‘We should have had it wrapped up at the break’
going on in that game, some of it was our own doing but most of it was because we played against a tenacious Welsh side as well, so congratulations to them, but we stuck at it and brought them down in the end.’
After watching his young team go down fighting in Dublin, Gatland felt the final score didn’t reflect the efforts of his players.
But Farrell gave the Welsh boss’s post-match observations short shrift.
‘It probably should have been 40 or 44-7, there were a couple of tries that were notched off there,’ the Ireland boss countered.
‘I thought we got what we deserved in the end. If the forward pass from Robbie (Henshaw) hadn’t have been knocked off I thought that was going to be an unbelievable try, and again, it was finding a way to make inroads.
‘I actually thought they defended really well at times.
‘It was hard to break down but to get the bonus-point win, 31-7, I thought we should have been further up in the first half to be fair, but I do understand that this is a young Welsh side that’s trying to gain experience as well, and I thought they played bloody tough, that’s for sure.’
Farrell also questioned the decision of Italian referee Andrea Piardi to award the penalty try but praised his players’ reaction to Beirne’s temporary absence.
‘(I’m) a bit confused with the penalty try and when the ball is not down, or you can’t see whether the ball is down or not, I don’t know how that can be a penalty try.
‘But obviously it was (given), so we take that.
‘The pleasing thing about that is that we weren’t trying to run the clock down to get Tadhg back on the field, we were the team advancing and playing all the rugby.
‘Our intent through that period and that little bit of adversity got us going again.’
A fourth-round trip to Twickenham in a fortnight is the next challenge facing the defending champions, with Garry Ringrose and Hugo Keenan expected to be back in the selection equation.
Despite this resounding result, there will be plenty of fixes needed ahead of the trip to London, not least a misfiring lineout and high penalty count.
Asked what improvements are needed to claim another title, Farrell replied: ‘I can’t really answer that because we wanted to be better today, but the opposition always have a say in that, and Wales certainly did.
‘For the dominance that we had in the scrum in the first half, I felt we could have had a bit of a better lead going into half-time.
‘But having said that coming out in the second half I thought we were in the right place, but it was penalties all over the place and it was a bit stop-start, but we found our way again and found a way to get back going and get the result we were after.’
On his first international start – and only his third Ireland appearance – Frawley produced an assured display.
Filling the boots of Keenan –who started 32 of Ireland’s past 36 games before a knee injury ruled him out of contention yesterday, Frawley showed up well in the unfamiliar role of full-back.
‘He was solid enough,’ said Farrell.
‘A big day for him and Gats was saying all week they were going to test him.
‘He’s always solid. His skillset is sound and he is always solid under the high ball, has hands, and he communicates well as well. I suppose he will be glad that’s done now and he can build on it.’
Farrell also noted the impact of the Irish pack, with Ronan Kelleher, Ryan Baird and Jack Conan making big contributions in the second half. ‘It was huge,’ he added. ‘They were always going to come on and add some power in the first place, when you bring a bit of power on to the field when others are a bit tired, and for that ten minutes of the yellow card it was free flowing and there are people sucking it in big time. ‘They were always going to take advantage of that and they got us back on the front foot. That’s the job, that’s what we expect of them.’
Meanwhile, Ireland captain
Peter O’Mahony credited Wales for a dogged display.
‘We knew that we can have a bit more intent and a bit more accuracy but at the same time credit to them,’ said the Munster flanker.
‘I thought they defended and tackled well and some of their chop tackling was good.
‘We’ve been the other side of that card with Ireland – I certainly have – going in as underdogs and it’s a nice place to be. You can get stuck in and I thought they certainly did that.
‘There was times when they put us under pressure and times when we could have turned the screw with our attack but they were good defensively.’ Bundee Aki pinpointed one area for Ireland to work on.
‘We were ill-disciplined and that was big ups to Wales. They played incredibly well,’ said the man of the match.
‘THERE WERE TIMES WHEN WE SHOULD HAVE TURNED THE SCREW’