A big setback but all is far from lost for Ireland

SO CLOSE: Wales’ Louis Rees-Zammit dives over the line to score his sides’ second try despite the last ditch tackle of Ireland’s Tadhg Furlong in yesterday’s Six Nations clash in Cardiff.

This one will hurt, there is no doubt about that. Yet despite the twin calamities of Peter O’Mahony’s red card and Billy Burns’s late missed touchfinder, there are plenty of reasons for Andy Farrell to look forward to the visit of France to Dublin this Sunday with as much optimism as the frustration with which he will have left Cardiff last night.

Indiscipline and poor execution will forever be associated with yesterday’s opening-round defeat in the 2021 Guinness Six Nations. O’Mahony’s reckless and dangerous cleanout just 14 minutes in leaving referee Wayne Barnes with no option but to send the Ireland flanker off and leave his outnumbered team-mates 66 minutes-plus to fend for themselves. That those remaining players more than carried the fight to Wales for that amount of time in such an attritional contest at Principality Stadium is a credit to them, even more so that, four minutes into added time, they were in with a shout of stealing victory.

They had lost James Ryan to a Head Injury Assessment after 23 minutes, and captain Johnny Sexton for a similar reason on 69 minutes yet still they kept pressing for a return from this engrossing championship clash.

They had already climbed back into this contest a first time following O’Mahony’s red card, Sexton levelling the scores at 6-6 to cancel out Leigh Halfpenny’s opening penalties and then taken the lead through a superbly manufactured try finished by Tadhg Beirne to take a 13-6 interval lead.

Wales belatedly sparked into life after half-time and appeared to have the Irish licked when George North in his 99th Test for his country and then Louis Rees-Zammit, on his championship debut, finished well, Halfpenny adding one conversion.

Yet Ireland were not giving up that easily and when Burns, on for Sexton, slotted a 71st-minute penalty it was game on, the home side with a 21-16 lead. If only Burns could take that memory into camp this week rather than the one which could haunt him well into his dotage.

For the Ulster fly-half’s impact on this game will be remembered as a negative one, namely his failure to execute the 84th-minute penalty to the corner. Ireland were on the front foot and had won a penalty. They had the position to work the kick into the corner and let the forwards finish the deal from close-range but Burns inexplicably kicked the ball dead.

'You’ve got to go for it'

His effort to give his pack a five-metre platform from which to attack rather than from a more conservative distance coming back to bite the out-half and his team as Wales and head coach Wayne Pivac celebrated the end of a siege they have felt under since managing only three wins out of 10 in 2020.

“I said to him: ‘You’ve got to go for it’ and he did,” said a sympathetic Sexton, who had also missed touch minutes prior to his departure.

“As a 10, you have moments when you’re a hero and you have moments when you’re a villain. You put yourself in those moments, that’s the responsibility that you have. If you kick the ball to the ‘22’, that’s worse for me than trying to stick it five metres out and it not coming off. He’ll learn and he’ll go again.”

Whether Burns gets the chance to do so this weekend when France roll into Aviva Stadium with a recent history of ruthlessly punishing such indiscretions will depend on the benevolence of Ireland boss Farrell and whether Sexton comes through his return to play protocols.

Ross Byrne, the third fly-half in the current squad, will wait with interest.

Much like the team’s fortunes, individual longevity in Test rugby can come down to fine margins and Sexton concentrated on the former last night before Ireland left Cardiff still without a Six Nations win in the Welsh capital since 2013.

“At international level, it’s gutting, we spoke at half-time that it was going to come down to small things and we didn’t get enough of those right. It could have been a very famous victory for us. To go down to 14 so early, and any time you play Wales in Cardiff it’s an incredibly tough game, and to do it with 14 men would have been incredibly special but it wasn’t to be.

“It’s all small things. I know we say it a lot but we’ve the exit scrum and we make a great half break by Garry (Ringrose) and on another day the offload sticks and we’re attacking again 13-6 up and flying. It’s small things.

You always feel that, you always look at the team and yourself and think there’s things you could have done better. 

"At the same time, it was incredible, you wouldn’t have known we were playing with 14 men if you were looking at the game, so very proud.”

Farrell, too, praised his players’ efforts, for they forced Wales into twice as many tackles as they made, took the game to them and played with creativity and steel for the most part, including at the previously maligned lineout where Paul O’Connell’s input as the new forwards coach already seems to be reaping rewards.

The only thing missing was the victory.

Game in 60 seconds

Key Moment: Having played with 14 men since the 14th minute, Ireland had a shot at victory deep into added time but it was poor execution that consigned them to this opening-round defeat. Trailing 21-16 and with 84 minutes up, Ireland won a penalty that should have put them into the Welsh corner for a driving maul to the line. Yet Billy Burns, trying to eke out as many metres as he possibly could for his pack, botched the penalty to touch and kicked the ball dead, ending the game.

Talking Point: One that got away for Ireland but positives aplenty to take into the rest of this Six Nations, particularly the impact new forwards coach Paul O’Connell has already made on the set-piece. Ireland’s lineout had been a serious weakness in the autumn but it was reborn in Cardiff in defence and attack.

Key Man: It was Wales prop Wyn Jones who won the official man of the award but there were plenty of outstanding performances from Irish players from this backs against the wall performance. Try-scorer Tadhg Beirne ran himself into the ground while in the backline, Robbie Henshaw, Garry Ringrose and Hugo Keenan were excellent.

Ref Watch: Wayne Barnes had little option but to issue Peter O’Mahony with a red card given the zero-tolerance stance on contact with the head. Yet a head on-head tackle by Johnny Williams on Garry Ringrose escaped any sanction. There was also frustration from the away dressing room that a deliberate knock-on late in the game was not more heavily punished than the penalty awarded to Ireland.

Penalties Conceded: Wales 11 Ireland 11

Injuries: There will be return to play protocols for James Ryan and Johnny Sexton after they each failed to return following Head Injury Assessments while Wales centre Johnny Williams was also removed for an HIA but Ireland’s Robbie Henshaw returned following his.

Next Up: No let-up for Ireland with France due in Dublin this Sunday after a 50-10 victory in Italy and with their 35-27 victory over Farrell’s men in Paris on October 31 still fresh in the memory.

WALES: L Halfpenny; L Rees-Zammit, G North, J Williams (N Tompkins, 23 - HIA), H Amos (C Sheedy, 65); D Biggar, T Williams (G Davies, h-t); W Jones (R Jones, 65), K Owens, T Francis (L Brown, 65); A Beard, A W Jones - captain (W Rowlands, 65); D Lydiate (J Navidi, 12), J Tipuric, T Faletau.

IRELAND: H Keenan; K Earls (J Larmour, 61), G Ringrose, R Henshaw (B Burns, 54-63 HIA), J Lowe; J Sexton - captain (B Burns, 61 HIA), C Murray (J Gibson-Park, 69); C Healy (D Kilcoyne, 51), R Herring (R Kelleher, 71), A Porter (T Furlong, 54); T Beirne, J Ryan (I Henderson, 23 - HIA); P O’Mahony, J van der Flier (W Connors, 59), CJ Stander.

Referee: Wayne Barnes (England).