Daily Mirror (Northern Ireland)
ZAMM & BLAST
Ireland off to the worst possible start as youngster Louis’ brilliant try, Burns’ error and O’mahony sending-off prove too much for Andy’s men to overcome
THERE was no great escape for Ireland’s 14 men this time and for that reason they find themselves already playing catch-up after the opening weekend of the Six Nations.
CJ Stander was sent off in the first of the summer Tests in South Africa in 2016 but the visitors still pulled off a famous win.
In the World Cup in 2019, Bundee Aki was dismissed against Samoa but Ireland won easily.
In Cardiff yesterday, they played with one short for even longer than they had in Newlands – 20 minutes more in fact – after Peter O’mahony rightly saw red for hitting Tomas Francis like an exocet missile in a 13th minute ruck. Ireland had cause to gripe afterwards about Wayne Barnes’ decision not to card any Welshmen for later infringements.
But when it came down to it, the visitors were presented with a real chance to leave the Principality Stadium with four points instead of a losing bonus.
The clock was four minutes into the red when Billy Burns, on for Johnny Sexton after he suffered a 69th minute head injury, kicked for the corner in the hope of securing a five-metre lineout. From the sideline, Sexton urged the Ulster out-half to go for it. Much to a nation’s despair, Burns overcooked the kick and it went dead.
Barnes’ final whistle left the visitors stunned.
And Burns couldn’t believe it.
“Everyone is different,” said his provincial skipper Iain Henderson. “Some guys take a while to come around, some guys are ready for a crack immediately.
“Billy is upset. Billy puts a huge amount on his own shoulders a lot of the time and he has definitely, almost always, carried Ulster in the past. He will do for Ireland in the future as well.
“Obviously he’s trying to get every single last inch out of that ball. He slightly overcooked it.
“I thought he was excellent when he came on. I think, when he goes back and looks at it again, he’ll take a lot from the impact he made.”
Farrell confirmed that both O’mahony and Burns were “gutted” afterwards.
Ireland were dealt a number of body blows but led 13-6 at the break, having been 6-0 down initially, and were still in with that chance at the death.
The trouble started with O’mahony’s dismissal and that
was followed by James Ryan’s failure to return from a 23rd minute head injury assessment, although his replacement Henderson and lineout partner Tadhg Beirne were outstanding.
Guided by Sexton, the visitors played a possession game that flustered the Welsh and Ireland deservedly took the lead through Beirne’s try.
But tiredness and errors naturally crept in as the second half progressed. Wales’ two tries, from George North and Louis Reeszammit, could have been avoided.
After England’s loss to Scotland blew the championship wide open, it felt like Ireland shot themselves in the foot.
And new title favourites France are due in Dublin next weekend. “Obviously it’s frustrating but it would be even more frustrating if we were down by 20 points,” reflected Henderson, who admitted the Newlands scenario came to mind after O’mahony’s departure.
“It was a similar feel to what we had to do here. These guys showed a similar attitude and pride in wearing the jersey, to perform a man down against a quality Welsh side.
“You’ve got to go back and look at what we’ve done well. The first weekend in the Six Nations has shown us three very different but very exciting games.
“Next weekend will give a huge pointer of what direction the tournament is going to go. Johnny just spoke about how frustrating it is to show glimpses of what we’re going to become. Now we’ve got to start playing like the team we can become.
“I was excited to see us get a full rattle today and it was frustrating not to have 15 players. I look forward to when we do get that chance.”
Wayne Pivac breathed a huge sigh of relief after Wales hung on.
He said: “It was one of those games that kept us on the edge of our seats. I think after the sending off we conceded the next six penalties. It was very difficult to get our hands on the ball.”