Wales vs Ireland - Review

355 tackles, 39 defenders beaten and 280 carries set up the game of the tournament. A bruising, exhausting game culminated in a 7 point victory for Wales, and opened up the 6 Nations Championship title race. Halfpenny's boot was crucial as everyone assumed it would be, and a fantastic refereeing performance from Wayne Barnes helped the game massively, although the Irish took their time to adapt to his style. We will discuss the players that had the biggest impacts in the game, and how the Welsh ended the Irish winning streak.

Wayne Barnes can't hear the haters

The Welsh defence was sublime, with 250 tackles they didn't give the Irish a sniff, and they never really looked like scoring a try, they lacked that ability with ball in hand once the Welsh nullified their aerial game with the likes of Halfpenny and Biggar competing fantastically once again. Certain players really excelled in defence, Charteris (31 tackles, 1 turnover) , Baldwin (20 tackles), AWJ (21 tackles, 2 turnovers), Warburton (23 tackles, 2 turnovers), Faletau (23 tackles) and Biggar (19 tackles) and that set the mood for the game, the Welsh did not allow Ireland the same opportunities that England gave them, they were quick to the rucks and made excellent turnovers, Gethin Jenkins with a notable one which prompted Jiffy to say that Jenkins is one of the best in the world at that (slight exaggeration, although an excellent game for the Welsh prop).

31 tackles from Luke Charteris

It wasn't just the defence that won the game for the Welsh. They always looked more likely to score a try, Jonathan Davies had a great game, after a slow start to the 6 Nations, and all the backs had one of their better offensive games of the tournament, and didn't put a foot wrong throughout the match. 

But what went wrong for Ireland? They've faced tougher, better sides and come away with victories so why did they lose? Apart from their less than impressive form away from home under Joe Schmidt, they rely too heavily on Jonathan Sexton in the backs; Payne and Henshaw offer very little and Bowe and Zebo aren't setting the world alight either. Although Sexton didn't have one of his better games in an Ireland shirt, it is clear to see that if the Irish 10 isn't up to his world-beating standards as he has been this past year, then Ireland lack a reliable attacking threat. Their try against Wales came from fantastic maul off of a lineout, and they needed to keep the ball with their forwards because that was where they were the stronger side. You only have to look at Paul O'Connell's performance with ball in hand to realise this was an area they could have exploited. A great game for the man making his 100th appearance for Ireland, and his efforts deserved more than what he received.

Whilst Sam Warburton was awarded man of the match, we thought AWJ, Dan Biggar or Jonathan Davies would have been more worthy recipients but everyone in a red shirt gave their absolute all and treated the public to a thrilling game of rugby.