In the build-up to Ireland's Six Nations clash with Wales on Saturday, it was difficult to remember in recent times when one team was so heavily favored in a match.
A common theme in the pre-match commentary revolved around Ireland's undeniable advantage and the hidden team that Wales would likely get.
After all, Ireland are a serious winning machine. Wales, by contrast, are a young team in transition and have not developed as much as a group of Irish players who have been through a lot in their five years together under Andy Farrell.
Taking all of this into consideration, and the fact that Ireland had a dominant first half and led 17-0 at half-time, it's clear that after staying the course through a tenacious second half, Coach Farrell said his team It was striking to realize that he pinpointed the resilience of To the Grand Slam for the second year in a row.
“That’s exactly right. [the resilience]'' said the Irish head coach as his team recorded an 18-game winning streak at home.
“I thought if we started with the final result and worked backwards, we could hang in there and get the bonus points and win 31-7.
“Everything happened in that game, some of it was our own actions but most of it was because we played against a tenacious Wales team, so congratulations to them.”
“But we stuck with it and eventually beat them.”
Ireland had made good progress at half-time, but Tadhg Beirne was found guilty of illegally stopping a Welsh maul early in the second half, giving Wales a glimmer of hope, resulting in a penalty try being awarded to the visitors. It was done.
This put Wales, who had not won a Six Nations in Dublin since 2012, back down 17-7 and put further pressure on the Irish defense, who withered in the closing stages.
Coach Warren Gatland said he watched his team perform well throughout the 80 minutes and felt Ireland's 24-point advantage at the end of the match was an incorrect reflection of the game.
Minutes later, the words were hurled at Farrell and his response drew laughter from those packed into the Aviva Stadium press conference room.
“It was probably 40, 44-7, right?” he said with a slight smile.
There were also some missed tries.
Farrell said he felt Ireland “got the result they deserved” and went on to say that thanks in no small part to the contributions from the bench, they achieved a bonus point for the third year in a row.
Much has been made about Gatland's willingness to introduce new players into the Test arena, with Farrell joining British & Irish Lion No. 8 (Jack Connan) in the starting XI from 2021 and Ireland. It has been suggested that there is a possibility of calling up two centurions (Cian Healy and Conor Murray). .
“I thought it was huge,” Farrell said when asked about the impact his bench had.
“They were always trying to come out and add power. That's the reason for the bench, to bring power to the field when people are a little tired.”
“For those 10 minutes, I [Tadhg Beirne] Even with the yellow card, they always tried to take advantage of it, which allowed us to get back into an advantageous position and that was the job. ”
Farrell retired Johnny Sexton and lost several players to injury, most notably Mack Hansen and Garry Ringrose, but was able to select most of his key players in the first two rounds of the Championship.
However, Hugo Keenan's injury caused a headache. The livewire full-back has two things going for him these days: being sensational and being a constant presence.
Farrell could have chosen to give the number 15 jersey to Jacob Stockdale, James Rowe or Jordan Larmour, but instead his combined Six Nations appearances to date will be given to a cameo in the second half against France. It was entrusted to Ciaran Frawley, a player who is worthy of appearing.
Gatland said earlier in the week that Wales would target the Leinster player, with flyhalf being his first choice position, but Farrell was pleased with the 26-year-old's performance after performing well on his full Championship debut. was. In the second half, we tried to reduce the pressure.
“Yeah, he was solid enough,” Farrell said.
“Obviously it was a big day for him and a day that tested him. Guts. [Gatland] I said all week that we were going to test him, and his skill set is sound.
“He’s always been good under the high ball, he’s got good hands and eyes and he’s a very good communicator.
“He'll be glad he did it and he'll learn a lot from it.”
With Ireland not firing on all cylinders, Farrell isn't sure how much they need to improve to beat England and Scotland and claim a second consecutive competition title.
“I can't really answer that because I wanted to do better today, but the opponent always has a say and Wales certainly had their say,” the Englishman said.
England may have their say within two weeks.After that, he was no longer able to win a slam tournament himself. lose to scotlandSteve Borthwick's side will be desperate to do what France, Italy and Wales failed to do and beat Ireland.