Ireland’s Grand ambition folds under pressure

The pressure told; the pressure of the occasion maybe and, the shoe on the other foot, the scoreboard pressure applied on Ireland by Wales, who were monumental in defence and more opportunistic.

Ireland cracked a little, betraying hints of panic in a match which had any uncanny echoes of Wales’ World Cup quarter-final win in Wellington.

They will reflect ruefully and at length on four line-out malfunctions (one on either line proving very costly), a couple of kicks out on the full, several handling errors and, perhaps most of all, missed opportunities; most notably two prolonged drives lasting almost seven minutes in total from just before the 50 minute mark. And therein lies the rub, for as off colour as Ireland were, they had more than enough possession, territory and chances to win this game. Uber efficient front-runners, one always wondered whether this Ireland team could come from behind for the first time since the Six Nations finale in Paris last March.

Wales racing into a 12-0 lead threw a spanner in the works of this well-oiled Irish machine. Whether by circumstance or choice, perhaps more the former, Ireland were forced to play more rugby than they had heretofore, and perhaps paid for not having played more rugby in this championship until now.

Wales deserved their win, no doubt, but to the litany of perceived Irish grievances with the refereeing of Wayne Barnes can now be added Cardiff, March 2015.

Fittingly Barnes had virtually the first say of the first-half, the last say of the first-half, the first say of the second half and the last say of the second-half, when bookending both periods with penalties. And he had much of the say in between as well.

Barnes’s interpretation

Joe Schmidt

declined to overtly criticise the English official in his immediate post-match public utterances, but one sensed that underneath he was seething, and he did make reference to the inconsistency of Barnes’s interpretation in the first 14 minutes – when pinging Ireland four times to nil – as compared to Wales being penalised just twice through those two prolonged bouts of pressure of 32 and 20 phases. But in his maddening inconsistency, Barnes was being consistent.

More annoying still must have been his, again, seemingly unique interpretation at scrum time where, despite the clearly dominant force, Barnes managed to penalise Ireland three times and Wales just once. It’s hard to think of other referees (say, Romain Poite for example, who usually favours the advancing scrum) having the same interpretations. The final penalty – after seeming at one stage as if he might signal a second Irish penalty try for a second collapsed maul – after Ireland had shoved Wales off their own scrum, remained a mystery to all present.

In any event, the momentum flowed with the home team from before and through the kick-off into the first 15 minutes virtually without interruption. Cardiff throbbed before, during and after this seismic collision, and while Ireland had all the motivation in the world, they arrived in town as more of a prized scalp than ever before.

Rarely have the Welsh camp built up Irish opponents so much, and with memories of last season’s mauling in the Aviva, they also had every motivation as vengeful, underdogs at home. They had also done their homework, taking on Ireland at one of their strong points – namely in the air – and therefore contributing to Ireland playing more of a ball in hand game. With only 36 per cent of the ball, Wales kicked 29 times, as compared to an Irish side which was credited with an unusually modest 18 kicks.

Out-of-sorts

Conor Murray was not his usually influential self, and kicked only twice in the match, ran thrice and passed 108 times, while a slightly out-of-sorts Johnny Sexton had six kicks out of hand, passed 48 times and ran six times.

Outside them, the midfield lacked creativity and penetration, although Warren Gatland admitted that the variations employed by Sexton in and around the 10 channel caused the Welsh defence problems, but they again chop tackled to good effect and seemed to read Irish moves before they happened.

Rarely too has a Welsh crowd sung and cheered so lustily for an early afternoon kick-off. They could have been playing England, such was the stirring rendition of Fy Nhadau, followed in turn by the crowd launching into their rugby anthem, Bread of Heaven, before Dan Biggar's kick-off was greeted with chants of "Wales".

Emotion and intensity

In the event they took more emotion and intensity into the opening quarter. Acutely mindful that Ireland had never been behind in this championship, they also targeted an early lead and, with help from Ireland and Barnes, roared into a 12-0 lead.

As evidenced by their official tackle count of 289, which eclipsed Italy's 202 last year as the official record, the Welsh workload never let up. They were led by Sam Warburton, who made 30 tackles in 70 minutes, and Luke Charteris with a scarcely credible 37 (one behind Thierry Dusautoir's record against the All Blacks in the 2007 World Cup quarter-final), with four other forwards registering 20 or more. It was the quality of their tackling as well, often nailing Irish carriers who took the ball on their heels behind the gain line. The key though, admitted Gatland, was that "we played". Against England on opening night, and against Ireland last season, Wales had been dragged into more of a grinding, mauling, kicking contest.

Here they played with more penetrating width than Ireland, stretching a green defence that at times became too narrow, for Jonathan Davies to make one searing break before Liam Williams cut through for the try.

It’s easy to say from the cheap seats but Jamie Heaslip, very untypically, bit in to leave a three-on-two outside him. Such width and penetration was beyond Ireland, nor did Wales make any such defensive errors. For those reasons primarily, one could quibble long and hard about Barnes’s refereeing, but not the outcome.