Ireland have scraped by to a 27-18 defeat of Wales in the Principality Stadium to cement their place atop the Six Nations standings.
Ireland came racing out of the blocks with a Jack Conan try just six minutes into the action, with Sam Prendergast's ensuing conversion followed by a 21st-minute penalty giving Ireland an early ten-point lead.
However, a resurgent Wales refused to die, using their scum dominance as a launchpad for Gareth Anscombe to convert two penalties and reduce Ireland's lead to just four.
Having seen Gary Ringrose handed a yellow card (turned red) for head-to-head contact, there was little Ireland could do when Wales came knocking again - with even their most gallant try-line defence insufficient in stopping Jac Morgan crashing over and earning Wales a shock three-point lead before the break.
Re-emerging from the tunnel Wales came at Ireland with a similar intensity, claiming another try and putting themselves 18-10 ahead. While Wales rarely relented until the 80th minute, ultimately a magic Jamie Osbourne try coupled with a slew of Sam Prendergast penalties proved just enough to see an ego-hit Ireland side leave Cardiff with a nine-point 27-18 win.
𝐀𝐇 𝐓𝐇𝐀𝐓'𝐒 𝐌𝐀𝐆𝐈𝐂!
Gibson-Park. Lowe. Osborne.
Absolutely brilliant from Ireland!#WALvIRE | #GuinnessM6N pic.twitter.com/l40Pd8Pc3J— Virgin Media Sport (@VMSportIE) February 22, 2025
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Shane Horgan Unimpressed By 'Worst' Prendergast Performance 'So Far'
Speaking on Virgin Media after the loss, Ireland legend Shane Horgan was critical of the whole Ireland team calling them 'average' and claiming there were 'few areas Ireland were good in, I thought they were very poor..I don't think there were many positives, save for not losing that game'.
However, few came in for as much stick as Ireland's half-back pairing with Horgan suggesting Prendergast was lucky to be left on the pitch after 'his worst game for Ireland so far'.
I think Sam Prendergast was coming off if he hadn't kicked that 50:22, he didn't have a good game. I think he probably had his worst game for Ireland so far.
His defence was certainly one, couple of kicks off the ground that he missed, kick out of hand was a big error at the end, he looked shaky in defence.
You don't play brilliant every week, but I think the reason he was kept on a side from that was the distance of his kicking, and he just had a couple of decent moments that were very very important for the game, but overall it was pretty average from him.
Did complacency creep into the Irish players minds heading to Cardiff?
How important was Sam Prendergast's 50:22 in turning that game?#WALvIRE | #GuinnessM6N pic.twitter.com/J9LsCVZlrc— Virgin Media Sport (@VMSportIE) February 22, 2025
While Jamison Gibson-Park picked up yet another man-of-the-match performance, neither Horgan nor Matt Williams were entirely convinced by his outing, with Williams specifically slamming Jamison Gibson-Park's second-half decision to take a wasteful tap-and-go while Ireland were still trying to wind down the clock on their twenty-minute red card.
At the beginning of that second half when they've still got a sin-bin going or a 20 minute red card going, Ireland win a great penalty at the turnover. Instead of kicking into the corner and taking position and just slowing the game down which you always do when you're a man down in a sin-bin situation, Jamison Gibson-Park did a tap-and-go.
It was technically immature.
In a similar vain to his Prendergast criticism, Horgan remarked that Gibson-Park was far from his best on Saturday.
Gibson-Park he got man-of-the-match there; it was nowhere near one of his best performances. There weren't a huge number of other contenders for the MOTM, I thought Osbourne came into the game well after a slightly shakey start but other than that there was quite a lot of average play from Ireland.
Shane Horgan on Ireland's performance in Cardiff:
🗣 "I thought they were very poor."
🗣 "I don't think there's many positives."
🗣 "Really average performances."#WALvIRE | #GuinnessM6N pic.twitter.com/m9MUXcoMNn— Virgin Media Sport (@VMSportIE) February 22, 2025
Regardless of the performance, Ireland remain the only side unbeaten in the competition and maintain their poll position spot atop the Six Nations standings after the halfway mark today.
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