Ireland off to winning start with Autumn Nations Cup win over Wales

James Lowe's try capped a dominant but far from perfect display from the home side as Wales were consigned to a sixth consecutive defeat, adding to new head coach Wayne Pivac's discomforts

Ireland's James Lowe fends off Leigh Halfpenny of Wales. Picture: INPHO/Billy Stickland

IRELAND 32 WALES 9 

Ireland banished their Six Nations finale woes with a convincing victory to kick-start their Autumn Nations Cup in Dublin on Friday night.

It was a night of triumph for debutant wing James Lowe, who put the icing on an impressive first Ireland cap with a try at the death as Andy Farrell's men quickly rebounded from their 35-17 defeat to France in Paris a fortnight ago on the last day of the championship.

Lowe's try capped a dominant but far from perfect display from the home side as Wales were consigned to a sixth consecutive defeat, adding to new head coach Wayne Pivac's discomforts.

His counterpart Farrell had been on the backfoot himself pre-kick-off, forced into a late reshuffle of his starting line-up, revealed 90 minutes before the game, when lock Iain Henderson and full-back Jacob Stockdale were ruled out.

According to the IRFU update, Henderson, due for his first game-time following a three-week suspension, had “a medical issue” while Stockdale had presented with calf soreness and following a scan was ruled out of the game.

Quinn Roux stepped up from the replacements to start in the second row, with Tadhg Beirne, whom Henderson had replaced following his start against France, was added to the bench.

Stockdale, keen to get the opportunity for further experience at full-back following a troubled evening defensively in Paris was replaced by Andrew Conway, who moved onto the wing as Hugo Keenan switched to full-back for his first exposure there at Test level.

Keenan, 24 and making just his third Test appearance, could not have asked for a more gentle introduction to the role in a first half utterly dominated by Ireland. If Wales were looking to break out of their current slump after five straight defeats, a fifth-place finish in the Six Nations and a week which had started with defence coach Byron Hayward leaving “by mutual consent”, they did not look at all equipped for the task.

Ireland’s half-time lead of 16-6 told only half the story as the home side enjoyed 78 per cent possession and 85 per cent territory, needing to make just 18 tackles compared to the visitors’ 104 and gaining 174 metres to Wales’s measly 10.

The Welsh set-piece was also woefully deficient, yielding three first-half penalties and prompting the removal of loosehead Rhys Carré just before the break to spare him and his side from a yellow card.

The overall dominance did come at a cost to Ireland though, as captain Johnny Sexton was withdrawn on 28 minutes following some treatment on a hamstring following his third successful kick at goal. He had exchanged penalties with Leigh Halfpenny early on before Roux made the most of his opportunity to score the opening try on 23 minutes but the penalty that followed the conversion of that score was Sexton’s last meaningful involvement.

His departure allowed Billy Burns to make an earlier than expected Test debut from the bench and there was a significant transfer of leadership as James Ryan took over the captaincy.

Burns made a bright start and was handed an early chance to settle into his goal-kicking duties as Ireland won another penalty against an undisciplined Welsh side close to the line. His first Test points came five minutes before the interval as Ireland took a 10-point lead into the break.

Wales could only get better in the second half and they duly did, getting an early foothold in the Irish half but uncharacteristically let down by an errant penalty kick from the usually dependable Halfpenny. The Wales full-back did find his range again on 50 minutes to narrow the deficit to seven points but that first-half inaccuracy from the visitors, conceding 10 penalties in the opening 40, came back to haunt them soon after, Burns restoring the half-time advantage with a penalty kick to make it 19-9.

Ireland were in control again but forced into another change as replacement fly-half Burns was withdrawn following on-field treatment. That brought Conor Murray into the fray as an auxiliary number 10, the Munster scrum-half warming to his new task by slotting two second-half penalties as Ireland stretched their lead further to 25-9.

It was a far from fluid second-half performance from the Irish but it was still dominant and finished off perfectly as Farrell's men exploited their set-piece superiority with a try at the death off a five-metre scrum, the ball delivered on a plate for strike runner Lowe to grab the debut try he thoroughly deserved, Murray successful with his third kick from three to crown a positive start to this new tournament and add to Welsh woes.

IRELAND: H Keenan; A Conway, C Farrell, R Henshaw (K Earls, 72), J Lowe; J Sexton - captain (B Burns, 28, C Murray, 64), J Gibson-Park; C Healy (E Byrne, 59), R Kelleher ( R Heffernan), A Porter (F Bealham, 64), Q Roux (T Beirne, 64), J Ryan; P O’Mahony, J van der Flier (W Connors, 69), C Doris.

WALES: L Halfpenny; Liam Williams (G North, 59), J Davies, O Watkin, J Adams; D Biggar (C Sheedy, 67), G Davies (Lloyd Williams, 53); R Carre (W Jones, 39), R Elias (E Dee, 51), T Francis (S Lee, 51); W Rowlands (J Ball, 51), AW Jones - Captain; S Lewis-Hughes, J Tipuric, T Faletau (A Wainwright, 71). 

Referee: Mathieu Raynal (France)