probably reflect the likelihood that the game was over at half time and Wales turned it on for the second half and Ireland fell off a bit.

Absolutely Ireland had won the game after 30 mins.

They will be, as am I, disappointed about the second half but at no point were they going to come back into the game.

A lot of huff and puff in the second half doesn't alter the fact it was a comfortable win.
Classic case of lies, damn lies and statistics

geoff999rugby wrote:

Collapse2005 wrote:I think the stats probably reflect the likelihood that the game was over at half time and Wales turned it on for the second half and Ireland fell off a bit.

Absolutely Ireland had won the game after 30 mins.

They will be, as am I, disappointed about the second half but at no point were they going to come back into the game.

A lot of huff and puff in the second half doesn't alter the fact it was a comfortable win.
Classic case of lies, damn lies and statistics

Yeah I was kind of annoyed by the amount of ball ireland kicked away. It looked like a case of just pinning them back in their own half and taking no risks. I can see why they went with that game plan though.

Furlong, JGP and Healy out for the France game. Caolin Blade and Michael Milne called up.
It would take some kind of natural disaster for Cooney to be called up when Blade's in front of him, even if it is as a break glass.

Nice to see Milne get a call up, another good player from Birr rugby club. Heartland Leinster rugby.

I wonder why Luke McGrath is so far down the pecking order.

After a couple of days to digest the game, I am unsure if it was Ireland switching off, Wales upping their game after 30mins or a combination of both...

What I did not like was the dive from Williams, that was poor and rightly no YC for Henderson, that has to be removed from the game.

The Williams YC, harsh for me but any contact to the head and that is the result but there was clear mitigation for me so penalty for me would have sufficed.

Porter, very lucky for me after the Williams try, it was late and I would have no issues with him seeing a YC, in fact i expected it.

Porter again, sliding in like that, unfortunate slide but he should not have attempted to tackle. Again, possible YC for him.

Ringrose, great tackle on Biggar but defensibly looked poor.

eirebilly_01 wrote:After a couple of days to digest the game, I am unsure if it was Ireland switching off, Wales upping their game after 30mins or a combination of both...

What I did not like was the dive from Williams, that was poor and rightly no YC for Henderson, that has to be removed from the game.

The Williams YC, harsh for me but any contact to the head and that is the result but there was clear mitigation for me so penalty for me would have sufficed.

Porter, very lucky for me after the Williams try, it was late and I would have no issues with him seeing a YC, in fact i expected it.

Porter again, sliding in like that, unfortunate slide but he should not have attempted to tackle. Again, possible YC for him.

Ringrose, great tackle on Biggar but defensibly looked poor.

Can we also get Sexton's crying out for a penalty before he has hit the deck removed too?

The Porter penalty was bizarre in my view, he was committed to the tackle. Shouldn't have even been a penalty. Again it involved Williams making a meal out of nothing, its no surprise he was involved in all three of the more contentious moments of the game. If anything the three Welsh guys that jumped on Porter should have been penalized as they have no excuse at all for jumping on him.

On the one hand the ref is saying that its not ok for Porter to tackle Williams marginally late but its ok for three guys to jump on Porter. Nonsense.

Collapse2005 wrote:The Porter penalty was bizarre in my view, he was committed to the tackle. Shouldn't have even been a penalty. Again it involved Williams making a meal out of nothing. If anything the three Welsh guys that jumped on Porter should have been penalized as they have no excuse at all for jumping on him. Crazy crazy decision by the ref.

It's something that World Rugby are trying to get out of the game I think. I can't remember who we played, we being the Scarlets, but Gareth Davies was told off for something similar a little while ago.

Well thats fair enough but I guess I felt it was only marginally late so while a penalty may have been justified it seems odd that three guys jumping on Porter is then ok. At least Porter was attempting to stop a try.

Even weirder that the referee team only gave a warning to Hansen for joining at the end and choose to ignore the melee created by the Welsh players.

I think we can surmise that Porter is world rugby’s new thug .

mikey_dragon wrote:I think we can surmise that Porter is world rugby’s new thug .

POM was relatively quiet in the match so they needed to create some agro elsewhere. Create a skirmish to prompt a reaction, then when the opponent has lost focus swoop in for a couple of scores to turn the game. Classic gatland tactic. A schmidt side wanted everything to be correct would get flustered with the 'mind games', farrell doesn't seem to give two fcuks and takes it as a sign that the opposition is getting desperate?

thebandwagonsociety wrote:

mikey_dragon wrote:I think we can surmise that Porter is world rugby’s new thug .

POM was relatively quiet in the match so they needed to create some agro elsewhere. Create a skirmish to prompt a reaction, then when the opponent has lost focus swoop in for a couple of scores to turn the game. Classic gatland tactic. A schmidt side wanted everything to be correct would get flustered with the 'mind games', farrell doesn't seem to give two fcuks and takes it as a sign that the opposition is getting desperate?

Indeed. Gatland could wind Schmidt up easily and it would filter through to the team. Farrell is a different animal in that regard.

It was a really soft penalty against Porter for me. In the Ireland France game a French player did a very similar challenge after Ringrose scored his try and no one batted an eyelid.

Also for the second year in a row a Welsh player has done a high hit on Sexton and been yellow carded. Last year it was Josh Adams who went in with a filthy cheap shot and this year Liam Williams who went in high.

Its always a good sign I suppose when a team is more concerned with stopping your best players I suppose than creating their own positive moments.

Adams put in a cheap shot, Williams didn’t. Sexton charged head first, not sure what else Williams could have done. If it becomes a theme then surely something should be done about players leading with their head, as we are trying to prevent head trauma right? It seems like a desperate cry for help to still be going about that and how Porter was hard done by when he wasn’t.

Sexton is a ledge, definitely a GOAT. Wales under Pivac always looked hopeless against Ireland, but Wayne didn’t have a clue. I guess it was his doing, telling the players to try and get under Irish skin, something that didn’t affect the scoreboard. Ireland are a better team now. Wales have a different coach but still looked hopeless versus Ireland.

A Question to all Irish fans as Paddy Jackson lost any hope of being in the Irish team?

Paddy is not coming back, he's clearly the best alternative to Sexton but he will never be picked for the reasons I am sure we are all aware off.

Not sure he would even want to come back considering how they treated him especially when you compare it to how Kingspan was treated by Ulster and IRFU in the aftermath of their trial

Well Chris Farrell has also been stood down for similar reasons So I suppose there is consistency there.