HAVING JUST FALLEN 18-10 behind Wales and with another six minutes of Garry Ringrose’s red-card window left, Ireland went to their kicking game.

They had been guilty of overplaying in the middle third of the pitch just before Tom Rogers’ try, with Jamison Gibson-Park quick-tapping a penalty just before an intricate Irish lineout play saw Dan Sheehan’s pass fail to connect with Sam Prendergast. The out-half knocked on and Wales scored on the counter-attack.

Lesson learned, Ireland steadied themselves and went to the air in the 45th minute.

Prendergast drops into the pocket and launches a garryowen behind the Welsh frontline.

The hangtime of nearly five seconds is ideal in allowing Mack Hansen to get into the contest against Wales fullback Blair Murray.

Hansen comes up with an important win for Ireland, just about earning rights to the ball as the pair of them come to ground.

Gibson-Park then makes a smart decision to kick again immediately. Before Prendergast’s kick, Wales have two backfield defenders in Murray [yellow below] and Gareth Anscombe [red].

Murray obviously comes forward into the aerial contest so Wales end up with only one defender in the backfield in Anscombe [red below], who has approached the aerial contest in case he needs to support Murray or gather the breaking ball.

Rather than dropping into the backfield to replace Murray there, Wales right wing Tom Rogers [blue] has stayed in the frontline worried about Ireland running the ball.

This all means that Wales’ backfield is left exposed and Gibson-Park calmly takes advantage by shaping to pass to his right, initially dragging Anscombe to that side, before kicking back over the ruck.

He judges the kick to perfection, rolling it behind Rogers and into touch 10 metres from the Welsh line.

With two kicks, 14-man Ireland have gained 40 metres of territory and get a chance to put pressure on the Welsh exit, ensuring they’ll get the ball back even if only from a lineout after Wales kick clear.

That’s what happens as scrum-half Tomos Williams finds touch outside the Welsh 22 and though Ireland initially have their lineout picked off, the ensuing pressure results in the home side creeping offside. Prendergast kicks three points off the tee for 18-13.

Gibson-Park produces a huge exit kick off the restart but then Ireland have to dig in defensively as Wales do their utmost to capitalise on their numerical advantage with a flowing passage of attack.

It’s the Irish scrum-half who helps to stem the tide. Gibson-Park [red below] is on the edge of the defence as Wales swing the ball from right to left.

Watch below as Gibson-Park brings linespeed in an initial bid to pressurise the Welsh passing but then adjusts out superbly onto wing Ellis Mee, tracking him across with good footwork to complete an excellent tackle.

Gibson-Park never gives Mee an easy cue to burn outside him or step back inside and the Welsh wing ends up throwing a loose offload.

Gibson-Park catapults straight back onto his feet looking for another involvement and he gets it as Taulupe Faletau offloads inside to Mee.

We can see above that Gibson-Park jackals alongside lock Joe McCarthy.

The scrum-half recognises that Mee is slightly isolated here and does a good job of standing off the contact as Andrew Porter tackles the Welsh wing.

That means Gibson-Park isn’t part of the tackle and therefore doesn’t have to release before going after the ball.

He and McCarthy win the race to the ball ahead of the arriving Welsh players. The presence of McCarthy is important because he takes the brunt of the first two Welsh clearout efforts.

That gives Gibson-Park a hint of extra time to get into a strong position before he’s cleared away, having already earned the penalty for Mee holding on.

This sequence underlines once again how important a defender Gibson-Park has become for Ireland. By his own admission, he had to learn to love this side of the game. He also admitted recently that he “couldn’t kick snow off a rope” when he arrived in Ireland but his kicking game is now a big strength.

Gibson-Park’s turnover here is another huge momentum win for Ireland and it’s accentuated by the introduction of Bundee Aki immediately after.

It’s a big moment as Ireland are restored to 15 players having already begun to gain more control of the game.

And as we’ll see, Aki will have a big say in them winning.

Prendergast’s kicking game comes to the fore again in the next passage of play as Ireland’s phase-play attack gets slowed up by the aggressive Welsh defence.

The Irish out-half senses that momentum has gone and decides to roll another ball in behind the Welsh defence.

Prendergast’s kick finds touch and leaves Wales with another pressurised lineout close to their tryline.

Frustratingly for Ireland, they give up a penalty as they look to apply that pressure, with McCarthy playing Faletau’s arm while he’s still in the air in the lineout.

But Ireland get back into this area within a minute and this time for their own lineout throw as Prendergast produces a sublime 50:22 kick.

It begins with Jamie Osborne fielding a Welsh kick and using his footwork to get Ireland going forward before a powerful carry from Finlay Bealham.

It’s a dominant carry from the replacement tighthead and Prendergast strikes brilliantly off the back of it.

It’s one of the finest kicks we’ve seen from any player in this Six Nations.

The quality of Bealham’s carry is crucial because it gives Prendergast time to get his spiral kick away before Wales can pressure him.

The out-half has to reach to his inside to take the pass.

That means he then has to get the ball across his body to the outside of his right foot.

Because Prendergast wants to hit a relatively low-trajectory spiral kick, he needs to be moving forward onto the ball to bring his momentum through the kick and give it the required power.

