THE PLAIN ANSWER is yes. Ireland’s performance against Wales on Saturday in Dublin was good enough to secure a bonus-point win that means Andy Farrell’s men are still on track for a Grand Slam.
Expectations around this Ireland team are as high as they’ve ever been. Farrell’s men have the highest expectations of themselves too.
Performance and outcome are different things but they don’t exist in isolation. Ireland’s performance against the Welsh involved enough good stuff to earn the outcome they wanted. Of course, Ireland could have been better but this was a fine showing, all the more so given that they played for 20 minutes of the game with only 14 players.
The Irish defence was superb once again. While the Welsh attack lacks real sophistication and punch at this stage of their development, Ireland deserve credit for limiting them to just a penalty try from a close-range maul.
Ireland had to make a whopping 190 tackles in this game and they brought serious bite in contact throughout. The outstanding Caelan Doris led the charge with 21 tackles, many of them resoundingly powerful, while there were defensive breakdown turnovers won by Bundee Aki, Andrew Porter, Tadhg Beirne, and Rónan Kelleher.
Ireland’s defence came out on top of several key periods in the game, most notably from minutes 52 to 56 inside the Irish 22 when Wales were still in the contest as Ireland led only 17-7. A score then would have been huge for Warren Gatland’s side.
During that time, Beirne returned from his sin-bin stint to make a brilliant maul turnover close to his own tryline. Soon after, a dominant 19-phase defensive set concluded with Kelleher’s poach. Those turnovers essentially decided the game.
With Ireland again down to 14 men after James Ryan’s yellow card, Ireland managed to hold Wales up over the Irish tryline in the 77th minute.
“It said a lot about how much they love defending for one another,” was Farrell’s assessment.
It also allowed Ireland to clear upfield from the goal line drop out, earn a turnover penalty through Stuart McCloskey’s big tackle and counter-ruck with Jack Conan, and march into the Wales 22 for the bonus-point try.
Defence coach Simon Easterby’s stock continues to rise given that Ireland have conceded only three tries in their three Six Nations games. This Irish defence combines aggressive linespeed with an ability to stay connected, while their technical work in the tackle, counter-ruck, and jackal is elite.
On the other side of the ball, Farrell will have been pleased with another four tries, taking Ireland’s total to 15 in three games.
Ireland were relatively clinical with their visits to the Welsh 22 in this game, scoring four tries from nine entries.
3.11 points per entry compares favourably to their 3.17 points per entry against France and 2.77 against Italy.
There was nice variety to Ireland’s four tries on Saturday. Dan Sheehan dotted down after an irrepressible 13-man maul effort. James Lowe finished wide on the left following a sequence of play that included Joe McCarthy’s excellent carry, Jack Crowley’s control and decision-making, and Calvin Nash’s skillful final pass.
Fullback Ciarán Frawley picked a nice line for his try as scrum-half Jamison Gibson-Park chose a clever pass, while the build-up to Beirne’s effort combined skill, sheer doggedness, and superior off-the-ball work and fitness to the Welsh. Despite having one player fewer, Ireland outworked and outthought Wales over 16 phases.
In the first half, Ireland fell into the trap of being too lateral in attack at times. In those instances, their chains of short passes can look nice without making any progress upfield. On several occasions, Ireland lacked direct punch. Pods of forwards were static receiving the pass, rather than rolling onto the ball and that made Wales’ defensive reads easier.
Ireland are at their best when they play square up the pitch, challenging and engaging defenders with their ball-carrying or the threat of it before playing late passes. Ireland at their best have variety between front-door passes and back-door options. The balance improved in the second half. The build-up to Bundee Aki’s disallowed try was particularly impressive.
The first lineout wobbles of this Six Nations prevented a few more Irish attacks from launching. Two of Sheehan’s throws cleared the back of the lineout. He also underthrew one but Ireland were lucky to retain the ball. Beirne had a wayward transfer off the top on one occasion, while Josh van der Flier was free-kicked for joining early from the receiver position at another lineout. In that sense, the official stat of 12 wins from 14 throws is not accurate.
