Two-try Jones inspires dramatic Irish recovery against Welsh

Wales U-20 15 Ireland U-20 17

After the Welsh bolted out to a 15-0 lead, man-of-the-match Jones — a late replacement for senior Ireland cap Luke Fitzgerald — grabbed tries either side of half-time before fly-half Ian Keatley landed a superb drop goal to see his side home.

Both sides were forced into late changes as Fitzgerald withdrew with a neck injury, while Wales had to bring lock Adam Brown on for Bradley Davies who turned an ankle in training last Monday.

Scarlets fly-half Rhys Priestland opened the Welsh account when he kicked a penalty after the Irish made a hash of securing possession from the kick-off.

Wales moved up a gear with two quick tries as hooker Ken Owens was shunted over by his supporting forwards and minutes later, Wales No 8 Lewis Evans took a quick tap and fed full-back Martyn Thomas who wriggled out of a tackle to touch down out wide.

Priestland landed the conversion to make it 15-0 with barely 20 minutes played.

Ireland finished the first-half strongly as full-back Jones touched down with Keatley making amends for his earlier miss with the conversion.

Ireland finished the half full of fire and trailed by just 15-7 at half-time as they shut out Wales in the second half.

The Welsh defence, which had looked so strong was found wanting again as the ball was spun wide and Jones showed some great footwork to cross for his second try. Keatley added the conversion to make it just 15-14.

However, Ireland kept the pressure on the Welsh and Keatley stepped deep into the pocket and dropped a superb long-range drop goal to nose the Irish into the lead for the first time at 17-15 with ten minutes remaining to snatch a dramatic victory.

Scorers for Wales U-20: Owens, Thomas tries, Priestland con, Priestland pen

Ireland scorers: Jones (2) tries, Keatley (2) cons, Keatley drop goal

WALES UNDER-20: M Thomas, A Jenkins, J Lewis, A Smith (c), T James; R Priestland (R Jones 58 mins), R Lewis (D Allison 63 mins); H Gustafson, K Owens (B Flower 71), J Corsi, A Brown, L Reed (J Down 53), D Lydiate, (S Kiley 18-22 mins), J Harris, L Evans.

IRELAND UNDER-20: F Jones, S Monahan, D Cave, A Wynne, K Earls, I Keatley, P O’Donohoe, D Millard (R Murphy 40 mins), R Sweeney (G Slattery 75), J Hagan, C McInerney, A Browne, T Anderson, D (c), S O’Brien (T O’Donnell 9 mins).