Warren Gatland’s return to Wales over the winter, following an absence of three years, was hailed as the second coming of the Messiah. After this performance, many will be of the opinion that the New Zealander, who led the country to four Six Nations titles, including threegrand slams during his first stint in charge, will need to perform a miracle if he is to turn the red ship around.
No one expected it to be easy, of course. Wales’s confidence took a battering under Wayne Pivac. And the game itself is in crisis mode in these parts with allegations of bullying, sexism and racism raising serious questions for the WRU, not to mention the state of Welsh club rugby.
Under such circumstances, Ireland were far from the perfect opening day opponents. Andy Farrell’s team are ranked the world’s No1 team for a reason. They are well drilled, with strength in depth and enviable continuity.
But even so, at the Principality Stadium, with more than 70,000 fans cheering for them, and Gatland’s reassuring presence in the dugout, Wales’s fans would have expected much more. Their optimism evaporated in a lopsided opening 27 minutes that saw Ireland score three quick tries as Wales coughed up penalty after penalty.
Never mind Delilah, Wales had no cause to sing anything. Caelan Doris and James Ryan both crossed from close range before James Lowe’s long-range interception from a loose Dan Biggar pass.
It was difficult to tell to what extent Ireland were brilliant and Wales were poor, but a penalty count of 7-1 in Ireland’s favour in that opening period tells a story. “That gave them the momentum,” Gatland admitted. “Our exits, our restarts, the intercept... our discipline wasn’t good enough.”
Gatland defended his team, saying he saw plenty of positives after the break. “I thought the second half was a huge improvement,” he said. “We spoke about our line speed at half-time, I thought that definitely improved. Discipline. When I look back I think we created enough chances but probably weren’t clinical enough. That’s the big work-on for us. But I took a lot of positives out of that performance, apart from the scoreboard.”
He was right that Wales were much improved after the break. The problem was the game as a contest was effectively over by then. Ireland took their foot off the gas, even giving Wales a glimmer of hope when Liam Williams reduced the arrears following a period of pressure. Farrell’s team regained the upper hand in the final quarter, though. Their bench wrestled back control of the contest with Josh van der Flier, the World Rugby player of the year, scoring a deserved bonus-point try late on.
Ireland did have a bit of luck on their side. Both Andrew Porter and Iain Henderson were perhaps fortunate not to see yellow, while Wales were reduced to 14 men in contentious circumstances as Williams was shown a yellow card by English referee Karl Dickson for a high tackle, with his shoulder, on Sexton. But there was no mistaking Ireland’s superiority in all facets of the game, and Gatland to his credit did not look for excuses.
British and Irish Lions coach Warren Gatland. Photo / File
“If I was Porter’s coach, I’d give him a kick up the backside,” he said of the Ireland prop’s late tackle on Liam Williams as the Wales full-back scored his side’s only try. “I’m not sure he needed to do that because [Williams] was clearly scoring the try. He probably needs a reminder that potentially that could have been a costly yellow card in a big game. But I’m comfortable with the refereeing decisions.”
With Alun Wyn Jones failing an HIA and ruled out of next week’s game in Scotland, Gatland is going to have to make changes to both personnel and performance. Perhaps this display will focus his mind. Was he too loyal to old faces?
As for Ireland, this was a significant win for them. Farrell had lost scrum-half Jamison Gibson-Park hours before the contest to a reported hamstring issue, his absence, added to those of Tadhg Furlong and Robbie Henshaw, supposedly making the game a bit more interesting on paper. But this Ireland team are a different proposition to the one which buckled under the weight of expectation of being world No1 four years ago. Veteran Conor Murray came in for Gibson-Park and was rock solid, Stuart McCloskey was immense in the centres. Hugo Keenan was the best player on the field at full back and fully deserved his Man of the Match award. The bench played their part, Ross Byrne making an immediate impact after replacing Sexton when the latter left the field after 67minutes, not long after Williams’ high tackle which saw the Leinster fly half ordered to undergo an HIA.
Amazingly, this was Ireland’s first win here in the Six Nations since Declan Kidney’s team won in Cardiff in 2013. They will turn their attentions now to title rivals France in Dublin next weekend. “A lot of things we could have used as an excuse over the last 12 days but our preparation has been top drawer,” Farrell said. “If you’d offered me a bonus-point win here I would have snapped your hand off. But the best thing is there’s plenty to fix in terms of our performance. We can get a lot better.” They will have to if they are to beat France.
