SEVEN POINTS FROM your very first attack of the game is as perfect a start as possible.

And that’s what Ireland produced from a right-hand-side lineout just outside the Welsh 22 on Friday night, with Jacob Stockdale scoring on 12th phase.

It was a cohesive, detailed, punchy passage of Irish attack that started with a ’21′ play from the lineout, meaning two carries infield before bouncing back in the other direction.

As we see below, Stuart McCloskey carries directly on first phase. 

Garry Ringrose and Robert Baloucoune flood in on the latch to lend more power to McCloskey’s carry, with Nick Timoney arriving from the lineout to help clear out.

That same quartet of players will be key for Ireland on third phase.

Before that, Ireland roll to their left where Tadhg Furlong [red below] steams around the corner, then runs back against the grain at the front of what is a ‘stack’ shape with Caelan Doris [blue] swinging behind Furlong.

Furlong’s job is to sit down the defenders in front of him to give Doris a bit more time and space to make a good carry as he arrives around the corner a little later.

Rónan Kelleher and James Ryan make a strong clearout to ensure lightning-quick ball after Doris’ carry.

As that’s happening, we can see below that the initial ball-carrying crew of McCloskey, Ringrose, Baloucoune, and Timoney are quickly back to their feet and getting set for play to return to them.

McCloskey, Ringrose, and Timoney form a three-man pod [yellow above], while Baloucoune [pink] slots into the boot behind them.

Tadhg Beirne and Tom O’Toole work around the corner to the left on the inside of out-half Jack Crowley, who is calling and signalling for the ball in a bid to convince Wales that’s where the attack will continue.

But as we see below, scrum-half Jamison Gibson-Park switches direction to find Ringrose in the middle of the 3-pod.

Ringrose has Timoney short on his outside shoulder, and Wales out-half Dan Edwards has to worry about a short tip-on pass from Ringrose to Timoney.

Edwards adjusts in onto Timoney, but then has to readjust out onto Baloucoune as Ringrose instead adroitly sweeps his pass out the back.

Baloucoune’s fend and acceleration take him away from Edwards, and he then beats the other Welsh halfback, Tomos Williams, with his power, which carries him all the way over the five-metre line.

Ireland opt to carry off Crowley on the next two phases, which is a little unusual so close to the tryline given the linespeed of the defence, and they lose ground on the second of those. 

However, the eke it back when McCloskey carries strongly again on seventh phase.

Crowley is at first receiver, but Gibson-Park fizzes the ball beyond him to ‘second hands’ in McCloskey, who surges through the tackle attempt of Louis Rees-Zammit.

Ireland are back within sight of the tryline and a good carry from Timoney off Gibson-Park on the next phase edges them closer.

As the Irish forwards continue to carry infield, McCloskey [blue below] and left wing Jacob Stockdale [red] swing over to the far side of the posts.

As they move, McCloskey identifies the opportunity presented by Welsh halfbacks Williams and Edwards being alongside each other again [pink below].

We can see McCloskey scanning the defence in the momen below.

Williams is screaming for his team-mates to fold and give the defence more numbers on that side.

But McCloskey is already organising the play around him, signalling for Stockdale to run a short line off him.

Crowley quickly gets on the same wavelength and he will play a role in the finish.

With Timoney, Kelleher, and O’Toole having worked around the corner, it initially seems to Wales that a 3-pod [yellow below] off Gibson-Park, with Crowley in the boot [pink], is the next threat.

But Crowley is already moving wider to swing behind McCloskey and out the back of Stockdale, providing a back-door option for his inside centre.

So Gibson-Park fizzes the ball across the face of the three Irish forwards to McCloskey and he has Stockdale running short, with Crowley out the back.

Wales out-half Edwards is almost certainly aware of Crowley out the back and that may cause him not to fully launch into the tackle on short option Stockdale, in case he needs to push off him if McCloskey sweeps to Crowley.

Either way, Stockdale’s power is to the fore as McCloskey plays the short tip-on pass before Williams can hit him. Stockdale surges through the tackle attempt from Edwards to finish a slick Irish score.

It’s a dream start for Ireland and they nearly produce an even better 13-phase score through Jack Conan in the 11th minute, only for that score to correctly be chalked off due to an O’Toole knock-on just before Conan’s finish.

It’s a passage that starts just inside Ireland’s half and features some freewheeling Irish attack, including Gibson-Park snipes, classy McCloskey and Doris offloads, and plenty of ball-carrying and clearout power and precision.

It wasn’t to be, and then Ireland seemed to lose their way in attack for the next 20 minutes.

They were occasionally guilty of trying to ‘overplay’ in the middle third of the pitch.

To put this in simple terms, they tried to move the ball wide after losing the gainline in their carries or off slow rucks. Neither of those things is a recipe for success.

