‘Wise old’ Irish douse Dragon fire

THREE tries to nil and a 19-9 winning margin on foreign soil suggest a competent all-round performance by Ireland at the Millennium Stadium yesterday.

However, that most certainly wasn’t the case and now a shaken side must prepare for France at Croke Park on Sunday with inspirational captain Brian O’Driscoll a doubtful starter with a hamstring strain and yesterday’s man of the match Gordon D’Arcy also struggling with a groin problem.

The pre-Six Nations favourites had to fight for their lives against a fired up and combative Welsh side who dominated possession for long stretches, especially in the first half. Yet they trailed 12-9 at the interval. Shortly after half time, one of a number of crucial decisions went against them when Simon Easterby appeared to illegally bustle Welsh winger Chris Czekaj off the ball in the left corner when it looked all over a Welsh try.

Easterby’s sheepish grin when the matter was raised later suggested that he and his side were fortunate not to have conceded at least a five-pointer; furthermore he could well have been shown a yellow card by the New Zealand referee Kelvin Deaker. It wasn’t the only time that Ireland got the rub of the green and you could well understand the frustration of Welsh coach Gareth Jenkins. “Ireland managed to control the game for stages even when they didn’t have the ball,” he mused.

The Welshman did concede, however, that Ireland “are a wise old bunch”.

“They weren’t at their best but they are street wise and the way they played today showed why they were the pre-tournament favourites. They got their tries through their strength and experience.”

The first Irish try came in the second minute when the outstanding Brian O’Driscoll charged down an attempted clearance by Jones and hooker Rory Best crashed over. It was a five point advantage that Ireland could hardly have expected but one on which they were unable to capitalise. Instead, they looked nervous and uncertain, handling mistakes abounded and while the scrum more than held its end up despite being expressly targeted by the Welsh, they struggled at the line-outs and there was an awful lot more fire and brimstone in the home eight. To their credit, Wales didn’t allow that early setback to upset them and they piled into the Irish with a passion and a vigour that could and probably should have turned the game in their favour.

Gordon D’Arcy, voted man of the match after an outstanding midfield performance, made a fair point by admitting “the most satisfactory aspect of our game was our defence.” Such was the persistent pressure of the Welsh forwards that they had no option but to put their bodies on the line and in this respect nobody emerged with greater kudos than the back-row trio of Easterby, Leamy and Wallace while John Hayes fully earned the special mention he received from coach Eddie O’Sullivan.

Surprisingly, though, Paul O’Connell was as near anonymous as a player of his quality can be although Rory Best’s difficulty in finding his line-out jumpers didn’t help. On the positive for Ireland, though, was their ability to take their try scoring chances when they presented themselves. A classic example came on 36 minutes when Geordan Murphy, in the game as a blood replacement for Denis Hickie, launched a Garryowen into the Welsh 22, timed his follow up to perfection to gather in his stride and after that Wallace played a key role in setting up O’Driscoll to finish off a sparkling move in the corner.

The Welsh management later admitted to considerable dismay at their failure to manage a try even though they had possession to burn. A mitigating factor, of course, was the absence for various reasons of four of their best three-quarters; one wonders how things might have panned out had Shane Williams, Mark Jones and centre Tom Shanklin been available.

Instead, Ireland picked up the tempo and played with a lot more aggression and purpose in the second half. Even then, it was a strange decision by Mr Deaker on a quick tap free kick by James Hook that led to the third try by O’Gara. It was the out-half’s tenth international try and for good measure he again knocked the conversion between the sticks from the edge of touch and finally the Welsh were down and out.

In the final analysis, O’Sullivan admitted to being more pleased by the result than the performance and that they will have to improve appreciably if they are to beat France. Whereas D’Arcy is confident he will be fit for the massive tests lying in wait this month, O’Driscoll is in trouble and aside from the actual result, that was probably the most salient point to emerge from yesterday’s game.