Ireland v Wales

Ireland team

15. Ciaran Frawley (Leinster, 2 caps)

14. Calvin Nash (Munster, 3 caps)

13. Robbie Henshaw (Leinster, 69 caps)

12. Bundee Aki (Connacht, 53 caps)

11. James Lowe (Leinster, 28 caps)

10. Jack Crowley (Munster, 11 caps)

9. Jamison Gibson-Park (Leinster, 32 caps)

1. Andrew Porter (Leinster, 61 caps)

2. Dan Sheehan (Leinster, 23 caps)

3. Tadhg Furlong (Leinster, 73 caps)

4. Joe McCarthy (Leinster, 7 caps)

5. Tadhg Beirne (Munster, 47 caps)

6. Peter O’Mahony (Munster, 102 caps) - captain

7. Josh van der Flier (Leinster, 59 caps)

8. Caelan Doris (Leinster, 38 caps)

Replacements:

16. Ronan Kelleher (Leinster, 28 caps), 17. Cian Healy (Leinster, 126 caps), 18. Oli Jager (Munster, uncapped), 19. James Ryan (Leinster, 61 caps), 20. Ryan Baird (Leinster, 17 caps), 21. Jack Conan (Leinster, 43 caps), 22. Conor Murray (Munster, 113 caps), 23. Stuart McCloskey (Ulster, 16 caps)

This thread reflects the one sided nature that the game will mirror.

The Ireland team pretty much picks itself. Shame we have waited for Keenan to actually get injured rather than give someone a run out against Italy, but Frawley looks well capable. Was surprised about Jager on the bench until I heard a rumour somewhere that Bealham has very recently become a father and so has been given some time off. McCloskey's good showing against Italy gets rewarded, but it does seem a little strange with a 6/2 bench and his lack of positional flexibility. I would have thought Ringrose to bench but I guess there is enough utility elsewhere to cover for injuries.
Could be a tough day for Welsh pack with Ryan, Baird, and Conan all wanting to make impacts off the bench.

Welsh team copied from elsewhere :

Wales: Winnett; Adams, North, Tompkins, Dyer; Costelow, Tomos Williams; G Thomas, Dee, Assiratti, Jenkins (capt), Beard, Mann, Reffell, Wainwright.

Replacements: Elias, Domachoswki, D Lewis, Rowlands, M Martin, Hardy, I Lloyd, Grady.

Wales will be well and truly up for this one and I see them putting up fierce resistance to the dour predictions.
That being said I know this Ireland side will not be complacent and will not underestimate the challenge so they will not underperform like Ireland sides of old.

Ireland 33 - Wales 15

Wales U20s getting a shoeing, as expected!

Amazing to think that Warren Gatland was only 34 when he became Ireland coach. 27 years later he is still a six nations coach.

The Ireland back selection says to me that outside the 7 selected, and those injured (Ringrose, Hansen, Keenan, O'Brien)
there is no one Farrell rates highly enough to select from 10 to 15.

I would have high hopes Osbourne will make it, Hume should make it and Prendergast is one for the future.
Need some back three players to break the mould.

Wales are defending really well. Can only see this being a very heavy defeat now though.

penalty count against Wales makes it impossible for them. Discipline needs improving a.s.a.p. Plus the Ireland scrum looks awesome. Could be a long day for Wales.

Yep, scrum is a major issue for Wales and far too many pens - although tbh I think the ref also needs to look at some of the angles Ireland are coming into rucks from - there was one where an Ireland player came in on the back of a Wales player that hadn't even joined the ruck yet ...

Dying for Wales to get a few phases in and not kill their own momentum.

Penalty. Probable yellow. Def can't give a pen try thi.

Or maybe they can! Think Wales have got a little lucky 2 games in a row.

Great defence but a lucky pen to Ireland that. Wrapped his arms around the Irish player.

Good job Ireland took 2 phases there to score I that looked forward.

Oh can you go back further now?

looked forwards to me

How many penalties are Wales going to have before they get a yellow, it's ridiculous at this stage

Lowe injured or lazy?

Ryan Elias surely has to go....you cannot have a hooker who cannot throw

How Wales still don't have a man in the bin only the Italian knows. Good finish by Frawley though with everyone attracted to McCloskey

That's a yellow surely.

Ah I see only has yellows when it's a green player involved, cool

Refs had a good game overall I reckon.

Sort of feels like the ref tried to level things up a touch throughout the match however massive credit to Wales for staying in the fight all game.

Yeah maybe but as a neutral looking on I think he's been pretty reasonable and fair. Can't recall any howlers

Refs been good overall. Didn't thinknit was a pen try but most other bits he's got right.

I don't.  To be clear I don't disagree with either of the yellows he gave to Ireland but he has given none to Wales even when constant infringing in that first half and with 2 in a row right before the Frawley try, so why no yellows there.  

I am also very annoyed by his constant calling of use it and then (both teams) taking another 20 seconds, what is the point in calling use it if you aren't actually going to make them use it.

I don't think it was a penalty try either, I don't think you could say it was definitely going to be a try without that infringement.

Full Time Ireland win 31-7. Great defence from Wales throughout, showed real heart and fight. Ireland were inaccurate at times and scoreline in the end flatters a little bit but they are different class right now.

