Ireland 38
Wales 41
Murray Kinsella reports from Donnybrook
A WILD GAME in Dublin that neither side ever truly gained control of, but Ireland’s error count and a poor defensive display saw them come up just short against a clinical Welsh side.
There was more attacking brilliance from captain Tommy O’Brien, man of the match Jack O’Sullivan and their side as they scored five tries, but Ireland’s failure to flow the Welsh tide in defence was costly.
Noel McNamara’s side conceded six tries to the Welsh – taking their total in three games to 16 – and some of those scores will have been far too soft for their liking.
There was a madcap finish as O’Brien’s late try brought Ireland back to within three points in a second half that entertainingly swung between the teams in terms of momentum, McNamara’s men finding response after response to Welsh scores.
But, utimately, it’s a second defeat in three games for this Irish team, albeit with two bonus points from this clash.
There were real positives in the performances of the likes of double try-scorer O’Sullivan, impressive inside centre Angus Curtis and the experienced Jonny Stewart, but Ireland will be rueing their errors, particularly in a first-half that left them trailing 19-10.
They will look to shore up their defence and restarts before the final two Six Nations clashes with Scotland and England, aware that they shot themselves in the foot far too often here.
Ireland made a poor start as debutant James Hume was beaten in defence and then captain O’Brien knocked-on, with Wales scoring directly from the subsequent scrum.
Dragons number eight Taine Basham, who has already played Pro14 rugby, picked from the base and beat tackle attempts from Jonny Stewart and Sean Masterson before a sumptuous offload to scrum-half Harri Morgan, who freed Thomas Rogers to finish.
A break from Ulster’s Curtis lifted Ireland but then James McCarthy was pinged for not releasing the ball after the tackle and Wales rumbled their maul to within metres of the Irish tryline, from where powerful lock Max Williams crashed over.
Fullback Cai Evans – son of former Wales and Lions wing Ieuan – converted before Ireland out-half Harry Byrne got his side onto the scoreboard with a penalty.
But Ireland’s errors continued and when Curtis’ pass went to deck, the Welsh broke from their own half and into the Ireland 22, from where their narrow carrying tactics led to flanker James Botham – grandson of cricketing legend Ian Botham – barreling over for a try converted by Evans.
The TMO ruled out a possible reply try from Stewart soon after, as Ireland briefly settled into the game.
Jack Aungier and Jordan Duggan fired at scrum time to win a momentum-lifting scrum penalty and Ireland finished the half strongly, as hooker Ronan Kelleher broke through from a scrappy lineout and then Curtis finished wonderfully, beating two tackles and stretching out to dot down to the left of the posts.
Byrne’s conversion left Ireland trailing 19-10 at the break, but their start to the second half was dire.
Directly from receiving Byrne’s restart, Wales wing Joe Goodchild broke the Irish defence and linked with Morgan, who passed inside to Leicester Tigers blindside Tommy Reffell, whose pace took him under the posts for a converted try.
Ireland recovered quickly, with number eight O’Sullivan producing an excellent solo try as he fended a Welsh tackle and strode under the posts for Byrne to convert.
Just four minutes later, Ireland conceded a fifth try, as Kelleher’s lineout throw inside the Ireland 22 flew over and beyond Charlie Ryan, where Botham pounced and beat two weak tackle efforts on his way to the tryline.
The frenetic nature of the contest continued as impressive Munster man O’Sullivan grabbed his second try, powering over under the posts for a TMO-confirmed score that Byrne converted.
But directly from the restart, Wales regained possession and outside centre Callum Carson was able to pick out Ireland tighthead Aungier for a one-on-one he won to cross for the sixth Welsh try, again converted by Evans.
Scrum-half Stewart conjured the next Irish reply when he darted over on a clever arcing line from the base of a ruck, with Byrne’s 100% record continuing off the tee to leave Ireland trailing 38-31.
As the game entered the final 10 minutes, Wales took the opportunity afforded by a scrum penalty to open their lead to ten points, Evans hitting the three points off the tee.
Replacement out-half Conor Dean missed touch with a penalty in the 72nd minute to deny Ireland a good attacking platform, but they once again produced a brilliant try to give themselves hope.
Sub prop Tom O’Toole offloaded to Ryan, who found right wing O’Brien surging up on his shoulder to take a pass and streak clear, Stewart drop-kicking the 75th-minute conversion that left Ireland within three point at 41-38.
