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Ireland withstand late Welsh surge to move on from their Twickenham disaster
By Online Editors
Ireland bounced back from a record loss against England and boosted their World Cup preparations by inflicting a rare home defeat on Wales. Ireland's 22-17 victory meant that Wales were beaten in Cardiff for the first time since November 2017.
Wing Jacob Stockdale led the way with two first-half tries as Wales head coach Warren Gatland's final Principality Stadium Test before he departs after the World Cup ended frustratingly.
Ireland, crushed 57-15 by England seven days ago, bossed most critical areas ahead of next Saturday's return game in Dublin.
Fly-half Jack Carty added a conversion and penalty for the visitors, while his opposite number Jarrod Evans kicked a penalty before going off at half-time and being replaced by Rhys Patchell, with a second-half penalty try sealing Wales' fate.
Wales finished strongly, with debutant wing Owen Lane and Patchell claiming late tries and Patchell converting both, but it was not enough. Gatland names his 31-man World Cup squad on Sunday, yet only Lane and Patchell made strong claims for any of the few remaining places.
Ireland boss Joe Schmidt, though, will have been encouraged by his team's recovery powers following a shambolic effort at Twickenham when England crushed them under an eight-try onslaught.
Stockdale, who departed at the interval, Carty, centre Bundee Aki, skipper Peter O'Mahony and his fellow flanker Tadhg Beirne were among those that impressed.
- Press Association
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Latest Comments
Points for clever repartee ….
Go to commentsI actually think Ulster are showing a few green shoots this year. The fact that they ahve the second biggest Provincial population of 2.3 million is misleading. Half the population are unlikely to play due to background. The other half have seen a fall off in private school attendance preferring to school in GB esp Scotland and lost to the system. That will reverse in time.
The solution to the thorny issue of participation based on political background can be solved by breaking Rugby as a truly mainstream sport in the rest of Ireland and thus a sport for all no matter what background.
The QF defeat to NZ in 2023 was a devastating blow to that potential but the IRFU must truly put a lot of resources into this via coaching in ‘regular’ schools and pathways though AIL league etc.
The URC standings of Irish provinces needs a little mitigation. Each club in URC plays their home clubs twice. As Leinster have decided the best strategy to win the URC and challenge in Champions Cup is to decisively have the league phase in the bag so resources can be spared later and home matches in all KOs assured. That means Munster, Ulster and Connaught will score a combined total of zero points against Leinster. Compare that to Welsh teams who will score a combined total of 30 points against Dragons.
There is no weak Irish team so no easy points on offer. The standard has dipped a little but Connaught are good as their European campaign shows and all three will improve next year including Ulster.
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