It was far from a vintage performance but Ireland dug in deep to come away from Cardiff with the win as they secured the Triple Crown.
Thanks to a crucial second half try from Jamie Osborne and penalties from the boot of Sam Prendergast Ireland were able to dig themselves out of a 18-10 hole to win 27-18.
Although they really had to fight for it, Ireland's win against Wales could show some huge positives. It was the first time in a while when Ireland really showed they could come back when the cards were stacked against them after their survived the 20 minutes down to 14-men and were able to come back. They also showed that they can win matches in slightly different ways as they didn't rely on scoring a load of tries and instead went to the boot of Sam Prendergast to secure the win.
However there are of course major concerns for Ireland, one of them being how Wales were able to look so potent on attack without a lot of structure in place. Interim head coach Matt Sherratt was only able to have 3 full training sessions with this Wales squad and even though he brought in veterans like Gareth Anscombe, Ireland really shouldn't have been in as much danger as they were.
Another talking point to bat Ireland with was their struggles at scrum time. Ireland gave away four scrum penalties in the first half and that gave Wales the platform to get into the lead. Even without the red card, the scrums were such an issue that Ireland would've had a hard time no matter what in that middle third of the match. Only when Finlay Bealham came off the bench in the second half did they feel somewhat secured.
It was ab issue that Stephen Ferris highlighted on RTÉ and also pointed out that Franc in particular will be looking to target that.
Wales certainly went after them at scrum time, won a couple of penalties in the first half. Andrew Porter, Thomas Clarkson you can be sure that the likes of Atonio, Cyril Baille and Marchand and the rest of those front-rowers for France will be licking their lips coming to Dublin because there were a few cracks there.
The lineout was okay, but what concerned me most was that Wales made easy metres with ball-in-hand. Wales don't have a huge pack or a huge team that can poke holes in you time after time but they just seem to get on the edge constantly.
Ireland have 'cracks' to fix ahead of the Six Nations clash against France in a fortnight. pic.twitter.com/6RYlW7AQhp
— RTÉ Sport (@RTEsport) February 22, 2025
Solidity at scrum time will certainly be key if Ireland are to beat France but one player that Ferris failed to name that could play a huge role is Rabah Slimani. The Leinster man has been called up for France for the first time since 2019 and one thing he has impacted majorly since moving to Dublin has been scrums.
Leinster have become a dominant scrum side and Slimani has won a plethora of key penalties as Leinster go on a 15-game unbeaten run. It may be conspiratorial but it's not out of the realms of possibility that he will be deployed against Porter, especially in the latter stages of the game to win some penalties, or lend his knowledge to France's tightheads on how to get the better of the Irish pack.
It will certainly be an interesting point in the build up to what could be another classic between Ireland and France.
