Ireland held off a Welsh comeback to secure a 22-17 victory in the Principality Stadium on Saturday afternoon.
Two Jacob Stockdale tries along with a
penalty try saw the Irish build a 22-3 lead with 22 minutes left on the clock,
but a Rhys Patchell led fight-back from Wales left got them back within
touching distance late on.
Both teams had a decent start with Wales
dominating possession however although they couldn’t make that count as Ireland
got the scoreboard ticking with a Jack Carty penalty.
On 16 minutes they were all even as Jarrod
Evans popped over a penalty from straight in front of the posts.
Two minutes on and the Irish were in for
the first try of the game as a Carty offload allowed Andrew Conway to break
through the Welsh defence. He raced all the way to the five-metre line before
passing out left for Stockdale to touchdown.
Man of the match Carty struck the conversion beautifully from the touchline to make it 10-3 in the away side’s favour.
Evans had a chance to cut the lead but
missed from a penalty on 26 minutes.
That proved costly as two minutes on and a
poor offload from Aaron Shingler left the ball bouncing on the ground.
Stockdale didn’t need a second invitation to pounce, kicking ahead, picking the
ball up and racing over for his second try of the game.
Carty missed the resulting conversion along with a penalty from the Welsh ten metre line on the stoke of half-time to leave the score at 15-3 when the whistle blew.
Wales failed to make possession count in
the first five minutes of the second half and for the next quarter of an hour
Ireland camped inside the home side’s 22.
Ireland were dominant in the scrum and
their pressure led to a yellow card for Wales’ substitute tighthead Leon Brown
on 51 minutes.
With Wales down to 14 Ireland continued to
pressurise them and with 58 minutes on the clock Roman Poite awarded a penalty
try as the lead was pushed out to 19 points.
After then Wales dominated, hitting back
with a try six minutes later through Owen Lane, who showed great feet to finish
in the right corner. Patchell converted and suddenly it looked like a comeback
could be on.
It was Patchell who set up a nervy finish
to the game by closing a few minutes of Welsh pressure in the Irish 22 by stepping
inside Garry Ringrose and diving over for a try just left of the posts.
His conversion made it a five-point game
with four minutes on the clock. However, Ireland managed to weather the storm
and see out the game 22-17.
It was the first time Ireland have defeated
Wales on home soil since August four years ago, again in the lead up to the
World Cup and will leave the squad much happier following their demolition at
the hands of England last weekend while Wales will be disappointed not to have
won in Warren Gatland’s final home game.
The two teams meet again next weekend in the
Aviva Stadium, by which time both will have named their 31-man squads to travel
to the World Cup in Japan next month, and it is expected the pair will name
full strength teams in their final warm-up games ahead of the tournament.
Player Ratings:
Wales:
Hallam Amos (6), Owen Lane (7), Scott
Williams (5), Owen Watkin (5), Steff Evans (6), Jarrod Evans (5), Aled Davies(7);
Rhys Carre (6) , Ryan Elias (6), Samson Lee (7), Adam Beard (6), Bradley Davies
(6), Aaron Shingler (5), James Davies (6), Josh Navidi (7)
Replacements (7)
Ireland:
Will Addison (6), Andrew Conway (8), Chris
Farrell (6), Bundee Aki (8), Jacob Stockdale (8), Jack Carty (9), Kieran
Marmion (7); Dave Kilcoyne (7), Niall Scannell (7), John Ryan (6), Iain
Henderson (7), James Ryan (7), Tadhg Beirne (6), Peter O’Mahony (7), Jack Conan
(6)
Replacements (7)
