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Wales simply irresistible

Wales - 32 Ireland - 20: A great day for Wales, a bad day for Ireland, and a good day for rugby

Gerry Thornley Millennium Stadium
Mon Mar 21 2005 - 00:00

Wales - 32 Ireland - 20: A great day for Wales, a bad day for Ireland, and a good day for rugby. The haven of rugby football, as the departing Irish manager Brian O'Brien described Wales beforehand, were in heaven again. The Red Dragonhood have a new generation of legends playing a brand of rugby which had an irresistible force about it in Cardiff on Saturday.

As was always the fear when Wales cranked up the heat in the third quarter Ireland couldn't live with them. Throw in a deflected drop goal by the pin-up boy Gavin Henson, a charge-down try, Anthony Foley unluckily putting a foot on the line when denied a try and it assuredly felt that the rugby gods were with the boys chasing destiny.

In truth, the multi-accomplished Tom Shanklin again had a far bigger impact than the celebrated, spike-haired, shaven-legged Henson; sizing up Brian O'Driscoll for fun, piercing the Irish line to create the game-sealing try for Kevin Morgan in trademark fashion.

Johnny O'Connor, the baby of this venerable, hugely experienced Irish team, did more than anyone to beat back the red tide with his constant willingness to get his hands on the ball and take it on. Simon Easterby for once augmented his customary work-rate with some offloading and rumbles of his own and Foley did as much as anyone to set an improved tone for the Irish pack.

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Yet they were still shaded by the dynamism of Michael Owen in particular, and Ryan Jones, while Martyn Williams's support play and link play have made him the openside of the tournament. Stephen Jones was error free in pulling the strings, and nowhere was Wales' willingness to inject pace into the game more evident that in Dwayne Peel's rapid-fire tap penalties. Contrast that with the deliberate way Ireland took penalties to touch until the last quarter of catch-up rugby born out of desperation.

Wales had particular joy attacking Ireland's porous 10-12 channel, both before and after the 51st minute replacement of Ronan O'Gara with David Humphreys yet, if the truth be told, Wales didn't scale the heights of their wins in Paris or Murrayfield. Famed though the Red Dragons' game is for their ability to unload the ball before contact, in the tackle or off the ground, bizarrely, the statistics will show that Ireland had more offloads than Wales.

Perhaps because they fell behind after 17 minutes to that Gethin Jenkins charge-down try, Ireland seemed almost compelled to take on Wales at their own game. They had started promisingly, running hard at Wales through the target runners, kicking for territory and putting pressure on the Welsh lineout in the manner we had come to expect from them until the games against England France.

O'Gara duly opened the scoring before Henson's fortuitous drop goal and Jenkins' charge-down try off an O'Gara punt changed the complexion of the game completely. But whereas in Murrayfield Ireland had responded to falling behind by turning the screw even tighter through their lineout and maul, here they virtually abandoned the tactic which had obliterated Wales just 12 months ago. That one is hard to fathom.

Opting far more for off-the-top ball to run at Wales, with O'Driscoll running latterly as chief playmaker, the ploy worked best when Kevin Maggs blocked Henson for Denis Hickie to ghost through the gap off the captain's inside offload. The out-of-sorts Geordan Murphy brilliantly provided the link for Girvan Dempsey, and Stephen Jones might easily have been yellow-carded for killing the ball after the tackle. But otherwise when Ireland had the ball, you almost felt Wales were just as dangerous, because of the stealth with which they latched on to mistakes.

And boyo, were there plenty of them. Most obviously there was that charge-down try, to which can be added Murphy kicking the ball out on the full, Peter Stringer doing likewise, O'Gara kicking a restart dead, forwards getting in front of another restart, Easterby giving away a penalty at a Welsh lineout on their line when grappling the catcher, Malcolm O'Kelly giving one away on an Irish throw for a blatant shove, Shanklin cutting through the 10 channel (one of 14 Welsh line breaks, yet Ireland are credited with missing only seven tackles) and, most infuriatingly of all, failing to control a five-metre scrum after that move which led to Dempsey being held up short.

And all that was in the first half alone. So Wales went into the break buffeted and comforted by a 16-6 interval lead. Ominously, they had yet to start playing.

Paul O'Connell's bust up with Robert Sidoli showed he cared, but it only got Wales' dander up. Shanklin smashed into O'Driscoll in a seismic moment, the Welsh pack mauled off a Brent Cockbain take and Owen made off, all this culminating in Shanklin straightening through a gap between Humphreys and Kevin Maggs for Morgan to score.

At 29-6 down with 20 to go, Eddie O'Sullivan brought on some runners and all the replacements, Marcus Horan, Donncha O'Callaghan, Eric Miller and Humprheys, had their due impact. There were a few passes which came with red crosses on them, but tries for Horan and Murphy earned a modicum of self-respect.

SCORING SEQUENCE: 3 mins: O'Gara pen 0-3; 13: Henson drop goal 3-3; 16: Jenkins try, S Jones con 10-3; 23: Henson pen 13-3; 31: S Jones pen 16-3; 35: O'Gara pen 16-6; Half-time: 16-6; 43: S Jones pen 19-6; 51: S Jones pen 22-6; 61: Morgan try, S Jones con 29-6; 66: Horan try, Humphreys con 29-13; 76: S Jones pen 32-13; 77: Murphy try, Humphreys con 32-20.

WALES: K Morgan (Dragons); M Taylor (Llanelli Scarlets), T Shanklin (Cardiff Blues), G Henson (Ospreys), S Williams (Ospreys); S Jones (Clermont Auvergne), D Peel (Llanelli Scarlets); G Jenkins (Cardiff Blues), M Davies (Gloucester), A Jones (Ospreys), B Cockbain (Ospreys), R Sidoli (Cardiff Blues), R Jones (Ospreys), M Williams (Cardiff Blues), M Owen (Dragons). Replacements: J Yapp (Cardiff Blues) for A Jones (70 mins), R McBryde (Llanelli Scarlets) for Davies (72 mins). Not used: J Thomas (Opsreys), R Sowden-Taylor (Cardiff Blues), M Phillips (Llanelli Scarlets), C Sweeney (Dragons), S Parker (Ospreys).

IRELAND: G Murphy (Leicester); G Dempsey (Leinster/Terenure), B O'Driscoll (Leinster/Blackrock, capt), K Maggs (Ulster/Belfast Harlequins), D Hickie (Leinster/St Mary's); R O'Gara (Munster/Cork Constitution), P Stringer (Munster/Shannon); R Corrigan (Leinster/Greystones), S Byrne (Leinster/Blackrock), J Hayes (Munster/Bruff), M O'Kelly (Leinster/St Mary's College), P O'Connell (Munster/Young Munster), S Easterby (Llanelli), J O'Connor (Wasps), A Foley (Munster/Shannon). Replacements: D Humphreys (Ulster/Dungannon) for O'Gara (51 mins), M Horan (Munster/Shannon) for Corrigan, E Miller (Leinster/Blackrock) for Foley (both 59 mins), F Sheahan (Munster/Cork Constitution) for Byrne, D O'Callaghan (Munster/Cork Constitution) for O'Kelly (both 63 mins). Not used: G Easterby (Leinster/Blackrock), G Duffy (Harlequins).