Tight tussle: The Welsh again proved to be the Irish's nemesis
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Wales full-back Leigh Halfpenny kicked a 79th-minute penalty to break Irish hearts and steal a 23-21 Six Nations win in Dublin on Sunday.
Revenge was on the menu for Ireland following their World Cup exit against the Welsh, but defeat is what they were served at the Aviva Stadium where they have now lost three games on the trot.
At 21-15, it looked like Ireland's game for the taking with five minutes left on the clock and Wales lock Bradley Davies in the bin. However, the visitors had other ideas and cut the deficit to a one-point ball game through a George North try.
Halfpenny missed the conversion to take the lead, but held his nerve to slot over a last-gasp penalty four minutes later - after Stephen Ferris was sin-binned for a tip tackle on Ian Evans - to deny the Irish and help open his team's Six Nations account with an upset win.
Wales played with an energy that Ireland failed to match for the majority of the first half, and were desperately unlucky not to have a try awarded early on by the TMO who - after several replays - decided it was "inconclusive" after a sea of red jerseys barged over the line.
But the Welsh weren't to be denied again by the TMO following centre Jonathan Davies's well-worked try in the corner that was set up by Rhys Priestland, but which the pivot failed to convert.
Priestland, in doubt for this match before he was declared fit to play on Friday, showed no signs of discomfort from the knee injury that kept him out of action for two weeks with ball in hand.
However, he was off-target with the boot after missing his second shot at goal with a penalty attempt from bang in front that would have extended his team's lead to five points.
Instead, it was Ireland who managed to find some spark produced from a rare attack inside Wales' 22 that started with Tommy Bowe breaking the line and ended with hooker Rory Best crossing the whitewash for a crucial score before half-time.
Sexton added the extras from far out and Ireland went into the half-time sheds 10-5 in front.
Ireland opened up the second half in the same fashion as they did the first courtesy of another three points from Sexton.
Halfpenny, who had taken on the kicking duties, landed a long-range attempt in reply and centre Davies capitalised on North's bulldozing run for a superb second try.
Halfpenny converted but Wales' lead was only brief as Sexton booted a tricky penalty and, when Bradley Davies was sin-binned for tipping Donnacha Ryan on his head, Bowe soon scored in the corner after taking a magnificent pass from his pivot.
Sexton missed the conversion and a penalty - both difficult kicks - and the irrepressible North crashed over only for Halfpenny to miss the conversion before accepting the second invite after Ferris's indiscretion.
Man of the match: For Ireland, Tommy Bowe created one and scored one, while Jamie Heaslip was the pick of the Irish forwards. For Wales, Ryan Jones ran hard and offered Wales leadership when Sam Warburton had left the pitch through injury and Jonathan Davies richly deserved his two-try haul. However, wing George North was undoubtedly Wales' star man. He bullied Ireland's backline at will, showing superb skill setting up Davies's second try and tremendous strength for his own five-pointer. Who needs Shane Williams when you got this guy out wide?
Moment of the match: Take your pick... Davies' second try... Bowe's five-pointer... North's score... Halfpenny's last-gasp penalty. This game was full of them!
Villain of the match: There's two of them - Bradley Davies and Stephen Ferris, with the latter's brain implosion ultimately proving very costly indeed.
The scorers:
For Ireland:
Tries: Best, Bowe
Cons: Sexton
Pens: Sexton 3
For Wales:
Tries: J Davies 2, North
Cons: Halfpenny
Pens: Halfpenny 2
Ireland: 15 Rob Kearney, 14 Tommy Bowe, 13 Fergus McFadden, 12 Gordon D'Arcy, 11 Andrew Trimble, 10 Jonathan Sexton, 9 Conor Murray, 8 Jamie Heaslip, 7 Sean O'Brien, 6 Stephen Ferris, 5 Paul O'Connell (capt), 4 Donncha O'Callaghan, 3 Mike Ross, 2 Rory Best, 1 Cian Healy.
Replacements: 16 Sean Cronin, 17 Tom Court, 18 Donnacha Ryan, 19 Peter O'Mahony, 20 Eoin Reddan, 21 Ronan O'Gara, 22 David Kearney.
Wales: 15 Leigh Halfpenny, 14 Alex Cuthbert, 13 Jonathan Davies, 12 Jamie Roberts, 11 George North, 10 Rhys Priestland, 9 Mike Phillips, 8 Toby Faletau, 7 Sam Warburton, 6 Ryan Jones, 5 Ian Evans, 4 Bradley Davies, 3 Adam Jones, 2 Huw Bennett, 1 Rhys Gill.
Replacements: 16 Ken Owens, 17 Paul James, 18 Andy Powell, 19 Justin Tipuric, 20 Lloyd Willians, 21 James Hook, 22 Scott Williams.
