JOLLY GREEN GIANTS

Ireland cut Wales down to size

“And we won, that’s the most important thing. We are building momentum now, but obviously our biggest challenge is in a couple of weeks time.”

Andy Farrell and his players voted to let the shackles off after the lucky win over Scotland last time out.

The result was a much more cohesive performance against Wales.

Tries from Jordan Larmour and Tadhg Furlong, either side of Tomos Williams’ reply for Wales, saw the hosts lead 12-7 at half-time.

Josh van der Flier’s score after the break and Andrew Conway’s (above) 75th-minute try sealed the win.

Justin Tipuric’s injury-time score provided scant consolation for Wales. Ireland were inspired again by Sexton but there were big displays all over the pitch as their rivals’ dream of emulating the team of 1970-73 that won nine straight championship games was ended.

Despite running in four tries, the most intense celebration from the hosts came 16 minutes from time when Ireland won a scrum penalty against the head five metres from their own line.

Fortunate

It felt like the match-winning moment and so it proved as Conway scored Ireland’s fourth try in the 75th minute.

But for the second week running the men in green were fortunate that an opponent squandered a great try-scoring opportunity.

Hadleigh Parkes was the guilty party this time as he could not quite ground the ball over the line under pressure, to ensure Ireland remain in Triple Crown and Grand Slam contention.

Wales suffered their first defeat in the tournament since losing in Dublin two years ago and coach Wayne Pivac said: “If you look at the first half, we didn’t have enough ball or territory.

“It was about 60-40. We scrambled well. We showed them the edges which we worked on.

“We felt if we got possession we could turn the game around. That did not work and they were accurate.

“We put about eight balls down. That’s unacceptable. Too many turnovers. You can’t build constant pressure which Ireland did.”

The TMO chalked off Parkes’ ‘try’ after a video review but Pivac had no issues with the decision.

He said: “The decision was right. He didn’t have control.”

Tries: Larmour, Furlong, Van der Flier, Conway. Con: Sexton 2.

Tries: Williams, Tipuric. Con: Biggar, Halfpenny.