Brillaint Basham is one reason to be cheerful
Let’s face it, that was a tough watch. Welsh fans will be upset, angry and a little bit bemused at the fall from grace of last season’s champions, but they need to face up to reality when they get over the hangovers. Many good Welsh sides have gone to Dublin and got a spanking. I should know, I’ve been there! Ask Gareth Edwards or any of the Golden Greats of the Seventies about their record in the Irish capital.
It was pretty evident the Irish were playing on a different level, as befits a team now on a run of nine straight wins. It was an extension of what we see week in, week out from their provincial sides in the URC or Heineken Champions Cup.
More worryingly, perhaps, was what we saw in the Under 20 game on Friday night, when the Welsh youngsters were completely blown away. Irish rugby is on a steady upward curve on all levels and they are to be admired and congratulated for that.
The biggest difference for me was the speed with which they recycled the ball and kept winning the collisions. It was Leinster in green shirts, with the wily old fox, Johnny Sexton, pulling the strings.
Teams target him and batter him, yet he gets back up and gets on with inspiring his team. He made the most of the ball he received and conjured up some great back line moves that almost created space on the flanks for his wingmen. It was inventive, creative and a joy to watch.
But he couldn’t have been able to do that if the piano-lifters up front hadn’t given him and his scheming half-back partner Jamison Gibson-Park an armchair ride. They enjoyed twice as many gainline successes as the Welsh forwards and always made ground and returned the ball.
If it wasn’t Andrew Porter crashing int a red jersey it was his prop colleague Tadhg Furlong. Tadhg Beire was once again magnificent, so too James Ryan. In the battle of the back rows, the Welsh flankers failed to get the turnovers needed.
As hard as Ellis Jenkins and Taine Basham tried, along with Aaron Wainwright, they simply couldn’t get over the ball and stay there. That’s why it took Wales an hour to pick up a penalty. That’s how efficient and effective the Irish forwards were at the breakdown.
But what about Basham? Once again, he was brilliant. He carried, harried and tackled – then, thank heavens, he came up with that opportunist interception try at the death. If he hadn’t Wales would probably have been nilled for the first time in Six Nations history.
He simply picked up where he left off in the autumn with another man of the match performance from a Welsh perspective. What he needed was more support.
Ross Moriarty should have started the game, emptied his tanks and then been replaced early in the second half. It didn’t make much sense to me to see him coming on when the game was well and truly lost.
That is definitely a change I’d make for this weekend against the Scots. Other than that, where do you go to find any other candidates to take over from the current incumbents? Hopefully, Louis Rees-Zammit will be fully fit after suffering an ankle twist in the warm-up; Johnny McNicholl was alright, Liam Williams was a bit below par and the centres did their best to thwart the Irish raiders.
They had runners and support players running all over the place, but never conceded too much ground. I think the jury is still out on the experiment with Josh Adams at centre and his yellow card was a real kick in the nuts for the team. When he left it was 17-0 and by the time he returned it was 29-0. Ouch!
When you look at his collision with Johnny Sexton in slow motion it looks worthy of a yellow card. I’m not sure if he thought it was too good an opportunity to miss giving the Irish skipper a nudge, but at full speed it seemed to me to be a case of either he’s having it or I am.
The discipline throughout last season, the French defeat apart, was excellent and they will have to get back to those levels against Scotland.
The game is being played in front of a full house at Principality Stadium and the Scots will be coming off a win over England and they will fancy their luck after winning on their last visit in 2020 at Parc Y Scarlets.
Wales will have to muscle up and find that hard edge that Pivac and Dan Biggar admitted was missing at the Aviva Stadium. Modern day rugby is all about winning the collisions before running in the tries.
So before there is any more gnashing of teeth and wailing by the Welsh fans, save your carping until after the Scotland game. The fans need to be fully behind Dan Biggar and co to try to nurse them back to the levels we have come to expect from them.
Things can only get better and I’m sure they will. It will be a tough week in the Welsh camp, but they will rise again!
“It was Leinster in green shirts, with Johnny Sexton pulling the strings”