Ireland stuttered on their way to beating Wales in their penultimate Six Nations game, setting up a potential championship decider with Scotland next week in Dublin.
From Andy Farrell's perspective, it’s another win on the board while rotating some of his team.
There will be parts of the performance that must have caused frustration. Coaches and the public view the game very differently.
The team have a much deeper awareness of what they were trying to create and deliver from a strategic perspective.
Brief moments within the game can swing momentum drastically. Tom O’Toole’s unfortunate knock on immediately before Jack Conan’s try in the opening quarter derailed Ireland’s complete dominance.
Ireland overplayed from there, leading to sloppy moments that handed Wales the opportunity to retaliate.
A Louis Rees-Zammit 50:22 led to Irish ill-discipline from the resultant setpiece and instead of a 14-point lead, Wales had clawed them back to 7-3.
For all of Ireland’s dominance and attacking fluidity, Wales were well within touching distance without firing a shot.
If anything, they had the next opportunity to take control. Ireland’s two-sided attack challenged their opponents.
Wales survived through sheer pride and a Dewi Lake turnover sparked a resurgence.
Poor Irish discipline led to another moment. Rhys Carre was held up over the try line after a tap and go penalty.
Had he managed to place the ball on the ground, Ireland would have been shell-shocked after such control in the opening quarter.
The early exchanges of Ireland’s attacking game struck me as a team that knew they would get the victory.
A mismatch on paper can often lead to complacency within the in-game strategy. Where Ireland usually move the ball to cut through a shifting defence, they attacked wider until their own errors ensued and Wales were given a lifeline.
The tight passes that led Ireland to their opening dominance grew wider, and passing errors resulted in change of tack.
Wales defended higher in the outside channels as Ireland threw the ball into their path. Irish attackers became individuals instead of the cohesive unit we’re used to.
In the closing ten minutes of the first half, they returned to their power game, blunting their attack until they strangled the Welsh defence and Jack Crowley (above) took advantage to create a bit of daylight at 12-3.
Before that, Tadhg Beirne was held up over the line and Alex Mann rescued Wales with an intercept from laboured Irish goal line attack.
It looked like they were figuring out who should score the try instead of getting the job done as efficiently as possible.
While it’s easy to be negative about the opportunities that the hosts squandered, their coaches will tally those missed opportunities as positive moments to motivate and manipulate Ireland into a better performance this weekend.
Ireland flicked from a wide game to a blunt and powerful one, showing their adaptability with in-game tactics.
That’s pleasing for players and coaches. Contrary to that satisfaction, they had possession with less than a minute remaining in the half and conceded an awful try to reduce their lead to just two points at half-time.
The Irish aerial contest is probably second on the list of improvements needed heading into their final showdown with Scotland.
It was an area that failed them in Paris in the opening weekend, it progressed rapidly against both Italy and England, and took another step backwards at the weekend.
Very little fell in their favour from with regards to the aerial battle.
They gathered some scraps on the ground, but gave up just as much. A loose ball that Joe McCarthy plucked was one of the highlights from their kick battle.
He gathered the scraps from an aerial challenge and kicked ahead to flip the pressure back on Wales. There were no standout dominant moments in their air from Irish backs.
The scrum is another major area of improvement for Ireland heading into the weekend.
They came out of the blocks again in the second half and scored from a quick tap penalty that led to Conan's try.
They were 19-10 up at that stage with a bit of a stalemate third-quarter otherwise.
Nicky Smith’s introduction at loosehead caused Ireland and Tadhg Furlong a lot of concern.
He’s an impressive scrummager in his own right, but Furlong is Ireland’s most trusted weapon in the scrum and he didn’t stay on the pitch long enough to sort the problem.
Ireland will need to find answers much quicker if they’re going to dominate against Scotland.
It was a sequence of scrum infringements that gave Wales the access to bring the score to 19-17, before McCarthy’s energy led to Ireland’s most impressive try of the day, which resulted in Jamie Osborne crossing for the bonus point try.
Again, Crowley’s miss from the kicking tee was a moment that scuppered momentum. A potential two-score game remained a one-score game, and Ireland had to find another to put the contest to bed.
Moments swung momentum throughout this game. O’Toole’s knock-on allowed Wales a lifeline.
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Rhys Carre failing to ground the ball allowed Ireland to survive the Welsh comeback. Scrum moments allowed Wales another bit of access before Ireland put them away.
Whoever was able to back up their score with another one would have taken this game and it was Ireland that managed to gain that momentum for a second time following Robert Baloucoune’s flick pass to Ciarán Frawley.
It led to the 22-metre entry and subsequent offside penalty that gave Ireland a 10-point lead.
There are positives and negatives to bring into one last round this weekend. I’m sure Farrell will be focusing on the amount of possession and number of chances created to build on Ireland’s belief for this weekend.
A Six Nations championship is on the line if Ireland can beat Scotland and hope that England pull together one big performance in the 2026 tournament to beat France in Paris.
Scotland are riding the crest of a wave after putting 50 points past Shaun Edwards and France.
The focus will be on Simon Easterby to win the momentum swinging moments against an exciting Scottish side.
Follow a live blog on Ireland v Scotland in the Six Nations on Saturday from 2.10pm on the RTÉ News app and on rte.ie/sport. Listen to commentary on Saturday Sport on RTÉ Radio 1
Watch Wales v Italy (4.40pm) and France v England (8.10pm) in the Six Nations on Saturday. Follow a live blog on France v England on the RTÉ News app and on rte.ie/sport
Watch Ireland v Scotland in the Under-20 Six Nations on Sunday from 3.15pm on RTÉ2 and RTÉ Player
