Not the walk in the Principality some expected, not the kind of margin the bookies forecast and Ireland’s 27-18 win over Wales on Saturday has left the door slightly ajar for England and France in the title race. Still, that only made Ireland’s coolness in the Cardiff cauldron all the more impressive and, ultimately, more beneficial too.
Struggling with 14 men (never mind the 12 that some quipped about!) when Garry Ringrose’s yellow card was upgraded to a 20-minute red, Ireland responded to an 18-10 deficit against an inspired Wales with a composed, 17-point salvo. And this was under a new captain, a 22-year-old outhalf playing his second away international and a side that finished with four Six Nations debutants.
“That’s always been part of this group’s mentality, that we try to build continuity in selection but also build experiences,” said Simon Easterby afterwards. “We got that today. There’s a lot of guys who never would have played in an atmosphere like that.
“In terms of the way the game unfolded and the way we were able to battle through some difficult situations, that will be really pleasing for us as a team. The guys that came off the bench were able to impact that game, and some of the younger players will benefit massively from that experience.”
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The victory also completed a 14th Irish Triple Crown − an eighth of the Six Nations era − as well as keeping alive dreams of both a fifth Grand Slam and an historic third outright title in a row. That said, France’s comfortable, 11-try, 73-24 bonus-point win over Italy in Rome on Sunday took them to within three points of Ireland. What’s more, their vastly superior points difference (+91 to Ireland’s +28) makes it look increasingly likely that in order to win the title, Ireland will have to win the Slam.
Reflecting on the late penalty miss against Wales by Sam Prendergast, Easterby admitted “maybe we could have gone to the corner” before adding: “But it was important that we got the result, first and foremost. Points difference might come into it in the end but if we keep winning, it won’t.”
With so much still possible for this Irish team, invariably the hype will increase several notches before the clash with France, which has effectively been the title decider for the last three seasons.
“We can’t control what goes on outside, so we’ll just focus on trying to get better and I know that sounds like a party line but it’s just the way the group are,” said Easterby.
“It’s no different each week. We know there’s something special at the end of this Six Nations but it won’t be if we don’t prepare well and get ourselves in the prime space to prepare against France.”
Easterby did not attempt to mask the flaws in this Irish performance. As testified by the 33 missed tackles, as well as conceding six line breaks, Ireland’s defence was outflanked a mite too easily.
“Yeah, we’ll need to be better,” said the interim coach of the meeting with France in the Aviva Stadium on Saturday week. “There’s things we weren’t good enough at today and we gave Wales the opportunity to get into the game but also they played well.
“They did things which we expected, and we certainly weren’t coming into the game underestimating what they could achieve with a different mentality, different coaching group. They were always going to get a bounce and we saw that.”
Easterby was confident that Caelan Doris will overcome the knee injury he sustained against Scotland, while Rónan Kelleher and Tadhg Furlong could feature too. But Garry Ringrose will probably face a two- or three-game ban after the first red card of his career (and just one yellow card with Leinster), with the interim head coach hopeful it will be the former.
“You know Garry, he’s not a malicious player. The speed at which he works is why that happened. He accelerates so hard off the line, just gets his timing wrong and unfortunately that’s it. It felt like he maybe was a bit lower than they thought and he did try to dip but not enough. We’ll have to wait and see how they view that.”
Jack Conan should also recover from the back issue that forced him off in the 44th minute. His availability would leave Easterby with a difficult decision to make bearing in mind the workrate and physicality that Ryan Baird showed in Wales and the likelihood that late withdrawal Cian Prendergast will be back in the mix. Jack Boyle also played himself into the reckoning for the France game with a nine-minute cameo on debut, while Hugo Keenan looks sure to return, with Bundee Aki likely to start and Jamie Osborne filling the bench.
Unsurprisingly, as someone who has both spent so much of his professional career living in Wales and takes pride in the Irish team’s lack of arrogance, Easterby was irked by some of the disrespectful comments about Wales in the previous fortnight.
“It’s just unnecessary. I know that’s part and parcel of people giving opinion but some people’s opinion doesn’t need to be aired. But it is,” said Easterby.
“I know that’s the way of the world at the moment but our players have been brilliant just focusing on what they can do well. We were always going to come up against a purple patch.
“As it happened, we went down a man with Ringer going off and they got a couple of scores off the back of it but I thought we found a way to get through that and Wales did exactly what we expected them to, not probably what some people thought.”
Indeed, this was a hugely encouraging day for Welsh rugby and a reminder as to what a special and often unpredictable competition the Six Nations remains.
“You wouldn’t get a game like that in other circumstances,” said Easterby. “It is such a special place to come and play. There’s not many games that don’t entertain in the Six Nations. That was another one.”