He also wants to kick the ball as it drops low towards the ground, again helping with its trajectory.

The shot above shows us just how close to the ground the ball gets as Prendergast is about to make contact, as well as how he has dropped the ball vertically on an angle across his foot rather than dropping it horizontally.

That means his connection will send the ball spiralling through the air, rather than flying end-over-end as many kicks in rugby do.

For example, going back to Prendergast’s earlier garryowen, we can see he looks to kick the endpoint of the ball.

The spiral is a very particular technique and one that is fiendishly difficult to master.

There is a higher margin for error than kicking end-over-end but the rewards can be great.

Spirals take longer to get away so all of this underlines the importance of Bealham’s excellent carry. 

Prendergast absolutely nails his kick in this instance and it’s all the more impressive because the 50:22 isn’t obviously on. Wales have their two backfield defenders in place and Evans [red below] is in a pretty textbook position.

He’s on the 15-metre line on his side of the backfield and certainly feels he’s in a good position.

But he’s beaten by the Prendergast kick. The ball rises swiftly up from his right foot but reaches its apex early and then begins to dip back down speedily as the tight rotation of the ball comes into play.

The ball bounces a metre from the touchline and skids straight out, giving Wales no chance of recovering.

Not only does the kick give Ireland an attacking lineout but it’s another major momentum win.

They score off the back of it, with strong, high-tempo carries from Peter O’Mahony, Ryan Baird, and Josh van der Flier earning a penalty advantage that Gibson-Park decides to float into the left corner with a kick off the outside of his right foot.

Gibson-Park’s accurate kick sends Lowe into a contest with Murray, who is suddenly under intense pressure.

Lowe does a wonderful job of providing the assist for Osborne.

The Ireland wing is aware of his surroundings, glancing down at the touchline while the ball is up in the air.

Lowe knows the law well and appreciates that he needs to leap from inside the playing area before batting the ball back infield. That way it doesn’t matter if he lands in touch-in-goal, as proves to be the case. 

Once he has his bearings, Lowe shows great athleticism to leap off his right foot and get a full extension before batting at the ball at the same time as Murray is trying to catch it overhead.

Lowe has an advantage in that he doesn’t need to catch the ball but this is great skill and timing in the air as he helps to redirect the ball to Osborne.

Ireland boss Simon Easterby said this is something attack coach Andrew Goodman and kicking coach Johnny Sexton have been working on with Ireland, while a visit from Dublin football Brian Fenton last week involved detailed discussions on aerial skills.

“That’s not by chance,” said Easterby. “That’s something that we’ve been working on. It doesn’t always come off but he was good enough to back it up and got the reward off it.”

One of the elements Ireland discussed with Fenton was ‘triple extension,’ which refers to getting full extension in a jump through the hip, knees and ankle. Lowe does so here as he explodes up into his one-footed jump to beat Murray by a matter of millimetres.

And so, another kick helps Ireland level the game at 18-18.

They continue to lean on their kicking game in the next few minutes, with Prendergast throwing a ‘spiral bomb’ into the mix.

Again, note how Prendergast releases the ball.

Most players will kick the endpoint of the ball when they’re launching an up-and-under like this but Prendergast opts to release it vertically here in order to give his towering kick a spiral flight.

That makes the kick much more difficult for receiving players to track accurately because the flight is far less predictable. Often, spiral bombs will swirl wildly as they come back down.

In this instance, Lowe chases well and beats Murray to bat the ball back but Wales win the scraps and Ireland concede a breakdown penalty as Aki puts his hands to ground before jackaling.

Ireland have to dig in defensively as a period of Welsh attacking pressure ensues and they’re fortunate when Prendergast misses a tackle on Mee but the Welsh wing’s offload to Max Llewellyn doesn’t go to hand.

There is cover in behind with Osborne in the backfield, while Sheehan might have scragged Llewellyn from the inside, but it’s still a let-off.

Ireland get a free-kick from the ensuing scrum and Prendergast puts his missed tackle behind him with an excellent kick of more than 40 metres into touch.

Wales respond by kicking off the lineout before Lowe produces another moment of brilliance for his team.

Lowe fields the kick then shows his power and balance by riding the tackle attempt from Welsh hooker Elliot Dee, rolling away towards the touchline and buying more time with a hitch step before he launches a kick.

Despite the close proximity of two Welsh players, it’s a superb kick as Lowe clears Mee and finds grass in behind.

Mee has to scamper back to retrieve the ball, then turn and assess his options, of which there are few.

Every one of Mee’s team-mates aside from Murray is ahead of him and he has little choice but to kick for touch as Baird hares towards him on the kick chase.

Ireland get a lineout just outside the Welsh 22 and launch an excellent attack. Hansen is held up over the tryline by a brilliant Murray intervention but Ireland return to the penalty advantage and Prendergast kicks them 21-18 ahead in the 67th minute.

Gibson-Park exits well off the restart and Ireland defend superbly from the Welsh lineout.

First, Lowe [pink below] shoots infield to shut down Wales’ bid to go wide.

