ADULT CHAT LINE
THERE was only one, fleeting moment when this Welsh triumph, and with it a record third Grand Slam for their head coach Warren Gatland, felt in doubt.
It came not when Hadleigh Parkes, having scored a try after just 69 seconds, raced down the other end of the pitch five minutes later to haul down Jacob Stockdale as the Ireland wing homed in on the tryline.
Nor was it when a minute later George North had to leave the field with an arm injury, forcing Gatland to bring on Dan Biggar, his match-closer supreme, around an hour sooner than he would have liked.
It was a few moments after that, when Alun Wyn Jones crumpled to the turf, grimacing with the pain of a knee injury. The raucous Principality Stadium was suddenly hushed. The Wales captain was treated, strapped, and the cheer that greeted his return to his feet was louder than that for Parkes’ try.
Wales are no one-man team, there is a rich seam of talent running through these players, but without Jones they would lack the indefinables; leadership, commitment, composure, discipline.
While Gatland sets the standards off the field, Jones is their personification of them on it, the totem around which the players gather, the quietly eloquent law graduate who can build a relationship with any referee, the colossus whose influence in driving Wales into second place in the world rankings is just as great as that of the master coach.
This was Jones’s fourth Six Nations title, on the day he equalled Gethin Jenkins as the mostcapped Welshman with 134, and extended their record winning run to 14 Tests. The Ospreys lock is 33, but nothing can halt his 6ft 6ins, 18st 8lbs frame for long.
At half-half-time here, and despite the sore knee, he led his team in carries, metres made, tackles completed.
“What he has done for the Ospreys and for Wales, he has to go down as one of the greatest,” said Parkes, like Gatland and man of the match Gareth Anscombe, a Kiwi taken fully into Welsh hearts.
“He’s the leader, the one we look up to, the one that steps up week in week out, every game, and puts in an Team P W 1 Wales ....... 5 5 2 England .. 5 3 3 Ireland .... 5 3 4 France .... 5 2 5 Scotland 5 1 6 Italy ........ 5 0 D
0 0 1 1 0 2 0 3 1 3 0 5 For 114 184 101 93 105 79 65 101 100 118 125 167 Diff BP 49 3 83 4 1 2 -25 2 -20 3 -88 0 80-minute every time.”
When the official photographer demanded the medalled players come together on the pitch, it was Jones who ensured every last one of them would be in the picture. “It’s the mark of the man,” added Parkes. “He’s all about this team. He’s enjoying his footy and running around like he’s 21 again. He’s very special, a very nice man, very humble. “What a leader, what a captain, what a bloke.” Wales were 16-0 down at half-time in Paris on the opening night of the championship; here, they lead by the same score at the interval. With Jones on the field there was never a danger of a similar turnaround. Barring that imaginative Stockdale breakout, sparked by Johnny Sexton’s (above) Pts 23 18 14 10 9 0 performance penalty punt not for territory but for the opposite touchline where the wing was at full pelt, Ireland were poor, looking spent and so far from the team which beat New Zealand in November.
But much of that came from the relentless physicality of the Welsh, with and without the ball, and the pressure of the scoreboard.
Anscombe, whose chip with the outside of his right boot for Parkes to collect and score was a thing of beauty, kept it turning with three more penalties.
And it was only after the clock turned red the Irish replacements breached their line. Jordan Lamour went in under the posts, and Jack Carty converted, despite a cadre of Welsh jerseys attempting to charge him down. Just as Jones would have wanted.
WALES – Try: Parkes. Con: Anscombe. Pens: Anscombe 6. IRELAND - Try: Lamour. Con: Carty.