‘Resilient’ Ireland find a way to beat ‘tremendous’ Wales

For a moment, Ireland threatened to run off into the night.

After Jacob Stockdale ended his five-year wait for an international try, Ireland celebrated a second try against Wales just 10 minutes into Friday’s Six Nations game when Jack Conan crashed over.

But the home support’s excitement at the possibility of a thumping turned to frustration when the try was ruled out for Tom O’Toole’s knock on.

It set up a nervy night for Ireland when their post-England euphoria was quickly forgotten as they set about keeping a stubborn and spirited Wales side quiet.

In their record away win over England, Ireland ruthlessly built up a 22-0 lead before the hosts replied.

On Friday, though, a hard-hitting Welsh defence stopped the hosts from building an insurmountable advantage.

And when asked for his observations, Ireland head coach Andy Farrell was quick to both praise Wales after they provided his side a more uncomfortable examination than England last time out.

“I actually thought Wales did fantastically well to stay in the game,” he said.

“Like Caelan [Doris, Ireland captain] said, if it goes to 14 points, it’s a different game you’re looking at, but they played tough, they hung on in there and kept it close on the scoreboard. I thought they were tremendous tonight.

“It was a proper Test match and for us to come away with a bonus-point win, we’d certainly take that with how the game unfolded, because it was a different game to the game that we played last time round.

Ireland beat Wales by a combined 46 points in their home Six Nations wins in 2022 and 2024.

But having already been denied a home bonus point by Italy in this campaign, Farrell again used the word “resilience” after they absorbed Welsh pressure in the second half with the score 19-17 before Jamie Osborne killed the game off.

Wins like at Twickenham come once every so often. But edging out Test slugfests is what makes a team – and Farrell recognises that.

“It doesn’t always go your own way in Test match rugby, especially when the other team turns up and plays like that,” he explained.

“I thought we were resilient in how we went about our business.

While Farrell bemoaned Ireland’s inability to convert the type of chances they had gobbled up against England, there were positives.

Conan, who missed the England game because of illness, was outstanding and got his deserved try in the second half after his earlier one was chalked off.

Robert Baloucoune, one of the breakout stars of Ireland’s campaign, impressed again while Jamie Osborne produced another all-action display at full-back as he scored for the third game in a row.

Joe McCarthy and Josh van der Flier both made significant impacts off the bench – a theme for Ireland this year – while Jack Crowley scored a try and produced some lovely moments in attack which were offset by some dodgy goal-kicking.

“He was on the sideline for a while with his coat off, he was itching to get on,” Farrell said of McCarthy, whose adventurous burst down the left wing helped set up Osborne’s try.

“He got on and certainly made a difference. There were some great highlights within the game, one was Joe going down the touchline and kicking the ball.

Digging deep for a bonus-point win leaves Ireland with a chance of the title and the Triple Crown.

While they need results to go their way before reclaiming the championship, victory over Scotland in Dublin next week will clinch a fourth Triple Crown in the past five years.

Scotland, who aim to stun France and boost their own title hopes on Saturday, have not won the Triple Crown since 1990.

Even if France win the title at Murrayfield on Saturday, Ireland and Scotland are set up for an unmissable game in Dublin.

“We need to make the most of the extra day, as far as recovery is concerned, then we bounce into what’s going to be a special week for us,” said Farrell.

“Playing against Scotland, they’ll be relishing coming here I’m sure. It doesn’t get any bigger for us.

“It definitely would [be special], we should never take a Triple Crown for granted at all.