Unfortunately for the Irishmen, it only proved to be a consolation score as they came away with just two losing bonus points.
Ireland scorers:
Tries: Angus Curtis, Jack O’Sullivan [2], Jonny Stewart
Conversions: Harry Byrne [4 from 4]
Penalties: Harry Byrne [1 from 1]
Wales scorers:
Tries: Thomas Rogers, Max Williams, James Botham [2], Tommy Reffell, Callum Carson
Conversions: Cai Evans [4 from 6]
IRELAND: Michael Silvester; Tommy O’Brien (captain), James Hume (Hugh O’Sullivan ’73), Angus Curtis, James McCarthy (Angus Kernohan ’67); Harry Byrne (Conor Dean ’71), Jonny Stewart; Jordan Duggan (James French ’71), Ronan Kelleher (Diarmuid Barron ’76), Jack Aungier (Tom O’Toole ’71); Cormac Daly (Charlie Ryan ’30), Jack Dunne; Sean Masterson (Ronan Foley ’72), Matthew Agnew, Jack O’Sullivan.
WALES: Cai Evans; Joe Goodchild (Dafydd Smith ’65), Callum Carson, Max Llewellyn, Thomas Rogers (Ben Thomas ’67); Ben Jones, Harri Morgan (Dan Babos ’62); Josh Reynolds (Rhys Carre ’48), Iestyn Harris (Dewi Lake ’62), Rhys Henry (Kemsley Mathias ’48); Owen Lloyd (Jack Pope ’76), Max Williams; Tommy Reffell, James Botham (Morgan Morris ’62), Taine Basham.
Referee: Sam Grove White [SRU].
The42 is on Instagram! Tap the button below on your phone to follow us!
Big teams big decisions same old story
And what happens when a small team gets a dodgy decision against another small team? How does that fit into the cosmic universe of corrupt referees, match fixing and football NWO with Alex Ferguson sitting at head of the table? And while we’re at it who are the ‘big’ teams or does each match have a ‘big’ and ‘small’ team? If Newcastle play crystal palace are they the ‘big’ team then? Do all the officials agree at the start of the season who are the big and small teams? Is it league position or finance determines it? Cheers
Stop talking sense man!
Great strike should have been given, Hart appealed in hope more than anything.
Goalkeeper would never of saved it and the Newcastle player did get out of the way. Keeper hadn’t even taken a step when the ball hit the net never mind have one player out of how many in his way? I’m a goalkeeper myself the sea of players in front of him would cause more of a problem than the one player in the six yard box! Line of sight is from the ball to keepers eyes!
The officials don’t have to determine if the goalkeeper can save the shot, or if his line of sight is obstructed. If there’s a player standing in an offside position, he’s offside.
You’re wrong there. The ref does have to interpret if a player in an offside position is interfering with player. The rules have moved on from an automatic free kick being given for offside.
Gouffran is standing in an offside position, the officials gave offside. Obviously they saw it as interfering with play. To show that he’s not interfering with play, Gouffran should of been running away from goal. Deciding if the goalkeeper could make the save is irrelevant.
What relevance has running away from goal got to do with anything? He could be running towards goal and still not be interfering with play.
If Gouffran is not making an effort to get back onside, why should he get the benefit of the doubt?
If Gouffran’s not making an effort to get back onside, why should he get the benefit of the doubt?
I give up. You haven’t a clue mate.
Can you explain how Gouffran is not interfering with play? He’s not injured, he’s not making an effort to get back onside. He’s standing right in front of the goal.
Gouffran is not interfering with play because his being there is completely irrelevant to the scoring of the goal, if he was not in the position he was the goal would still have been scored, he had absolutely nothing to do with that ball going into the back of the net, whether by interfering with the opposition or the flight of the ball hence he was not interfering with play.
How is it completely irrelevant to the scoring of the goal? Gouffran is in the six yard box next to the goalkeeper. He had to move out of the way of the ball as it went towards goal.
He didn’t touch the ball and wasn’t near the keepers line of sight or any defenders who may have blocked it, if he wasn’t there the ball would have gone into the net in exactly the same fashion as it did which makes his being there completely irrelevant. Newcastle gained absolutely no advantage from him being in the six yard box and Man City gained no disadvantage therefore he did not interfere with play.
Gouffran is in the way of Joe Hart. That’s a disadvantage for Man City and an advantage for Newcastle.
