Ireland Match Report

By Lestyn
March 23 2003

Wales 24-25 Ireland, Ronan O'Gara's injury time drop goal condemned a brave Welsh side to a likely wooden spoon, barring something special in Paris next week. But only seconds earlier Stephen Jones seemed to have capped off a famous Welsh comeback.

David Humphreys boot was the only thing that separated either side in the opening twenty minutes. The Ulster outside half kicked the visitors into an early lead with a well struck penalty. Mark Jones went off injured and was replaced by fellow Scarlet Matthew J Watkins.

Several Welsh attacks ended with little reward, Stephen Jones pulled a penalty wide, but the Llanelli outside was soon to more than make up for his miss. Quick passing from one side of the field allowed Jones to squeeze over in the corner, Steve Lander awarded the try after consulting the video referee. Jones converted it Himself from the touchline.

Jonathan Humphreys in His final international match, elected to go for the corner instead of the post to try and build on the good momentum We were starting to build up, but the resulting lineout was tamely knocked on and the Irish were let off the boil.

The other Humphreys, was add to His total with another penalty. Lander was quick to award another to the side in Green, penalising Martyn Williams for being offside, something that the Irish backs and forwards had been allowed to get away with time after time.

But yet again the Welsh attack came back will all guns blazing, but they found no way through stiff Irish resistance. A poor attempted clearance by Rhys Williams gave the advantage back to the away team right on our line. The ball found it's way out left to Geordan Murphy who cut the Welsh defence and off loaded to open side flanker Keith Gleeson who evaded a weak Rhys Williams lunge to dive over right in the corner. 14-7 at half time, a poor reflection on a game in which We had been the more dominate side.

Conceding a try right before half time is a major blow, but to concede one just after half time is unforgivable. Gleeson came back to haunt us, the Leinster open side was sent into score His second by David Humphreys after another poor clearance, this time by Matthew Watkins who's fluffed kick was charged down. Jonathan Humphreys then bowed out for the final time in international rugby, the Hooker looked despondent when He was forced off by a recurrence of His shoulder injury. Mefin Davies was a more than adequate replacement. The Ponty player had a big impact on the game.

Ireland pushed on with several attacks in to our twenty two, trying to build on a 19-7 lead. They put heavy pressure on the Welsh line, but it kept it's resolve. They had a try ruled out by the video referee thanks to clever work by Martyn Williams. The lucky escape proved only to inspire us into a classic comeback.

Mefin Davies broke through a tackle, the ball was taken on by a much improved Charvis who fed Rhys Williams who burst into space before offloading to Martyn Williams, who stretched over to touch down and cap a wonderful move. Stephen Jones converted to make it 19-14, the next score was to be vital.

With twenty minutes left on the clock, Iestyn Harris replaced Mark Taylor. Taylor had kept O'Driscoll out all afternoon, but the better attacking options offered by Harris were needed now. David Humphries struck again with the boot, to extend His sides lead to eight points. Harris's impact was felt early as he superbly sent Stephen Jones burrowing through. Jones was pulled down just short, but the ball went wide for Gareth Thomas to touch down in the right hand corner.

Hopes of a Welsh victory were building, in a totally emotionally absorbing period of play. O'Gara replaced David Humphreys. Stephen Jones had a chance to take us into the lead for the first time, but His penalty attempt from 50 yards was short. Martyn Madden replaced Gethin Jenkins in the front row, Jenkins had a great game for such an inexperienced player.

As the clock ticked on, Lander penalised Ireland at a scrum in the Welsh 22. Jones kicked for touch on the left hand side, the resulting lineout was taken well at the back and Dwayne Peel passed back to Jones who took a swipe with His boot, the ball seemed to stay in the air for ages I like many in the crowd froze and when the ball dropped sweetly the other side of the posts the crowd exploded into uncontrollable ecstasy. For nearly a minute it felt like after Gibbsy had score against England in 99. But this game was to have a different outcome.

One the poor errors of our game over the last few year has been collecting balls from kick off, and it proved to be fatal this time. Good following up by the Irish forwards caused chaos among the Welsh forwards and Llewellyn knocked forwards. Stringer laid the ball back to O'Gara who had all the time in the world to slot over a drop goal and turn ecstasy into pure and utter despair.

With a minute of injury time gone, desperate attack saw the ball sent wide with an overlap on the left.. What happened next was simply an unforgivable refereeing error. Justin Bishop deliberately prevented the ball from going out to the Welsh backs by clubbing it forward with His right hand. If the ball had gone past Him We would have scored, but instead of blowing up for a deliberate knock on and a penalty in our favour, Lander raised His arm to show an advantage was being played, but swiftly put it down. He bottled it completely. A Jones drop goal attempt was charged down and Shanklin tried to run the ball back, but when He threw the ball inside Him after a decent run it was swallowed up by the Irish forwards and kicked dead by Stringer. As I made my way up the steps of the stand and out, most of the crowd looked in a shocked state. And probably as Gutted as I felt.

It's hard really to sum matches like these up, all I can say that it was nice to leave the ground feeling proud of the players for once. We could quite have easily one it in the end, but when Your at the bottom of the table luck doesn't go Your way, in contrast to the Grand Slam challenging Irish. Twenty years without a win against the Irish in Cardiff is a reflection on Welsh Rugby's decline, but the performance yesterday showed that maybe in two years time We may buck that trend, I have more hope for the World cup than I did before.

I still feel that Hansen needs to make a few changes ahead of the France game. Possibly moving Iestyn Harris into the inside centre role, A new full back is needed, as Rhys doesn't really confident at Full Back, who that maybe I really don't know. Humph's retirement leaves the door open for Mefin Davies to return at Hooker next week. Other than that I wouldn't change a thing.

Red Dragon Rugby Man of the Match - Stephen Jones

Jones put in a magnificent all round display with the boot as well as in open play. The opening try was a credit to His determined style of play, as was the break that led to Gareth Thomas's try.

 

Wales 24

Tries: S Jones, M Williams, G Thomas Cons: S Jones 3 Drop: S Jones

Ireland 25

Tries: Gleeson 2 Pens: Humphreys 4 Drop: O'Gara

Attendance: 72,000

Wales: R Williams (Cardiff); M Jones (Llanelli), M Taylor (Swansea), T Shanklin (Saracens), G Thomas (Bridgend); S Jones (Llanelli), G Cooper (Bath); I Thomas (Llanelli), J Humphreys (Bath, capt), G Jenkins (Pontypridd), R Sidoli (Pontypridd), G Llewellyn (Neath), C Charvis (Swansea), M Williams (Cardiff), D Jones (Llanelli).
Reps: M Davies (Pontypridd), M Madden (Llanelli), S Williams (Northampton), G Thomas (Bath), D Peel (Llanelli), I Harris (Cardiff), M Watkins (Llanelli).


Ireland: G Murphy (Leicester); J Bishop (London Irish/Eng), B O'Driscoll (Leinster, capt), K Maggs (Bath), D Hickie (Leinster); D Humphreys (Ulster), P Stringer (Munster); M Horan (Munster), S Byrne (Leinster), J Hayes (Munster), M O'Kelly (Leinster), L Cullen (Leinster), A Quinlan (Munster), K Gleeson (Leinster), A Foley (Munster).
Reps: F Sheahan (Munster), J Fitzpatrick (Ulster), D O'Callaghan (Munster), E Miller (Leinster), G Easterby (Llanelli), R O'Gara (Munster), J Kelly (Munster).

Ref: Steve Lander (England)