On the first day of the 2022 Six Nations Tournament, the Irish corrected the Welsh, Saturday February 5, 29 to 7. Weakened by absences, they conceded four tries to their opponents, who thus left with the offensive bonus.
The Irish, disciplined and diligent, bent the rejuvenated XV of Leek, who only saved the honor at the very end of the match with a try from Taine Basham on a stolen ball in the 76the game minute.
Twenty years following a historic rout (54-10) at Lansdowne Road, Wayne Pivac’s men have paid a high price for the absences of their emblematic captain Alun Wyn Jones, but also those of George North, Leigh Halfpenny, Taulupe Faletau, Justin Tipuric , Josh Navidi or Ken Owens.
Dubbed by Andrew Conway
“We can’t go back to the past to recover missing players, so we have to learn from today and do with the team we have today. No one will be happy with this loss. We came here wanting to win and we are all very disappointed.”, reacted the Welsh coach following the match.
Opposite Ireland were remarkably clean in the contact phases – just five penalties conceded, all in the last half hour of the game – and recited their rugby, even if there was sometimes a little waste, especially in the first period. The locals got off to a good start. Mack Hansen, voted man of the match for his international debut, lit the first fuse and, a few seconds later, transmitted a jump pass to Bundee Aki, whom the center three-quarters had only to flatten in goal (7-0, 4e).
Two failures at the foot of Johnny Sexton – unusual for him – and some badly exploited good situations meant that at the break the score did not reflect the green domination (10-0). But shortly following returning from the locker room, a fine attack from wide allowed Andrew Conway to pass Louis Rees-Zammit one-on-one and cross the line with his momentum, to give his team a little margin (17-0, 44e).
Next game for Ireland, in France
Things got even more complicated for the Welsh when Josh Adams, starting in the center, received a yellow card for a dangerous tackle on Sexton (49e), leaving his teammates outnumbered. With a lot of patience, by chaining playing times, the Irish built a third try – the second for Conway – very easy with a surplus out wide (24-0, 52e).
A nice interval catch from Garry Ringrose, following a ball lost by the Welsh near their 22 meters, then allowed the Irish to secure the offensive bonus (29-0, 59e) and a comfortable success, despite the opposing consolation try at the end of the match.
After its fine autumn series, culminating in a success once morest New Zealand (29-20), Ireland affirmed its ambitions in this tournament, following its 3e place last year. The shock in France, next Saturday, already promises to be a first turning point towards final victory. For Wales, on the other hand, the apprenticeship of young people will continue with the reception of Scotland, in a week, in Cardiff.