While the lineout had some issues, the Irish scrum was one of the biggest successes of the afternoon. Ireland were only awarded one penalty there but could easily have had at least one another when referee Andrea Piardi instead asked them to play away from it.
Loosehead Porter and hooker Sheehan went after inexperienced Welsh tighthead Keiron Assiratti, while Ireland tighthead Tadhg Furlong did huge work on his side of the scrum to deliver power. The back five of the scrum also clearly provided dynamism in what was an excellent collective effort.
Ireland’s scrum dominance faded in the second half as they made changes but Porter, Sheehan, and Furlong were superb there. They’ve been keen to deliver a scrum performance like this for some time now, reminding everyone that they can be dominant.
“The improvement in the scrum is there for all to see,” reiterated Farrell after the game.
Otherwise, the Irish bench was another aspect Farrell will have been happy with. His decision to go 6/2 worked out, especially given that McCloskey made an impact on the wing rather than in his usual position of inside centre. All six of the Irish bench forwards – Kelleher, Ryan Baird, Conan, James Ryan, Oli Jager, and Cian Healy – made positive contributions, while scrum-half Conor Murray helped to steer Ireland to their last try.
There were a host of good performances from players in the starting XV too. Doris was immense in an all-action display at number eight, while Beirne picked up where he left off against France. That duo are playing brilliant rugby.
Porter showed he is one of the best looseheads in the game with a top-class outing, while Sheehan and Furlong were strong. Scrum-half Gibson-Park made some good decisions, Crowley kicked well off the tee and brought aggression in contact, while the midfield pairing of Bundee Aki and Robbie Henshaw are in impactful form.
Fullback Frawley was composed on his first Ireland start, while wing Calvin Nash has settled in impressively in the number 14 shirt.
Ireland boss Farrell seems likely to have been disappointed with Ireland’s discipline as they conceded 13 penalties and saw Beirne and Ryan sin-binned.
Farrell said he was “a bit confused” about the penalty try decision but Beirne did seem to change his bind in order to wrap up ball-carrier Elliot Dee as the Welsh surged towards the tryline.
There were a few debatable penalties in there, as is always the case in rugby, but Ireland will likely reflect that many of their 13 concessions were avoidable and that they need to sharpen up their discipline. They conceded 13 against France and another 11 against Italy so there is obvious room for improvement.
That said, it seems apparent that Ireland are happy to push the boundaries at times, perhaps accepting that they won’t be squeaky clean but could disrupt the opposition enough to make it worthwhile. Again, there’s a balancing act in this and Ireland have slipped to the side of indiscipline at times.
Farrell will be most disappointed that Ireland have conceded penalties in clusters. There were six in the third quarter against Wales, which certainly played a big part in Gatland’s men having a purple patch during that period.
Against France, Ireland conceded five penalties in the seven minutes before half time, leading directly to Damian Penaud scoring a try for les Bleus. The occasional penalty here and there is part and parcel of the game, but those clusters can be seriously damaging.
On the kicking front, Farrell will have been pleased to watch out-half Crowley nailing five from five off the tee, with some difficult touchline conversions in there. The Munster man had a few nice linekicks on penalties too.
Gibson-Park was the leading Irish kicker in play but James Lowe chipped in with a few long-distance left-footed effort as always and fullback Frawley kicked four times, including two cross-field kick passes. There was also a chip on the edge from Henshaw early in the game.
All in all, Ireland’s game is in good nick compared to their Six Nations rivals. This has been a relatively low-quality championship so far, with Ireland clearly the best team over the opening three rounds.
It’s a good thing for Farrell that his players will feel they still haven’t fully delivered on their potential. There is no sense they’ll be resting on their laurels with a visit to England to come in two weekends’ time.
Farrell knows that one will be as different as the Italy game was to the France game was to the Wales game.
“The game is what it is, from minute one,” said Farrell.
“The game takes its own shape but there’s parts of our game we obviously need to improve.”
