Wales avenged their Dublin defeat from last year as they dashed Ireland’s Grand Slam and Triple Crown hopes in an electric RBS 6 Nations encounter at the Millennium Stadium.
Both teams gave it their all in pursuit of two precious Championship points, with Scott Williams’ 62nd-minute try and Leigh Halfpenny’s accurate goal-kicking proving crucial in getting Wales over the finish line.
Ireland recovered from a sloppy start where the Welsh were able to take a 12-0 lead thanks to Halfpenny’s boot, but individual errors from the visitors and an almost watertight Welsh defence made for an ultimately frustrating day for Joe Schmidt’s men.
Although three Jonathan Sexton penalties were added to by a penalty try, awarded for a collapsed maul in the 69th minute, Halfpenny knocked over his fifth successful penalty to make it 23-16 with five minutes left.
The Welsh produced a huge display in defence, making a mammoth 250 tackles as they continually thwarted Ireland just metres from the try-line. Captain and man-of-the-match Sam Warburton certainly delivered the goods for his side along with lock Luke Charteris who put in an incredible 31 tackles.
Ireland were unable to mark their own skipper Paul O’Connell’s 100th cap with a win as they tasted defeat for the first time since losing to England in February of last year.
However, they will head to Scotland next week still in the hunt for a second successive RBS 6 Nations title, level on six points with both England and Wales. The English top the table with a scoring difference of +37, with Ireland second (+33) and Wales third (+12).
This website uses cookies.
Read More