Wales outfox Ireland to win the Triple Crown

In windy conditions at Croke Park today Wales deservedly defeated Ireland by 16-12 to win the Triple Crown. Most of the positive rugby was played by Wales. Ireland dominated the first twenty minutes of the first half. However as this half progressed Wales came into the game more and more and could quite possibly have scored two tries. In fairness a tackle by Mike Phillips denied Ireland’s Shane Horgan an almost certain try.

The Irish strategy of breaking up the flow of the play and slowing down the game was coming apart as half time approached. Ireland made little effort to play creative rugby. Ronan O’Gara rarely passed the ball preferring instead to resort to the boot. This reflected Eddie O’Sullivan’s thinking that it was best to ensure that Wales would not play free flowing rugby Wales would have been on level terms at half time were it not for the idiocy of Mike Phillips who used the knee on Marcus Horan. The penalty awarded to Wales under the Irish posts was reversed and Phillips received the yellow card.

In the second half Wales weathered the loss of Phillips. The Welsh forwards kept possession of the ball and ran the clock down until Phillips returned. Wales controlled the ball for most of the second half and went through the phases. The Welsh front five was more than a match for Ireland. A fine try by Shane Williams was the decisive score. Welsh indiscipline could have been costly. Martyn Williams was sin binned for a trip. Warren Gatland will undoubtedly administer a tongue lashing to Phillips and Martyn Williams. In the last five minutes the Welsh forwards retained complete possession of the ball and snuffed out all possibility of a late Irish try.
For Wales Alun Wyn Jones , Shane Williams, Ryan Jones and Gavin Henson starred. For Ireland Rob Kearney, Eoin Reddan, Paul O’Connell and Shane Horgan were best.

It is time for Eddie O’Sullivan to jettison the negative approach. Ireland had sufficient class players to defeat Wales today. The conservative and spoiling approach is unworthy of skilful players and cost Ireland the game. Spoiling tactics have their place in any game but creativity is a sine qua non. The ham string injury to Brian O’Driscoll rules him out for the game against England at Twickenham. Hopefully Geordan Murphy and Girvan Dempsey will return. It is time for Eddie O’Sullivan to take risks.

Scores
Ireland: Pens: O'Gara 4

Wales: Try: S.Williams
Con: S.Jones
Pens: S.Jones 2