The Welsh play off inside centre Ben Thomas, who has Evans [red] and left wing Joe Roberts [blue] swinging out the back of Llewellyn, while fullback Murray [yellow] is keen to get his hands on the ball out wide.

Ireland have Osborne moving up from the backfield out of shot but Lowe aggressively goes to shut the play down, focusing on the ball rather than the Welsh players moving to attack to width.

Evans doesn’t have time or space to tip the ball onto Roberts and has to duck back under Lowe’s tackle, with O’Mahony bringing the Welsh out-half to ground.

It’s a gainline win for Ireland on first phase and they come up with a turnover on second phase.

Sheehan is one of the two Irish forwards to fold around O’Mahony’s tackle and the Irish hooker chops in low on Aaron Wainwright, getting him to ground quickly so Aki can stay up on his feet, show a quick release, and jackal.

Aki just has enough time to get his hands on the ball and gift it a quick lift before Jenkins and Murray arrive to clear him away.

It’s enough to earn the penalty for Ireland and Aki celebrates another big defensive win.

There is little hesitation from Ireland with their decision on the penalty.

“Can we go for posts, please, sir?” says Prendergast to referee Christophe Ridley.

From just inside the Welsh half, Prendergast slots his shot at goal for a 24-18 lead in the 70th minute.

Gibson-Park delivers another massive exit kick to reach the Welsh 10-metre line and then Baird comes up with some strong lineout defence to wreck another platform for the home side.

The Welsh try a maul break with Faletau leaving the dummy maul but Baird makes an excellent read, opting against committing to the maul and smothering Faletau as he shears off.

It ruins any chance Wales have of launching a play from the lineout and they have to kick back to Ireland.

Hansen fields the kick but then we see how spiral kicks can go wrong when the connection is bad.

Prendergast looks to exit long down the middle of the pitch but completely mishits it.

It appears the ball ends up coming off the inside of Prendergast’s foot, causing it to veer wildly out towards the left and into touch on the full.

Gibson-Park has passed the ball back to Prendergast in the Irish 22 so Wales get a lineout in line with where he kicked.

All of a sudden, Ireland are back in a dangerous position as the Welsh get territory and a chance to edge back in front with a converted try.

Ireland defend the maul well but a couple of big carries from the Welsh forwards get them rolling before they eventually shift the ball to space beckoning wide on the left.

Hansen [red below] and Osborne [blue] end up doing enough to prevent Mee [black] from scoring but it’s about as close a call as you can get.

Wales swing from right to left as they get the ball outside Hansen with slick handling but the Ireland wing works hard to get back to Mee, with Gibson-Park pushing across on Hansen’s inside.

With Osborne working across in the backfield, Ireland do just enough to deny Mee.

It’s an excellent scramble from Hansen and Osborne to get to Mee and force him to reach for the line earlier than he ideally would have liked.

An extended TMO review ensues, concluding that the debutant has knocked on just before the tryline.

Ireland breath a sigh of relief then win a crucial scrum penalty as Bealham, Sheehan, and Jack Boyle do a job on the Welsh. 

With the minutes ticking by, Ireland are happy to continue kicking down into the Welsh half whenever they can and Matt Sherratt’s side increasingly look to make something happen with ball in hand.

Ireland’s defence gets on top, though, driving them backwards until van der Flier recognises the opportunity to barge through a Welsh ruck after a fine tackle by Beirne and Gus McCarthy on Jenkins.

The cue for van der Flier is the fact that Jac Morgan and Henry Thomas have their heads down, leaving them vulnerable to sudden attack. 

Thomas’ left arm is also down, offering van der Flier a lever to use as he barges through the Welsh prop.

Gus McCarthy follows van der Flier’s lead, dipping in low to get under Morgan’s shoulders and destabilizing him.

Boyle and Prendergast then flood in to latch onto McCarthy as they barge through as a trio, Boyle also wrapping up Welsh hooker Evan Lloyd as he joins the fray.

It’s superb collective defensive breakdown work from the young Irish internationals, following the experienced van der Flier through and leaving the ball exposed.

Beirne moves to scoop it up but Jenkins can’t resist shoving the ball back on Wales’ side and he’s penalised for playing the ball on the ground.

Prendergast slots the penalty from the left of the posts and Ireland have a nine-point lead with only two minutes left. It’s essentially game over.

There is still time for one more strong defensive set from Ireland as they earn another counter-ruck turnover. Replacement fullback Jack Crowley initiates it with a fine tackle on Mee as he closes up from the backfield onto the Welsh wing.

Lowe and Aki immediately sense the opportunity as they barge Morgan, who has had to retreat to get to the breakdown.

Crowley bounces up onto his feet and follows them through along with Baird.

In his desperation to save the situation, Evans arrives and goes straight off his feet.

So we get the comical sight of Beirne picking the ball up one-handed and then placing it back down, unsure of whether he’s legal.

But Ridley is already moving his whistle up to his mouth to signal the penalty for Ireland after Wales have gone off their feet.

It’s a penalty Easterby felt his men should have kicked into touch, pursuing a try and a bigger margin of victory, but they opt for goal and though Prendergast misses, Ireland have their comeback win.