Referee: Wayne Barnes (England)
By Dave Morris
Comments
curates_egg says...
Must have watched a different game to all the Munster fans here, as I thought McFadden was one of the best Irish players. POC, Best, Heaslip, Sexton, and Kearney were also good. Worst player on the pitch was Murray - worst performance I have seen out of him (box kicking, running options, passing - all very much more miss than hit).
Wales deserved to win. They played exactly the same game plan. Relied on their brutish, pacy backs and steamrolled through an Ireland that had no gameplan. Kidney's lack of nous and his threadbare coaching team were revealed.
Wales deserved to win but pity Wayne Barnes made the decisive play for them: never a penalty.
Posted 22:49 05th February 2012
Sincero says...
Well done Wales. Even if the good grace is not very evident from the Welsh fans on here, we're better than them, and better than those who moan about a referee's series of errors costing us the match. We should have been better and not given idiotic officials the chance to have a bearing on the match.
Posted 22:42 05th February 2012
rugbybutten says...
Rugby referees ...M Baise ( Lions v SA 1974 ) R Quittenton ( Wales v NZ 1978 ) Bryce Lawrence ( well any game ) ...The ref is a bigger part of the game than any player and on his decisions games are won and lost. Barnes is'nt the greatest referee but he does have conviction, yes we are entertained by forward passes but he does front up. He does let a game run. When was the last test match where we didn't crucify the ref....oh yes yesterday ..Scot v Eng ...........I'd rather watch Barnes
Posted 21:59 05th February 2012
damo says...
My last comments, kidney you were talkin about the lions, play Rog at 10, §exton 12 and give us a chance, watchin tge game again here DArcy is at fault for Wales2nd try, should have put davis over the sideline first try and failed to hold up North for their 3rd try. The ref robbed us of an undeserved win Omalley needs to be in the mix. Kidney out if Darcy starts next week
Posted 21:43 05th February 2012
damo says...
My last comments, kidney you were talkin about the lions, play Rog at 10, §exton 12 and give us a chance, watchin tge game again here DArcy is at fault for Wales2nd try, should have put davis over the sideline first try and failed to hold up North for their 3rd try. The ref robbed us of an undeserved win Omalley needs to be in the mix. Kidney out if Darcy starts next week
Posted 21:43 05th February 2012
NHsaints says...
For Ireland- there needs to be a serious replacement for BOD and soon, try bowe I remember him being pretty good at 13 and Darcy needs the boot in place of Downey to turn a sloppy midfield defence into a strong one. Last note is that Wales will have to up their lineouts and kicking game if they want to compete with France or Even Italy for that matter.
Posted 21:19 05th February 2012
giomamo says...
Match of the year? Both sides were great. Wales will be France contender for the tournement win.
Posted 20:55 05th February 2012
crunchfit says...
@MunsterRedArmy
I've never heard from Leinster fans on this website or elsewhere (or anyone for that matter) that McFadden was an outside centre. I'm not sure how others felt, but I didn't like Kidney's decision to select him there. I'm not even sure if McFadden has played there for Leinster let alone against a quality midfield in that position. Yet again, another very questionable decision.
Didn't you apologies for stirring things unnecessarily about a week or so ago? Well, not sure if you noticed but you're doing it again.
Posted 20:43 05th February 2012
mcdb06 says...
@adamk Well ROG is usually in the right place to make a tackle and gets steamrolled and he always gets a bollocking for it. But if McFadden does it its ok? Yeah you made a good point there.
Posted 20:41 05th February 2012
MunsterRedArmy says...
Congrats to Wales for a deserved win, am amazed they didnt score more tries trough their centres. Darcy, DoC didnt do much and should be released, bring in Donnacha Ryan or Tuohy! As for the 13 debate, I dont see any of the ''hardcore'' leinster fans saying McFadden is an outside centre talent and natural anymore, if Earls came up with same performance as McFadden did today we'd never hear the end of it! Sadly Earls' baby got sick and McFadden got a well deserved chance to play at 13 and show what hes made of and he blew it! Ireland needs centres like Davies, Roberts, no matter if they'r Connaught, Ulster, Leinster or Munster!! We need them fast.
POC was immense, Sexton too although he made a few mistakes, scrum did their part as always, Kearney was outstanding.
GWAN IRELAND!
Posted 20:19 05th February 2012
hewhoknows says...
Hi all,
I am pissed with loss, but if we had won it would be papering over the cracks that have been there for the past two seasons, one good performance over england last 6 nations and a win over oz in rwc 11 and we all lost the run of ourselves thinking we were great ,even rwc winners!!! ha. we have a good team but changes are a must, why not put ferris as a second row put the o mahony as a 6?, sexton is very fragile and needs some help, I am a great fan of ROG but he is not our future,god bless our centers next week and with the greatest respect to earls he will be no better than the two muppets that were there today. Let kidney sacrifice another resutl or two for finding players for the future.
