Familiar foes, familiar failings

VENGEANCE will have to wait.And with a year until Irelandmeet Wales again, the video tapes viewed today by the Ireland camp will fuel another sense of injustice to be added to the festering wounds Wales seem to inflict on Declan Kidney’s side.

It is 11 months since Mike Phillips’ controversial try helped the Welsh to a Six Nations win in Cardiff and though there was little to gripe about in last October’s World Cup quarter-final defeat, this third reverse inside a year will pile on the grievances felt when Wales are mentioned.

Yet, just as Phillips’ try at the Millennium Stadium should have been disallowed and Stephen Ferris did not deserve the yellow card or even the penalty awarded against him yesterday, neither incident was the real undoing of Ireland in those matches.

All three encounters with Wales and all three Irish defeats have been about a failure to finish or create and an inability to shackle a powerful Welsh attack.

Yes, the Ferris sin-binning, for what was perceived by referee Wayne Barnes as a tip tackle on Wales lock Ian Evans, led to the penalty in front of the posts that allowed Leigh Halfpenny to send over the winning points. It also put the tin hat on a successful second-half Welsh comeback from 13-5 and then 21-15 down. But neither rally could be laid at the door of the unfortunate flanker as Paul O’Connell admitted post-match (see Page 19).

Gatland had crowed that his tactics at the World Cup had shut Ireland down and stopped them from playing, while the Irish had countered by arguing they simply left a number of try-scoring opportunities out on the field.

Sexton gave Ireland an early lead with a penalty but Wales were quickly on the front foot and causing trouble. A Ryan Jones try was ruled out on video evidence (or the lack of it) but the opening try was not far away.

Step forward centre Jon Davies, the man who killed off Irish hopes with Wales’s third try last October, to give the visitors their deserved lead, profiting from a great offload in the tackle by Rhys Priestland to score in their left-hand corner.

Priestland, passed fit following a knee injury, was less clinical with his kicking, hitting the upright with the conversion, having also achieved the feat with an early penalty.

Both misses kept Ireland in touch and the Irish backs finally clicked into gear just before half-time. Quick ball from Conor Murray, good hands from Jonny Sexton and Gordon D’Arcy to feed Tommy Bowe, whose burst opened up the space to put in Rory Best in the left corner for the try. Sexton added the conversion and Ireland went in feeling relieved to be 10-5 to the good.

The removal of both Wales captain Sam Warburton and wing Alex Cuthbert due to injury at half-time and the addition of a Sexton penalty and another Priestland miss should have provided a further boost. But Ireland dallied, huffed and puffed and Wales got back on level terms thanks to a penalty from Leigh Halfpenny, having removed Priestland of his duties, and a second try from Jon Davies.

It was a score that will provide the Ireland defence coach with nightmares. Wales profited from a Bowe error in failing to catch Jon Davies’s kicked clearance. It led to a rare successful lineout to the tail, the ball moved quickly out to North, who bullied his way into the danger zone, evading a D’Arcy tackle, trundling over Fergus McFadden before a one-handed offload to Davies, who smashed his way over the line again.

“Structurally, we’re okay,” Kidney said of the defensive performance. “You have to give credit to Wales, sometimes it’s not just all down to you. But there are some aspects that we can be disappointed with individually.”

Again, matters seemed to be turning back in Ireland’s favour following the sin-binning of Bradley Davies, though his spear tackle on substitute Donnacha Ryan was everything Ferris’s misdemeanour was not – a drive into the ground as the lock hit the ground neck first.

Energised by the man advantage, Ireland finally got some go-forward ball, Bowe finishing another good move courtesy of Rob Kearney’s long pass.

Again, Ireland failed to make it count. Back came Wales, North getting his due as he forced his bulk over the line and then came the coup de grace, delivered by an unfortunate triumvirate of Ferris, Barnes and Halfpenny.

“I know we’re a lot better than that,” Kidney said. “We put ourselves under a lot of pressure defensively, we had to defend for 60%-plus of the game and if you do that you’re going to ask for trouble.

“Attack-wise we weren’t too bad once we got into the green zone, their 22. We were okay when we got into the 22.

“Sometimes we probably played around halfway line and some of the guys probably need to look up to see what options there are available to them. I think we can improve there.

“There are several different aspects that I know we can improve on.”

They will need to. Deprived of some much-needed momentum, Kidney takes his side to Paris next Saturday night to face a French side rumbling into gear. It will not fill Irish hearts with confidence.

IRELAND: R Kearney; T Bowe, F McFadden, G D’Arcy, A Trimble; J Sexton, C Murray; C Healy, R Best, M Ross; P O’Connell (capt), D O’Callaghan; S Ferris, S O’Brien, J Heaslip.

Replacements: D Ryan for O’Callaghan (64), T Court for C Healy (74), R O’Gara for Sexton (77), E Reddan for C Murray (77.)

Yellow card: S Ferris (79-end).

WALES: L Halfpenny; A Cuthbert, J Davies, J Roberts, G North; R Priestland, M Phillips; R Gill, H Bennett, A Jones; B Davies, I Evans; R Jones, S Warburton (capt), T Faletau.

Replacements: J Hook for Cuthbert (ht), J Tipuric for Warburton (ht), P James for A Jones (70).

Yellow card: B Davies (57-67)

Referee: W Barnes (England)