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Feb 6

Ireland 21 Wales 23: match report

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Only Pearson will know why his recommendation was yellow and not red. The Wales coach, Warren Gatland, admitted immediately after the game that “Bradley was very lucky not to get sent off”. He made no attempt to defend his player thereafter.

Then, in the last minute, with Ireland desperately defending a one-point lead, Stephen Ferris bent down low and launched in to a tackle on Ian Evans and definitely lifted him momentarily off the ground, with the lock’s hips above his head although the momentum of the tackle after that was more sideways than downwards.

Nor did Ferris lose control of his opponent as he took him safely back to ground as the laws say he must. It was, however, a careless, high-risk tackle given the circumstances which left him wide open to the referee’s interpretation of the incident.

Ireland, in truth, can have few arguments about the resulting penalty which Leigh Halfpenny stroked home to win the game but the home crowd reacted angrily when Ferris received a yellow card, thus putting his tackle on a par with that of Davies in the context of the game.

The tip-tackle incidents aside, Gatland also insisted afterwards that Wales were a “bit lucky” to win but frankly he does his side a disservice.

Despite being weakened by injuries before the game and losing captain Sam Warburton to a dead leg at half-time, Wales tore into Ireland with that exhilarating brand of fearless athleticism we grew to love in the World Cup. In George North on the wing they now have a “go-to” player who will scare any defence in the world.

“I thought we were a bit lucky, we have been a bit unlucky in the past. we didn’t play as well as we can, only 80 per cent of what we are capable of doing,” said Gatland.

“But I thought we showed some great character and North was absolutely world-class on the wing. We had a big weight advantage behind the scrum and we have to make it work for us. We also showed a lot of character when we needed to.”

Wales were a runaway train in the first half and how they turned round 10-5 will remain one of rugby’s great mysteries.

In one remarkable passage of play Davies, Mike Phillips, North and Ryan Jones all went agonisingly close to scoring in short order – the latter only losing out on a video decision TMO – as Ireland defended for their lives. The gauntlet was being thrown down mentally and physically and the game would have been lost there and then for Ireland.

Having seemingly weathered the storm, Ireland will therefore be disappointed to have then conceded a try down the blindside.

In fairness, a brilliant offload by Rhys Priestland was deserving of reward and the impressive Jonathan Davies made no mistake, touching down in the corner for the first of his two tries.

Priestland, enjoying mixed fortunes, rattled the woodwork with his conversion attempt and again hit the post moments later with a relatively simple penalty attempt.

Ireland, taking encouragement, hit back with a well-worked converted try for Rory Best to add to Jonathan Sexton’s earlier penalty.

The second half saw Sexton and Halfpenny swap penalties before a staggering burst in midfield and back-of-the-hand offload from North created Jonathan Davies’s second try.

The game was in the balance when the Bradley Davies tip-tackle incident occurred and a fired-up Ireland went upfield soon after to score through Tommy Bowe which seemed to herald a home win.

But back came Wales again with North forcing his way over amid a pile of green jerseys. Halfpenny missed the conversion and still Ireland led by one point which you fancy they should have been able to defend but the drama was far from over. And the repercussions are probably just beginning.

Match details

Scores: 3-0 Sexton pen (2 mins); 3-5 J Davies try (14); 8-5 Best try (37); 10-5 Sexton con (37); 13-5 Sexton pen (44); 13-8 Halfpenny pen (54); 13-13 J Davies try (55); 13-15 Halfpenny con (55); 16-15 Sexton pen (60); 21-15 Bowe try (68); 21-20 North try (76); 21-23 Halfpenny pen (78).

Ireland: R Kearney (Leinster); T Bowe (Ospreys), F McFadden (Leinster), G D’Arcy (Leinster), A Trimble (Ulster); J Sexton (Leinster), C Murray (Munster); C Healy (Leinster), R Best (Ulster), M Ross (Leinster), D O’Callaghan (Munster), P O’Connell (Munster), S Ferris (Ulster), S O’Brien (Leinster), J Heaslip (Leinster).
Subs: D Ryan (Munster) for O’Callaghan (63), R O’Gara (Munster) for Sexton (74), E Reddan (Leinster) for Murray (77). Not used: S Cronin (Leinster), P O’Mahony (Munster), T Court (Ulster), D Kearney (Leinster).

Wales: L Halfpenny (Cardiff Blues); A Cuthbert (Cardiff Blues), J Davies (Scarlets), J Roberts (Cardiff Blues), G North (Scarlets); R Priestland (Llanelli Scarlets), M Phillips (Bayonne); R Gill (Saracens), H Bennett (Ospreys), A Jones (Ospreys), B Davies (Cardiff Blues), I Evans (Ospreys), R Jones (Ospreys), S Warburton (Cardiff Blues, capt), T Faletau (Newport Gwent Dragons)
Subs: P James (Ospreys) for A Jones (70), J Tipuric (Ospreys) for Warburton (41), J Hook (Perpignan) for Cuthbert (41). Not used: K Owens (Scarlets), A Powell (Sale), L Williams (Cardiff Blues), S Williams (Scarlets). Sin Bin: B Davies (65)
Referee: W Barnes (England).

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Ireland 21 Wales 23: match report

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