Posted 20:09 05th February 2012
damo says...
Darcy is rubbish, O Callaghan does nothing Kidney should be sacked for this simple reason, he has picked the wrong teams in just about every game, ROG is a 90% kicking option and $exy is a great attacking player, Darcy is hopeless his attempt to cover Davies for the first Wales try was pityful he should have thumped him into touch instead of falling back over the line, he does nothing on attack and is hopeless in Defence, rimble was below par today but has form, we will bounce back in france if darcy and O callaghan are dropped
Posted 19:49 05th February 2012
peachlegs says...
Now hold on all these irish fans getting annoyed and saying drop this drop that kidney out etc. Ireland played pretty well at times and we were beaten by a good wales team, we looked inventive in attack and finished off most of our attacking opportunities. But for a terrible decision by barnes on ferris we could have won the game!all im saying is take it easy as there were a lot of positives!!!
Posted 19:12 05th February 2012
crunchfit says...
Not impressed by Ireland. Particularly the backs. Ireland were slow to renew the ball, to slow at the breakdown, to predictable generally. Pretty poor really. Very irritating to see club success fail to convert to national success, yet again. Where does it all go? The forwards seem clueless and disjointed, the backs are too predictable and slow. In comparison, the Welsh backs were making about 10 metres each phase in the second half. There's too much to criticise really, individually and collectively, so I'm just going to leave the team analysis it at that.
It's a shame that Ferris made that tackle in the way he did. No doubt that it deserved at least a penalty and probably a yellow, according to the current rules. The earlier tackle I would have considered a red though. It's pretty much a textbook red card as the IRB describe it. Anyway, Wales deserved the win so a red could have given Ireland the game undeservingly.
Overall, not even disappointed with the result, just disappointed with yet another failure on the part of the coaches and players. It's been like this for too long now. I'm growing a little angry toward those in control to be honest. The IRFU have been supported very well by the fans and the fan base is only growing, it would be nice if they could make some intelligent choices and give something back.
Posted 18:52 05th February 2012
KiwiJoe says...
Dogged and deserved win for Wales, never panicked or threw in the towel, great kicking from Leigh Halfpenny and a good decision to use him.
I,m sure Keith Woods heavy studio makeup was to hide his blushes. Quite right too,
Ireland now needs to dip into their Euro and Pound bailout pot and slide a good wad of these Peter de Villiers way.
This Kidney bloke is making them look like a bunch of wallies.
Posted 18:52 05th February 2012
adamk says...
@liam2me
There's a huge difference between being caught out place in the defensive line and being steam rolled by the freak of nature that is George North. Atleast McFadden was in the right place...
Posted 18:51 05th February 2012
Celtictenor says...
Well, the right team won, but only just; the score accurately reflected the closeness of the game. Wales got just about enough of the ball for their superior backs to make it count. Pity about the tip-tackle controversies; for what it's worth, I agree that Davies's tackle was worth a red card (much more so than Warburton's in the RWC), though the Irishman involved in the same incident should then have got a yellow, Ferris was mildly unlucky with his tackle, as it was clearly not malicious (rather like Warburton's).
On a happy note, wasn't the silence during both sides' penalty kicks great to hear - well done the crowd, hope other crowds copy, particularly Murrayfield's after yesterday's performance.
After a great game like that, a pleasant evening's drinking to the health and congratulations of both teams is very much in order.
Wales for the Triple Crown, and hopefully the 6N championship too; looking forward to entertaining your boys in Cardiff, JeanLuc
Posted 18:46 05th February 2012
hougiebear says...
Jonny Sexton is just not good enough for this level, the day ROG quits Ireland will be at a great disadvantage
Posted 18:41 05th February 2012
papachinzo says...
At no point during that game did I think Ireland we're going to win, well done Wales. You made Ireland look like an average side for 60+ minutes.
@liam2me
1. I agree, it should have been a red.
2. Ferris did not deserve a yellow card for that, he did nothing wrong...
3. McFadden was all over the field. I thought he had a good game considering he's only played at 13 three or four times...
Earls is defiantly a winger, No way in hell is he BOD's replacement!!
Same with Munster, any time he does something good, he's on the wing, or in a wingers position. Its an absolute waste of pace sticking him at centre.
Posted 18:37 05th February 2012
wilias says...
Well Well Well! That's for all who wrote us off! Revenge! Heineken Cup form! Ireland by 10 points! THIS IS THE SIX NATIONS!!
Ps - congratulations to Stuart Lancaster, just goes to show that caps mean nothing!
Posted 18:27 05th February 2012