Opening score: Simon Zebo
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Ireland produced a brilliant first-half display to clinch the opening fixture of the Six Nations with a 30-22 win over Wales in Cardiff.
A dire performance from Wales in the opening 40 minutes left them with a mountain to climb in the second-half, at which they threw everything to bounce back from a 30-3 scoreline to 30-22 in an utterly dominant half.
Ireland appeared to mentally crumble under the depth of their 27-point lead, producing brilliant defence at times but unable to escape their own half as Wales pounded away at the visitors try line, falling short of cutting down the whole deficit in a classic.
Superb hands from Brian O'Driscoll built the opening opportunity for Simon Zebo to touchdown in the left hand corner for the first score of the afternoon, with Jonathan Sexton converting.
Sexton's control with the boot and sharp hands from the Irish backs kept Wales pinned back and after a set of punishing phases, Ireland were held up in the right-hand corner. Wales held out from the resulting phase of play and Sexton settled for a penalty to stretch the lead to 10-0.
Best then charged down Biggar's kick before gathering the loose ball and sending the ball wide first to Heaslip before an audacious bit of skill from Zebo saw him use his feet kept the attack going, Cian Healy pouncing from close range to leave Wales on the ropes.
Another Sexton penalty stretched the lead to 20-0 with half an hour gone, Wales imploding with another loose pass from Davies going straight into touch in the Irish 22. Healy's attempt to drive out of his 22 resulted in a penalty at the breakdown to Wales, with Halfpenny putting his side on the board.
Warburton's cheap block on Zebo handed Ireland another attacking lineout, with O'Brien setting the foundations for a final flourish in the first half. Another penalty against Wales at the breakdown yielded one more opportunity for Sexton, who slotted the kick to leave the half-time score at 23-3.
Ireland carried on where they left off at the start of the second half, a scrum on the Welsh 22 setting up a series of relentless drives before O'Driscoll clawed his way over the line from the bottom of a ruck for Ireland's third try.
A response from Wales was essential and it came through sustained drives forward into the Irish half, hard yards culminating in a Welsh lineout five metres out from the try line. A pre-planned move saw Toby Faletau held up narrowly short, before Alex Cuthbert found space between the rushing Irish defenders to score the first try of the afternoon for Wales.
Cuthbert's score seemed to light a fuse under Welsh backsides as they went for broke, Faletau storming down the left touchline before a crucial hand from O'Driscoll brought the surge to a halt.
A tap penalty sent Wales backwards rather than nearer to the line as the Irish defence turned desperate, Gilroy producing a memorable tackle on Halfpenny before Romain Poite sent Rory Best to the sin-bin for entering from the side.
The extra space was then capitalised on by Halfpenny, the full-back burrowing under the double tackle of Rob Kearney and Jamie Heaslip to score in the right corner, missing the conversion to make the score 30-15.
There was to be no let up in the Welsh response as Cuthbert thundered down the right wing, but breakdown defence from Healy was enough to relieve the pressure with a penalty.
A crucial Welsh scrum yielded a penalty for Biggar to find the corner once more, Ireland mentally struggling with the hosts resurgence. Faletau appeared initially to crash the ball against the base of the post, falling marginally short as Conor Murray was sent to the bin.
Wales were utterly dominant but unable to cross the Irish line, Davies missing a simple overlap as the green wall heroically held firm with time running out.
The hosts inevitably came again though - Craig Mitchell appearing to dive over the line before the TMO confirmed Wales third try of the afternoon, narrowing the score to 30-22.
Ireland finally relieved the pressure by pinning Wales deep in their own half to close out a brilliant opener to this year's tournament - a classic with each side forcing the other into submission for lengthy periods in each half. Ireland march on dreaming of a title. Wales have hope.
Man of the match: Streetwise, skilful, a magnificent return to form from Brian O'Driscoll stole the show in Cardiff.
Moment of the match: An outrageous piece of footwork from Simon Zebo to control possession in the build-up to Ireland's second try.
Villain of the match: Unnecessary petulance from Mike Phillips after being brought back from a tap penalty was needless.
The scorers:
For Wales:
Tries: Cuthbert, Halfpenny, Mitchell
Con: Halfpenny 2
Pens: Halfpenny
For Ireland:
Tries: Zebo, Healy, O'Driscoll
Cons: Sexton 3
Pens: Sexton 3
Yellow Card: Best, Murray
Wales: 15 Leigh Halfpenny, 14 Alex Cuthbert, 13 Jonathan Davies, 12 Jamie Roberts, 11 George North, 10 Dan Biggar, 9 Mike Phillips, 8 Toby Faletau, 7 Sam Warburton, 6 Aaron Shingler, 5 Ian Evans, 4 Andrew Coombs, 3 Adam Jones, 2 Matthew Rees, 1 Gethin Jenkins.