That though is same for all refs. They shout use it then go and put kettle on to make the tea before 9 even thinks of playing it. That needs tightening up.

Ref wasn't great, very inconsistent, Wales got away with constant infringement in the first half without sanction. It shouldn't have been a penalty try either.
Ireland were similarly inconsistent and clunky. They didn't look themselves at all, in part because of a really good Welsh display. Maybe it'll give them a good kick in the hole to up the ante a little.
All in all satisfied though, bonus point wins are the maximum you can get on the day even if the performance was a little lacking.

I'm still not a fan of the 6-2 split. Would prefer to see an outside back on the bench especially as Frawley can cover 10

Well done Ireland. Class display, and a great defensive effort (on top of being a potent point scoring team).

Got mixed emotions on this from a Wales point of view. Probably would have taken that result before the game! But felt it was closer during the game than the score reflected. Very sloppy defence for the last score, especially when we were a man up. Also thought we had enough possession close to the Ireland line which we didn’t convert into points/tries. Awesome Ireland defence in fairness. But if you keep running into a (green) brick wall after about 5 attempts/phases I would have liked to see some variation like a grubber through, chip over the top, kick to the wing, etc. Keep Ireland guessing. Without that they were able to defend narrow and commit men to the areas Wales were (badly) attacking, and just getting repelled.

I think we showed how we lacked real ball carriers again. Even with likes of Martin brought in they couldn’t get any go forward.

I’ve read some calls about the ref above. OK. But also when Wales were trying to batter the Ireland line, and Ireland defence should have been stood on the try line and no further forward, there were multiple players offside at lots of the rucks. Easy to close down the opposition drives when you’re offside. But nothing was picked up. So for balance, the ref missed stuff on both sides IMO.

Maine man wrote:I'm still not a fan of the 6-2 split. Would prefer to see an outside back on the bench especially as Frawley can cover 10

As I mentioned early my assessment there were no other fit backs he was prepared to trust.

Bonus points win when not really at our best, can't complain too much.
We didn't panic when down to 14 and Wales threw everything at us. Wales were good in defence and didn't let us get our normal quick ball, but 4 tries and we now have a week off till it's a nice trip to Twickenham.

Not the most cohesive performance from Ireland, but the desire to push on for the bonus point try at the end, even when down to 14, shows a good mental approach. A really gritty performance from Wales certainly ensured the lack of cohesion in attack was exposed, but as I'm sure they know they need to some big changes in their own attack.

Ireland will need to be better at Twickenham where I think England are more likely to put in a performance similar to their one in RWC semi-final than anything they have shown in the 6Ns so far.

Congrats to Ireland.

Was on a heavy weekend in Liverpool, so watched the game but was never really engaged by it as a Welsh fan. Expected a BP loss and that’s what happened. Didn’t expect Ireland not to get it until the last play though.

Hard to predict what happens with Wales now. It’s possible that we could win our last two games, but I think we could also easily finish sixth. I worry with our pack against the size of the French, but then I also think Wales could obviously target a few players like whoever starts 9.

https://twitter.com/Ringo26/status/1761833387134792025?s=20

A brilliant clip here to highlight how good Ireland are tactically now. The way Murray switches the attack from one side of the ruck to the other in order to get Lewis doing as much work as possible. Retreat onside, get into position, line speed, tackle, repeat, repeat, repeat. Just ruthless. It wears Lewis down until he can barely move.

If the defence gets narrow to compensate then they go wide. If you don't get narrower then they have a pack full of carriers and Aki to keep battering at the main gate.

Yes I’ve seen that clip a few times. Still a missed tackle from captain Jenkins that let the player score, but the gap does seem to be created by a knackered Lewis. I’m a bit surprised he was so knackered though as he was a replacement prop. I think he was only on for 30 mins! Glad he didn’t start the game if that’s the case!

On another note, I’ve just read that Wales have not kicked a penalty since the World Cup! Is that right?? I.e. we have kicked for the corner each time we had a penalty. What a change of tactics that is from Gatland, considering his previous reliance on the likes of Biggar and Halfpenny to win us games. The article pointed out that even in the World Cup massacre of Australia we still kicked 18 of the points from penalties. So far this 6N we’ve decided to leave a lot of points out there. At 17-7 against Ireland I think I read that we turned down 9 points. Seems daft. That worked well against Scotland in fairness where we got a few tries from lineouts, but Ireland were like a green wall on Saturday and we should have taken the points when we could.

That's crazy. I wouldn't have thought that to be the case, but it does seem to be right when you think about it.

I guess if Elias was still starting, they may consider taking threes

Haha, yes true!

Just read that article. Very interesting. He's quite good with some of his analysis, is Sam Larner.

https://www.bbc.co.uk/sport/rugby-union/68406956

RiscaGame wrote:Just read that article. Very interesting. He's quite good with some of his analysis, is Sam Larner.

https://www.bbc.co.uk/sport/rugby-union/68406956

Yes I follow him on Twitter. Good analysis. Makes a good (and maybe obvious) point about our lack of carriers and gain line breakers. We’re trying to play a game plan that relies on us winning the collisions and getting over the gain line. Except we’re not! Or at least, not against Ireland. Hoping we can v a France that look a bit in disarray and an Italy who hopefully have played their one big game of the tournament in the draw with France. Wishful thinking perhaps.