Six Nations: Ireland's Grand Slam bid survives thriller in Wales
James Lowe of Ireland and Blair Murray of Wales contest a high ball at the Principality Stadium in Cardiff. Picture: Seb Daly/Sportsfile
Ireland survived a huge scare to keep their Grand Slam dreams alive at the Principality Stadium in Cardiff on Saturday, but only just.
Jack Conan showed serious power in the 7th minute to burst through the challenge of Tomos Williams to dot down one-handed.
The Welsh scrum had dominated the early exchanges, but in the 20th minute the Irish front row got one in their favour, which allowed Sam Prendergast extend the Irish lead, before the restored Welsh out-half Gareth Anscombe responded with an immediate penalty of his own.
In the 34th minute, Garry Ringrose was issued a yellow card for a reckless head collision on Ben Thomas, with Anscombe slotting the resultant penalty to make it 6-10.
Prendergast struck a post with a long-range penalty attempt in the 36th minute as the Welsh crowd started to get noisier. The dominant Welsh scrum gave the home side an avenue back into the Irish 22 and after multiple phases on the Irish line Welsh captain Jac Morgan burrowed over to ensure his side had a surprise but deserved 13-10 half-time lead.
Ringrose’s yellow was upgraded to a 20-minute red and Wales capitalised on a poor Prendergast knock-on when wing Tom Rogers acrobatically scored in the right corner in the 43rd minute.
Prendergast clipped over a badly needed three-pointer in the 48th minute and he kicked a wonderful 50-22 in the 54th minute and a minute later his kick to the corner was tapped back by James Lowe into the grateful arms of Jamie Osborne to make it 18-18.
Blair Murray amazingly held up Mack Hansen over the line in the 66th minute but Prendergast slotted from close range to give Ireland the lead.
In the 70th minute, Prendergast nailed his fourth penalty from just inside the Welsh half to push the lead out to six but soon after he badly hooked the ball into touch to give Wales a brilliant attacking opportunity.
From the resultant attack Ellis Mee thought he had scored in the left corner only for the TMO to deduce that he was a fraction short.
Ireland survived and Prendergast kicked another penalty in the 78th minute to make sure.
G Anscombe (3 pens, 1 con), J Morgan, T Rogers (1 try each).
S Prendergast (5 pens, 1 con), J Conan, J Osborne (1 try each).
B Murray; T Rogers, M Llewellyn, B Thomas, E Mee; G Anscombe, T Williams; N Smith, E Dee, W John; W Rowlands, D Jenkins; J Morgan (capt), T Reffell, T Faletau.
G Thomas for N Smith (18), N Smith for G Thomas (30), H Thomas for W John (52), J Evans for G Anscombe (53), A Wainwright for T Reffell (56), G Thomas for N Smith (61), J Roberts for T Rogers (63), T Williams for W Rowlands (71), E Lloyd for E Dee (74).
J Osborne; M Hansen, G Ringrose, R Henshaw; J Lowe, S Prendergast, J Gibson-Park, A Porter, D Sheehan (capt), T Clarkson, J McCarthy, T Beirne, P O'Mahony, J van der Flier, J Conan.
J Ryan for J McCarthy (40), R Baird for J Conan (45) F Bealham for T Clarkson (48), J McCarthy and B Aki for J Ryan and G Ringrose (51), J Boyle for A Porter (70), J Crowley for M Hansen (72), G McCarthy for D Sheehan (74), C Murray for J Gibson-Park (78).
Christophe Ridley (RFU)
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