Replacements: 16 Ken Owens, 17 Paul James, 18 Craig Mitchell, 19 Olly Kohn, 20 Justin Tipuric, 21 Lloyd Williams, 22 James Hook, 23 Scott Williams.
Ireland: 15 Rob Kearney, 14 Craig Gilroy, 13 Brian O'Driscoll, 12 Gordon D'Arcy, 11 Simon Zebo, 10 Jonathan Sexton, 9 Conor Murray, 8 Jamie Heaslip, 7 Sean O'Brien, 6 Peter O'Mahony, 5 Mike McCarthy, 4 Donnacha Ryan, 3 Mike Ross, 2 Rory Best, 1 Cian Healy.
Replacements: 16 Sean Cronin, 17 Dave Kilcoyne, 18 Declan Fitzpatrick, 19 Donncha O'Callaghan, 20 Chris Henry, 21 Eoin Reddan, 22 Ronan O'Gara, 23 Keith Earls.
Comments
jamesliveinhope says...
@carpelone - thought ALL refs had pretty good games over the weekend, the stamping thing was a matter of interpretation but generally they were good (even Rolland, who I'm having a few problems with of late)
Dare I say it, but I wonder whether the "no penalties" approach being adopted by coaches is making the the refs job a little easier
Posted 09:23 04th February 2013
carpelone says...
Bad news for Ireland. Kidney has just secured his job for dour more years.
Posted 23:04 03rd February 2013
carpelone says...
Scotland permitting, the wooden spoon decider.
I agree that Poite was not good. He allowed the Irish to slow the game too much, he did not punish the stamping from the Welsh in the second time.
Best was outstanding, Gilroy a revelation, BOD a legend (although Cuthbert's defence was questionable on that memorable offload).
It was a massively entertaining game, well done to both teams.
Posted 23:02 03rd February 2013
shrimps says...
@ new_j4a
you put up the money, i'll let you know. or you could find the answer on your own. oh boy, if i went on to list all his mistakes id be on this website for a very long time tonight. i was just listing some of his more obvious ones in respons to jon's comment, and i have neglected a few more bad ones. he even mentioned the knock on on purpose which the irish scrum half made but he did not mention the ones of the welsh which included one when they were defending their tryline which was a more severe penalty and by all technicalities a yellow card.
Posted 21:22 03rd February 2013
norm says...
Lacroix
I will assume your prediction about your mighty boys in blue putting 50 on us was before this afternoons display?
Posted 20:24 03rd February 2013
jamesliveinhope says...
this match was worth it for the Zebo footwork (thought that it was a fluke until I saw the slo-mo).
Wales looked imprecise Davies presumably unable to kick because he only seemed able to find touch with his passing.
@Trader2 agreed about the amount of stamping going on - Poite as a ref has an old school attitude to foul play sometimes a common sense approach, sometimes a little too loose. No-one seemed that bothered on the park yesterday but when someone gets sent-off or cited next week for the same thing,( Hartley bitten by a Frenchman - nothing, bites and Irishman - all hell breaks loose) one has to ask whether its too out of step with the rest of the IRB panel.
Personally, I think that its too easy to lie all over the ball at the moment, but equally, we cannot go back to the days where anyone off their feet is fair game for a shoeing.
Posted 19:28 03rd February 2013
Lucasrg says...
Good game,....it just sucks big time that because Ireland won...I could have 1 gran in my pocket as Italy won...betting just 15£!!!!
Posted 19:08 03rd February 2013
new_j4a says...
@shrimps, I would bet good money that you can't even tell us what a forward pass is.
Why not give us a list of errors with the minute of the game and the Law reference?
@hhlamazing who says "He doesn't have a clue about scums" Really? I bet he at least knows how to spell them. Why don't you give us a few exact errors with time and the Law reference?
Posted 18:55 03rd February 2013
shrimps says...
nonsense? not at all, they are actually very clear. the slomo replays show them perfectly as well as mr poite slightly behind play, in a great position to see them. they were shown again, before the italy game, soon after i made that comment. doesnt really matter as wale's problems are too big even for mr poite to overcome. my assumption is that poite has developed a dislike for the irish because of their habit of trying to dissuade referees from their decisions with such frequency.
france and england are only warming up. ireland dont get much better in attack with consecutive games as other teams do which is where they are so weak overall.
