Ireland Keep Ahead Of The Joneses
By Gerry O’Sullivan. Sunday, 26 February 2006.
Ireland’s 31-5 win over Wales today was a much-needed boost. That they restricted the Welsh to one score in total was heartening. Now they are on four points along with England, France and Scotland.
Ireland appeared to have learned a good few lessons from the debacle in Paris. Their defence was excellent today, and even when they didn’t have the ball, they looked like never letting the Welsh in to score. There was the one occasion when they were caught flat-footed and Mark Jones got the better of Andrew Trimble, but on another day the bounce of the ball might have favoured the Ulsterman.
Ireland’s slow start was a worry at first, and it took about ten minutes or so before they got any meaningful possession. The set piece held up pretty well, even in the absence of Paul O’Connell. The line-out functioned effectively, and although the scrum looked a bit shaky at times, the front eight held on for most of the match.
The turning point was the loss to Wales of out-half Stephen Jones. In partnership with Dwayne Peel, they were the only Welsh players with any creativity. His replacement, Gavin Henson, was utterly hopeless. He kicked when he should have passed and every now and then he attempted a breakout himself only to be completely smothered by the Irish cover. As one of the RTÉ panelists commented, his girlfriend Charlotte Church would have been about as effective as he was.
There is still some room for improvement from Ireland. We could have won by a much bigger margin. Once again there were too many handling errors and some indiscipline at the breakdown, resulting in turnover ball to the Welsh. O’Gara had a good game, but missed a couple of place kicks that he would normally put away with his eyes closed. Stringer had a fine game, capping it with a last minute try. Shane Horgan deservedly won Man of the Match for a barnstorming performance on the wing. In Fact, Ah have a tribute to the Drogheda man here. Marcus Horan was stretchered off late in the game, but thankfully it looks like his injury is not serious.
So, it’s the reborn Scots next. Having seen off England at Murrayfield, their tails will be up when they come to Dublin on Saturday week. If Ireland can mount that sort of defence again then it shouldn’t be too massive a task to keep them at bay.