Can you explain how being on the other side of the 6 yard box, completely out of the line of sight between where the ball was struck and Joe Hart in anyway interferes with the keepers ability to save the shot. If you have watched that incident more than once and are still of the opinion that Gouffran is in anyway impeding Joe Hart well then I’m afraid you seriously need to consider your ability to look at these kind of situations objectively.
Joe Hart can’t commit to stop the shot because he doesn’t know if Gouffran is going to flick the ball in or leave it.
I wouldn’t waste your breath any further Sean. I thought this guy was an idiot earlier, now I think he must be trolling.
@ Mark Stewart. All I’ve done is provided a counterpoint to your argument. That’s hardly trolling. There’s no need for childish name calling.
You’re clutching at straws, Gouffran being in an offside position means that if he had of flicked the ball he would have interfered with play and would have been correctly ruled offside so I can assure you Joe Hart would not be likely to allow that to prevent him from making the save, it was simply just a well struck shot to the corner which the keeper didn’t have a chance of saving, you see it all the time when a strike like that goes in the keepers are often just standing watching it go in, nothing to do with him feeling like he couldn’t commit he was just beaten by a very good shot.
The officials don’t have to decide if Hart can save the shot. The position that Gouffran has taken means Hart can’t even attempt to dive for it. Gouffran doesn’t have to touch the ball to interfere with play. Being in the way of Joe Hart is how he’s interfering with play.
I never mentioned anything about officials determining if Joe Hart could save it or not so I don’t understand the relevance of that, I merely stated that him standing still had nothing to do with a fear to commit and more to do with him being beaten by a well struck shot, this was in reply to your comment about him being afraid to commit himself which is extremely unlikely as Gouffran couldn’t touch the ball as he was in an offside position, so Joe Hart as an experienced goalkeeper would be well aware to play the ball and not waste his time thinking about the player who can’t touch the ball. I have been over it numerous times now and its plain to see Gouffran had no impact on the situation given the position he was in and should have been deemed as not interfering with play because of this, the goal would have been scored in exactly the same way had he been at the order end of the pitch. I will now take Marks advice and stop wasting my breath, as we appear to be on the verge of constantly repeating ourselves.
Clearly Mark Stewart and Sean don’t know the rules of the game and are making things up as they go along. Number 1:Gouffran is in an offside position. Number: 2 Gouffran is standing directly in front of the path the ball and had to duck to stop it hitting him, therefore he is interfering with play. That’s all that’s required for the officials to give offside. Saying that Gouffran didn’t touch the ball is irrelevant, he’s still interfering with play. Saying that Hart wouldn’t of saved the shot is also irrelevant. Gouffran is still in Hart’s way while in an offside position. Stating that Hart must determined if a player is offside or not in order to act is the most moronic point. Hart has to protect his goal first instead of waiting for a decision from officials. Otherwise he would look very foolish. It’s up to the officials to give offside not Joe Hart.
Specsavers come to mind.
Of course Hart can commit to saving the ball, in the knowledge that Gouffran is in an offside position if he decides to touch the ball. Perfectly good goal.
Your a goalie, isn’t most of ur best stuff caught out of the corner if your eye? The fact that the striker as you say had to get out of the way of the shot, isn’t that an action, isn’t that interfering with play , he definitely was on harts radar, moving to avoid getting his head removed, and too lazy and dopey to get back onside, I think ’twas a great decision.
As a city supporter I believe the goal was good just a thought though was it the fact he got out of the way he issue if he hadn’t the ball would have hit him and therefore he was interfering with play just a thought for debate as I said it should have stood
Good decision, keepers sight would Off been blocked by the offside player.
Wowzers that’s a ridiculous statement!
clearly not
Gouffran is standing in line with the goalkeeper making no effort to get back onside. If he’s not going to try to get back onside, he shouldn’t get the benefit of the doubt from the officials.
Stand in a goal, with a player on the opposite side. Get another player to take a shot, preferably pummeling it into the top corner where most keepers wouldn’t reach. As he hits it try dive to save it! Did you save it?
No cause it was a screamer! No keeper in any league would of saved that!
Some people should watch this again. Gouffran is one of 3 in an offside position ! The most central player IS causing a problem to defender & keeper. You can argue Gouffran isn’t ‘interfering’, but then wtf else is he doing ? If you’re in the penalty area you should be causing a problem to the opponents defence.