In the instance above on second phase of a lineout attack, Ireland run a similar shape to their very first lineout attack as Kelleher offers a front-door option with Doris stacked behind, only for scrum-half Nathan Doak to thread the ball between them for Crowley to feed Conan.

But having won the gainline on first phase, Wales have defenders on their feet and read the play well. Conan is met by a firm Eddie James tackle.

Conan fights in the tackle but he loses the gainline and it’s very slow ball for Ireland.

Generally speaking, this is not the kind of carry from which you want to try and hit the width, but Ireland stick to their plan of another ’21′ play as they switch back to the left and look to target Edwards and Williams defending together again.

As they play off slow ball, a string of Irish passes breaks down under pressure close to the edge.

Now, in fairness, if Ireland’s handling skills are better here, they could get away down the left-hand side.

However, the pressure Wales can apply – particularly through Edwards and Williams closing up and in on McCloskey and Ringrose – causes those skills to break down.

That’s the kind of thing that tends to happen when the defence has won the gainline on the preceding phases. It might look like a big chance is still on for the attack but they have to be inch-perfect to pull it off.

Ireland just about regather the loose ball in this instance, but they force things on the next phase again as Baloucoune tries to offload to Stockdale.

Ireland had instances like this on several occasions against Wales, where they lost the gainline or had a slow ruck but still tried to play to width. 

There were times when they perhaps needed to carry close to the ruck again in a bid to generate greater speed of ball, or go to their kicking game after losing momentum in attack.

That said, there were moments when they decided to go wide that were perfectly timed.

Take the instance below, when Ireland have just stolen a Scottish lineout through Joe McCarthy. Replacement back row Josh van der Flier makes a powerful carry for quick, clean ball.

And Ireland pull the trigger against a Welsh defence that has just had to switch from attacking mode.

Gibson-Park, Crowley, and McCloskey move the ball to Jamie Osborne, who has time to pick out a lovely bridge pass to Baloucoune.

Danger man Baloucoune now has space to weave some magic as he accelerates and throws a no-look pass for Ciarán Frawley arcing behind him.

Baloucoune’s brilliance literally gets Ireland fans up out of their seats and it allows Frawley to get outside Rees-Zammit and chip ahead.

The pressure eventually yields three points for Ireland that kill off the game as a contest.

So while Ireland will reflect on whether they tried to overplay their hand at times, this was an attacking performance that earned them another try-scoring bonus point.

The Welsh defence was superb on the night, so four tries was a fairly pleasing outcome for Farrell’s men.

Their work inside the Welsh 22 for Crowley and Conan’s tries was similarly snappy and aggressive to the build-up to Stockdale’s opener, while Ireland produced a clever attack for Osborne’s score in the second half.

Stockdale has to clean up a scrappy lineout win initially, but captain Doris makes a potent carry to give his team momentum.

Ireland swing back into the shortside, where they show some nice shape.

There’s a 3-pod of forwards [red below] off Gibson-Park, with Crowley [blue] swinging in behind.

Michael Milne in the middle of the pod is the most obvious receiver but, as we see below, Gibson-Park instead fires the ball one man wider to van der Flier.

Van der Flier then has just enough time to skilfully pull the ball back to Crowley accelerating to his outside shoulder.

Crowley turns the corner nicely to square up Tomos Williams before moving the ball, with Stockdale’s switch catch-pass giving Conan space down the touchline. Wales feel it’s a forward pass from Stockdale but it’s cleared by the TMO post-try.

Conan offloads back inside to Gibson-Park running a typical support line and the scrum-half nearly scores over the top of Rees-Zammit.

There’s a brief chance for Gibson-Park to catch-pass inside to hooker Tom Stewart, but he opts to accelerate and bump Rees-Zammit off, only to get tangled in the Welsh fullback’s legs.

There’s a penalty advantage at this breakdown as Williams – still part of the ruck – grabs Conan when he picks and carries. The Welsh scrum-half gets binned for his effort.

And Ireland use the penalty advantage to full effect as they organise their layered attack in midfield.

Thomas Clarkson lifts the ball to Gibson-Park, who finds McCloskey, who goes out the back to Crowley, who goes out the back to Stockdale, who lifts a basketball-style pass over Josh Adams to Osborne.

The finish is reminiscent of Baloucoune’s try against Italy, as well as Osborne’s against England, with Ireland using penalty advantage to put together a string of passes from left to right for the finish.

It’s a nice Irish try just after Wales have drawn back to 19-17 and though Crowley misses the conversion, it gives them more breathing room heading into the closing 10 minutes. 

While this wasn’t an epic Irish attacking performance, they will have been pleased to score four tries and make seven linebreaks, all while probably feeling that they left other chances out there and got the balance of their decision-making a little off at times.

A try-scoring bonus point was a fine outcome against a stubborn Welsh defence but having plenty of scope for improvement is a good place to be ahead of the big finale against Scotland on Saturday.