Ireland relied on Sam Prendergast’s boot and supersubs Bundee Aki and James Ryan to scrape past Wales 27-18 on Saturday, February 22, to claim the Triple Crown and keep their Six Nations title defense on track.
Coach Simon Easterby, at the helm in the absence of Andy Farrell who has been seconded to take the reins of the British and Irish Lions tour of Australia, had gambled on seven personnel changes for the match at Cardiff’s Principality Stadium in the name of squad rotation.
After opening victories over England and Scotland, Ireland were given a scare, before condemning Wales to a 15th straight Test defeat by pulling away in the final quarter of an enthralling match.
“It was as tough as we expected, to be honest,” said Easterby, the former Ireland flanker who spent the bulk of his career in Wales with Llanelli and the Scarlets.
“Going into the game there was lots of media speculation about how Wales are, the state of the game here, but we know the strength of Wales and the passion. We knew they’d be tough opposition.”
Jack Conan and Jamie Osborne scored tries for the Irish either side of half-time, matched by Tommy Reffell and Tom Rogers for Wales.
Prendergast made the difference with four second-half penalties as part of a personal tally of 17 points from the kicking tee.
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“We knew that Wales would come back into it if we gave them an opportunity and they did that,” Easterby said.
“They had the ability to play well and play ball in hand. They made us work really hard for it.”
Ireland lost Garry Ringrose for a dangerous tackle on Ben Thomas, but Aki came on after the 20-minute red card window, in the 51st minute, to shore up the Irish midfield. His dominant cameo performance featured some monster tackles, invaluable turnovers and devastating drives.
“Having someone like Bundee on the bench brings you physicality, it brings you a lot of energy to the group… good leadership,” said Easterby, adding that the coaching staff would examine why the vaunted Irish scrum was regularly penalised.
Ireland captain Dan Sheehan said the team relied “heavily on our bench”.
“They came on and made a massive impact, James Ryan and Bundee both made a huge impact to lift the boys with fresh energy. That was the making of the game there, relying on our bench to bring that energy.”
Not bogged down by past
Interim Wales coach Matt Sherratt, who had just a handful of sessions with the players after taking over when Warren Gatland left his role, said there were positives to take, from yet another defeat.
“My mindest on these three games is that I’m not getting bogged down by the past,” said Sherratt, who will oversee Wales’ trip to Scotland and the home match against England before returning to his job as Cardiff Rugby head coach.
“I’m not interested in what’s happened in the past. I’ve just got to be authentic coach.”
Sherratt was keen to praise the players, saying: “We’ve had, really, three days’ training so to replicate what we did Tuesday and Thursday as many times as we did, I was pretty pleased.
“We asked for two things before the game: show the crowd some emotion and some ambition within a structure, and we did that.”
Calcutta Cup drama at Twickenham
Meanwhile, Finn Russell missed a last-gasp conversion as England just did enough to end a run of four straight Calcutta Cup defeats by Scotland with a 16-15 win at Twickenham that maintained their Six Nations title hopes.
Scotland outscored England three tries to one but, crucially, co-captain Russell was off target with all three conversions.
Most importantly the fly-half, so long a thorn in England’s side, fired wide of the post following the outstanding Duhan van der Merwe’s 79th-minute try as the hosts prevailed by a point for the second match in a row following their 26-25 win over France.
Scotland led 10-7 at half-time in the 143rd edition of rugby union’s oldest international fixture.
They scored tries through Ben White and Huw Jones either side of Tommy Freeman’s lone converted score for England as Van der Merwe once more tormented the hosts’ defense.
Two Marcus Smith penalties and a long-range effort from Fin Smith, however, put England 16-10 up with 10 minutes to play.
But with Van der Merwe sprinting in for what was his seventh try against England, the Dark Blues were in sight of victory only for Russell, passed fit after a head injury last time out in defeat by Ireland, to skew the conversion.
England’s second win from three matches meant they stayed in touch with unbeaten champions Ireland, who maintained their bid for an unprecedented third straight Six Nations title by defeating Wales earlier Saturday.
But Scotland’s second loss in three games all but ended their title ambitions as they paid the price for failing to make the most of their early dominance.
England ‘fight and scrap’
“We had a lot of opportunities in that first half and we didn’t take all of them,” Van der Merwe told ITV.
“Fair play to England’s defense, in the first half they kept us out…We didn’t have enough ball in the second half. England were applying pressure at the breakdown and they got the ball.”
England captain Maro Itoje admitted: “Scotland played a lot in our half but we did fight and scrap. There is loads for us to get better at but we are delighted to win.”
Scotland took just four minutes to open the scoring.
England wing Ollie Sleightholme’s poor kick gave Scotland possession inside their own half.
Van der Merwe, a hat-trick scorer against England at Murrayfield last year following his brilliant solo Twickenham try of 2023, initiated a move that ended with centre Tom Jordan’s excellent inside pass sending in scrum-half White for a try out wide that Russell could not convert.
But England hit back when Freeman forced his way over from close range for a try, with full-back Marcus Smith converting.
Van der Merwe, however, was causing England problems every time he received the ball and in the 20th minute, as Marcus Smith again fell off a tackle, he found Jones with the center going through a narrow gap near the touchline for his sixth try against England.
Russell again missed the conversion but Scotland still led 10-7 in an open game.
England coach Steve Borthwick brought on former captain Jamie George and Chandler Cunningham-South in a bid to bolster his pack early in the second half, with veteran utility back Elliot Daly also coming off the bench before Marcus Smith’s 55th-minute penalty tied the game at 10-10.
Scotland flanker Jamie Ritchie won several turnovers before Marcus Smith’s simple 67th-minute penalty in front of the posts gave England the lead.
Minutes later long-range kick specialist Fin Smith, whose Scottish parents were in a Twickenham crowd of over 81,000, landed a penalty from just inside half-way to make it 16-10 before Van der Merwe took Scotland to the brink of another memorable victory.
