JUST WHEN HE thought he was in, they pulled Tommy Bowe back out.
54:17 on the clock and Ireland trailing Wales 15-9. They’d gone through 32 phases of attack in the home side’s defensive territory, drawing Liam Williams into a breakdown penalty and then kicking into the corner.
The maul rumbled, before Conor Murray peeled away on an arcing run as Robbie Henshaw and Johnny Sexton ran the decoy lines to his left. Between the midfield pair, Bowe came galloping onto Murray’s pass and the space in front of him seemed to open ideally.
It took a supreme defensive re-adjustment from Jamie Roberts to save the try, as the Wales inside centre shifted his feet back in after being initially drawn to Sexton.
The story of the day in some ways; Ireland so close to cutting the Welsh, halted by a magnificent read and tackle.
“I was close alright,” said Bowe post-match. “I think if I had have maybe went for it, it would have been pulled up for a double movement, which is frustrating. I thought the gap was there for me to go straight through, but unfortunately I just got taken down.
It was disappointing and I think that was the match. We had opportunities and got hauled down metres from the line.
“We were so close on so many occasions and I suppose it’s credit to the Welsh defence, they put their bodies on the line and made it very, very difficult for us.”
Fast forward to the 61:38 mark and Wales are diving over Ireland’s tryline through Scott Williams, giving Joe Schmidt’s side something of a lesson in clinical attack inside the opposition 22.
Bowe was close to this one again, drifting off Williams and onto Jonathan Davies as he appeared to expect Jamie Heaslip inside to do the same out onto Williams. Instead, the number eight shot up hard off the defensive line in towards Dan Biggar.
“I think it was just maybe a bit of a mix-up between us in there,” said Bowe. “Looking back at it, I’m not too sure. I’ll need to go back and look at it to see how it unfolded. I suppose it was a soft try in the end.”
Both of these incidents came in the second half, but it’s not hard to argue that the real damage for Ireland occurred in the opening 20 minutes or so, particularly in conceding a 12-0 lead to the Welsh.
Was that the poorest spell Ireland have had under Schmidt yet?
“I don’t think the poorest, but we didn’t start well certainly,” replied Bowe. “We gifted them four easy penalties which is something we’ll definitely looked at.
“We had talked a lot about Wayne Barnes and what we needed to do in the breakdown area and that’s something we’ll be disappointed with. In the Six Nations, to give a team a lead like that, especially away from home, it’s always going to be catch-up.
“Credit to the boys, we came back into it and pushed hard.”
Bowe underlined that Ireland had taken longer to adapt to Barnes and his demands than they would have liked to, a disappointment given that Ireland like to “rate ourselves as very smart, as able to think on our feet.”
In that sense, did Ireland need to adapt their attacking tactics in the heat of a ferocious Six Nations contest. As they struggled to create against an imposing Welsh defence, was there scope for a more ambitious offloading game?
I don’t think so,” said Bowe. ”I think that maybe there were a few opportunities for offloads, but I don’t think there were many.
“The Welsh defence came in and closed down; it was really about getting through the frontline.
“If we could get through the frontline, then there were opportunities to offload. You saw Paulie [Paul O'Connell] going through a few times and that’s where he needs people on the shoulder.”
