10:48am Monday 15th March 2010
By Robin Davey in New Zealand
THIS has to be the worst of the lot, the lowest point of a shocking Six Nations campaign with clueless Wales thoroughly beaten by an Ireland team that didn’t play all that well at Croke Park on Saturday – they didn’t have to.
Let’s have none of this nonsense about Wales pressing the self-destruct button again with full back Lee Byrne yellow-carded and ten points conceded while they were down to 14 men after they conceded 17 points in similar circumstances at Twickenham.
Sure, it meant Wales paid a heavy price once more for their indiscipline, but it wasn’t the reason they lost as they fell to their heaviest Six Nations defeat under Warren Gatland and their worst Six Nations setback for four years.
And let’s have no more of this ‘we only conceded tries when we were down to 14 men or through interceptions’ because it’s not going to wash with the supporters.
They are the ones who keep Welsh rugby going, they are the ones responsible for some fat salaries, notwithstanding television’s major input, through their continuing support.
But their patience is being stretched to the limit and pretty soon they will start voting with their feet, starting with the finale against Italy at the Millennium Stadium, which may now fail to sell out after three defeats and the lack of box office appeal of the visitors.
Numbers visiting the Irish capital at the weekend were clearly down. Fans were still around, probably in their thousands, but not in the five-figure numbers of previous years, and many of those were bitterly disappointed afterwards.
The Wales management and the WRU will ignore their noises at their peril, for to do that really would be treading the road to disaster.
For the harsh reality is that Wales never looked like beating Ireland, and only once did they seriously threaten the line after a concerted attack in the first half when they went through the phases and centre Jamie Roberts almost got there.
And this time there was no false start as they even took the lead for a change through a Stephen Jones penalty, but that was soon wiped out as the Irish took charge.
After that promising opening Wales were never in it. Unfortunately they did nothing to wipe away an air of Irish superiority which surfaced in the media all through the week and continued on the morning of the match with some really unpleasant stuff about Wales ‘not being in our class’ either off the pitch, referring to fans, or on it regarding the team.
More reality, rather than waffle about indiscipline or self- destruction, is that Wales now lie one off the bottom of the Six Nations table, and defeat against Italy coupled with a Scottish victory in Dublin this weekend, however unlikely either result may be, would leave them with the wooden spoon.
There have been some heavy defeats against Ireland over the past decade, but this one was as comprehensive as it could get, a three-tries-to-nil setback, and it could have been worse if outside-half Jonathan Sexton had not missed with three conversion attempts and a penalty shot.
And if the bounce of the ball had not eluded the fleet-footed Keith Earls at a crucial moment he would have had a hat trick of tries rather than the two he did get, both inspired by man of the match Tomas O’Leary, who sniped away for the third himself.
Wales have now lost nine of their last 11 games against the Irish, and the latest reverse followed defeats by the margins of 36-6 in 2001, 54-10 (2002), 35-12 (2003 in a World Cup warm-up), 26-19 (2004) and 31-5 (2006).
The one mitigating factor has been the absence of key players with Mike Phillips, Gethin Jenkins, Matthew Rees, Alun Wyn Jones, skipper Ryan Jones and Andy Powell absent from part or all of the campaign for one reason or another, and all of them Lions.
Now that is a pretty stiff hurdle to overcome, and that and that alone is the one area where the Welsh team and management deserve some sympathy.
But it doesn’t excuse the ineptitude of the Welsh attack, the giving away of tries through silly interceptions, the lack of discipline and resultant yellow cards plus the fallibility of the defence, not to mention the continuing line-out problems.
Wales lost six balls on their own throw on Saturday, while winning just one on the Irish throw as they continued to concede possession even if it was against the best line-out in the Six Nations.
The return of Rees failed to halt this worrying problem and it was a mystery why the ball wasn’t thrown to the 6ft 9in Luke Charteris more often as line-out leader Jonathan Thomas, in tandem with Rees, didn’t get the calls right.
Wales were left with the boot of Stephen Jones for all their points with four penalties despite the efforts of Roberts, recalled No 8 Gareth Delve and locks Bradley Davies and Charteris in particular.
Sexton landed three penalties and a dropped goal, but threw away another possible nine points, which meant Wales were let off lightly.
They could have paid an even heavier price for a piece of stupidity by Byrne when he got himself yellow-carded, but Ireland weren’t that switched on either.
It wasn’t the greatest game, the eagerly anticipated showdown between Shane Williams and Tommy Bowe never happened, Brian O’Driscoll’s 100th cap was soon forgotten about and the brutal truth is that it was all a bit of a mismatch. Heaven help Wales in New Zealand this summer!
Ireland: G Murphy, T Bowe, B O’Driscoll (captain), G D’Arcy (R Kearney 24), K Earls (R O’Gara 80), J Sexton, T O’Leary (E Reddan 80), C Healy, R Best (S Cronin 80), J Hayes (T Buckley 78), D O’Callaghan, P O’Connell (L Cullen 80), S Ferris (S Jennings 80), J Heaslip, D Wallace.
Scorers – Tries: K Earls (2), T O’Leary; penalties: J Sexton (3); dropped goal: Sexton.
Wales: L Byrne (A Bishop 66), L Halfpenny, J Hook, J Roberts, S Williams, S Jones, R Rees (D Peel 63), P James (R Gill 80), M Rees (H Bennett 58), A Jones, B Davies (I Gough 60), L Charteris, J Thomas, G Delve, M Williams (S Warburton 70).
Scorers — Penalties: S Jones (4).
Referee: Craig Joubert (South Africa).
Attendance: 81,340.
Argus star man: Tomas O’Leary.
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