Posted 18:01 03rd February 2013
lacroix says...
healy was as usual suspect in the scrum and for 40 minutes he was absent. sexton created nothing ...is he 'fantastic' if he kicks his kicks?
so pite missed 'three forward passes'?? nonsense. it was a conspiracy with the lines men involved too, right? :)
great game to watch, as i said... and i'd be delighted if ireland went away thinking they'd played 'brilliantly' because if they play like that against england or france they're very likely to concede 50 points.
Posted 14:43 03rd February 2013
shrimps says...
@ jontheref
are you a welsh supporter? both teams made many high tackles. as for the irish deliberate knock on, yes he missed that but he let 2 worse ones go by welsh players, one on the welsh try line. as for yellow cards, he was completely one-sided, the best card was dubious at best and wales should have had at least as many as ireland had. mr poite seems to have simply not given them because wales committed all of their fouls in the first half. as for the scrum calls, poet usually just takes a guess, but in this match adam jones couldn't scrummage legally, either driving sideways or trying everything to drag his opposite to ground, and jenkins couldn't scrummage at all. poite still managed to miss most of their inadequate scrummaging. theres also things like 3 forward passes in a row in the build up to one wales try, where poite was in line with them and he missed every single one. and his linesmen too. he missed a whole bunch of forward passes by wales at vital moments. he missed phillips' raking of players when they weren't even in the way and the raking of jonathan sexton's face!!!! i believe that is a red card on its own. plenty more decisions wales should countthemselves lucky for being awarded. romain poite needs to cease refereeing international matches immediately for the good of rugby.
Posted 14:07 03rd February 2013
hhlamazing says...
@Froggy73. Well clearly you watched the game with a bottle of red wine in you. First half penalties Wales 7 Ireland 3. 5 of the Welsh penalties are in the red zone this clearly alone deems a yellow card. Yet not a word or warning from the ref. The against the dominant scrum he penalizes Ireland followed up by two yellow cards when the cynical offenders were Wales.
I do agree with you about the Irish constantly moaning about refs every game. It is getting old, try being gracious in victory and defeat!
With regards to your esteemed countryman knowing about a scrum. I watch enough top14 and games Poite i sin charge of, he is guessing. He doesn't have a clue about scums. Clearly you are a back as well with those remarks.
Oh and I'm American and watch all the games as a neutral.
Posted 13:36 03rd February 2013
paddy91317 says...
from experience of actually playing rugby at a moderate level its very hard to remain composed when the ref decides to forget about the rules of the breakdown and allow the attackin team to kill the contest for the ball by fallin over every ruck. While punishing every effort you make to nagate that...
Posted 12:14 03rd February 2013
paddy91317 says...
@damo
You clearly no nothing about rugby... heaslip was constantly talking to his team keeping the effort up compare that to warburton who shrank under the pressure of the first half never gathered his team once.... heaslip could do nothing in the second half because Wales decided to go off there feet at every ruck. i actually though henry made a very small contribution compared to o'mahoney... earls however I agree with you completely shouldn't be in the squad let alone match day team... as a leinster fan i can honetly say o'brien is not an 8 he doesnt have the ball control at the back of scrums or composure to read a game like heaslip.
Posted 12:08 03rd February 2013
whatisthis says...
The game was a case of 2 wrong captains. Heaslip while after turning himself into a very good blindside flanker is not a great ball carrying 8. I would play him at 6(unless ferris is fit) o brien at 8 and henry at 7. Imagine SOB running back at pace when fielding balls back in your own half. Just look at how well ben morgan did at this when he was on for england yesterday. He must have bumped off 6 or 7 tacklers. The problem is that kidney thinks there is only one number 8 in ireland and thats wht he picked heaslip for captain. Because he thinks he will always start.
Wales have the opposite problem. Warburton was anonymous yesterday. Wales revival came along when tipuric was on the field, whos link play was fantastic, as well as his carrying, for one of the smallest forwards you will see around. So what happens when lydiate is fit again. Are wales going to drop their captain for the on-fire tipuric??? not going to happen(reminds me of john smit at the 2011 world cup) I would pick halfpenny as captain. Oozes class and assuredness for a small man amongst giants. How bad would it be to have your captain scoring most of your points, alot of your tries, most of your high ball takes and alot of body on the line try saving tackles( a la o brien cut down yesterday)??? Fairly inspirational I would say...
Posted 11:38 03rd February 2013
bluechief says...
Wales don't start playing until the game is lost, when nothing is expected of them and they can cut loose. this nothing-to-lose scenario we allow to happen (going down by 10, 20 even 30 points) is becoming a ritual. They relish on being counted out, hence 3 unexpected grand slams followed by 3 mediocre follow up seasons. manage the pressure of test rugby.
I'm sick of the spirited fightback.
Posted 10:41 03rd February 2013
DaveJ says...
lacroix - wow amazing that somebody could read a game so differently to the masses. Sexton and Healy both played fantastically abd Poite, was a usual, awful. are forgetting the 3 blatant forward passes that he missed in of which lead to a try? Also FYI O'Driscoll isn't the Irish Captain so it's no longer his job to lead, Heaslips is. However I do agree that leadership was very absent for Ireland yesterday when Wales had their purple patch and Heaslip as Captain did nothing to calm down the frantic play and get Ireland back into the game. Although individually he played well. After yesterday I wish O'Driscoll had remained captain.
Posted 10:26 03rd February 2013
damo says...
@rocky15 and others,
In BOD we trust, made 1 try scored another and I did notice Heslip in the scond half when we looked comfortable going through a ruck in our 22 and then standing the Welsh side with no urgency just like he was the ref waiting for the Welsh drive so he would return back to our side, he would have been called offside onlt the ref could clearly see he was drrp in thought about the post match celebrations, anyone notice him doing anything in this game? Earls not up to it, he is the poor mans Zebo, Mcfadden far better but Cave should defo be there if not Marshall also, Wales let us dominate first 45 but they upped their game second half and if it werent from outstanding defence ($exton made countless big tackles fair play to the guy), Henry made a big impact also, Kidney sneaks a win and all is still not right in that team!!!!!!!!!
Wales were much weakened with their hooker not having played a good game for Scarlets in years, second row very weak but in reality they could have beaten us, Well done Ireland for the win, Kidney grow a pair and pick Cave next week drop Heslip for Henry SOB at 8 and we could well win this championship!!!!!!!!
Posted 10:23 03rd February 2013
jontheref says...
Ireland were deserved winners, but I note a loy of commenst about Poite.
he got a hell of a lot of scrums calls wrong.
Most of them should have gone the other way, which if it had been a closer game, would have been crucial.
He is also oblivious to choke tackles, you know the ones around the nrck?
As Phillips head was being extended by a good two inches, hard not to see!
He totally missed one Trish deliberate knock on, in the 22, and then gives a scrum for # 9's two minutes later!
he finally got the yellow cards out, after two final warnings.
I know he is French, but final means final!
Ireland played for 8o minutes.
Well done.
Howley has to take the blinkers off, and select better combinations. Too predictable.
A hooker who can hit the target would be nice, but as Mcbride is the forwards coach, and couldn't in his day, what do you expect?
Hope fully Hibbard and Ryan will be back for at least the Italy game, so that will help the forwards, but we could have imploded in the backs by then!
I predicted a long cold winter, but don't want to be right!
Posted 08:09 03rd February 2013
rocky15 says...
Ireland have finally improved their accuracy and kept the scoreboard ticking over with every visit to the Welsh 22, at least in the first half. Ireland's defence, while heroic at times, was all over the place in the second half. I'd put that down to 3 things, poor leadership, complacency and Keith Earls.
No point talking about the first two because their quite obvious.
Earls doesn't look good enough to be an international test player. The only reason he was on the bench was for his supposed versatility. But is he really that versatile? He's not much of a centre as he seemed to be lost in defence and just doesn't have the leg drive or bulk to cause much trouble for the opposition in attack. I assume he's behind Cave and McFadden for the centre spots.
Also he's no longer the best wing at Munster, and one would imagine he'd be maybe the joint 4th choice for Ireland (with Fitzgerald who's barely got two games under his belt this season) of available players. He can also cover at fullback, but I don't think he's done so at a decent level since the lions in '09.
His defence was poor. Cuthberts stroll under Ireland's post was his fault and that was a catalyst for a welsh fight back. Later in the game he was non existent leaving Zebo on more than one occasion trying to defend a 4-on-1 over lap by himself.
While D'Arcy does need to be replaced, I think he would be useful next week. But if his injury is worse than expected I fear kidney may look to Earls rather than Cave or McFadden to fill in, which will result in obliteration for Ireland next week.
Also, I'm Irish but don't think Ireland have a chance of winning the grand slam. I don't think any team will get a grand slam. England will slip up against someone as could France. We don't have a tournament winning team, but I think we will in a year or 2.
Posted 06:18 03rd February 2013