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33 mins. Conan has a crashing dart from the back of the scrum which fires the starting gun on more hammering runs from close in for Ireland. The try looks like it will just be a matter of time, but Gibson-Park dallies a little and his pass right is spotted and snaffled by Alex Mann to intercept.
A fabulous defensive read from Mann, but you have to say Ireland made a mess of that as the line was begging with a bit more composure.
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31 mins. Five metres out and 12 phases in, Ireland are hammering away toward the Wales line – a track they’ve had on repeat all half. It is just about stopped by Wales, but Ireland have a 5m scrum to go again.
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29 mins. The midfield runs and offloads has the Wales defence scrambling and James cannot stop himself ebing offside in his attempt to stem the attack. Ireland will have a lineout on the Wales 22.
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26 mins. The scrum doesn’t go Ireland’s way as Kelleher is pinged for not hooking the ball. Wales tap and go quickly but after a few promising attacking patterns they quickly become disjointed, leaving Lake isolated on a run. This is all the opportunity Beirne needs to execute his more muscular version of the bend and snap to whip the ball.
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24 mins. The long drop-out is returned by Wainwright with one of his rollicking carries. He is stopped by the green wall and soon after the ball is spilled forward. Ireland have a scrum midway in their own half as they seek to stem this mini patch of decent Welsh pressure.
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22 mins. Back Wales come through hard carries and it’s putting significant pressure on the Ireland defence, who respond by repeatedly infringing at the ruck. The latest of which has Doris receiving a warning that the next will be a card.
The penalty is tapped and popped to Carre who smashes over, but enough green shirts get under him to hold up the ball.
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20 mins. The bigger hits from Wales are allowing ruck defender to go at the ball, which Hawkins does to win a brilliant turnover. A big kick is lauched to clear the Welsh lines which stays in play and is hunted down by a dedicated chase from the visitors. Alex Mann then wins a penalty by another nifty bit of ruck work.
Edwards spurns the posts and goes for the corner.
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18 mins. Ireland are back into the 22 as their runners are multiple and forceful, as they have been all game so far. Wales do summon up some effort to drive them back with a visible increase in tackle intensity.
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PENALTY! Ireland 7 – 3 Wales (Dan Edwards)
15 mins. Ireland are loose with their passing and this give Rees-Zammit the opportunity to angle a delightful 50:22 kick into Ireland territory. The home defence are offside by the backline creeping too close to the lineout, which give a penalty to Wales bang in front, twenty metres out. Edwards wastes no time slotting it.
Dan Edwards gets Wales on the board. Photograph: Chris Fairweather/Huw Evans/ShutterstockShare
Updated at 20.39 GMT
“Has there been an announcement as to why Wales are in white rather than traditional red? I appreciate that this might help with red-green colourblindness, but are any of the players or officials colourblind?” wonders Andy Flintoff (not that one)
It’s to do with colourblindess inclusivity policy from World Rugby, Andy, which is less concerned with players on the field and etc and more the incidence of the condition in the millions watching.
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11 mins. The home side find themselves back in the 22 with relative ease, double figures phase once more taking them to within three metres. Wales drift offside, but no matter as Conan simply muscles over from a pop pass near the ruck and score what he thinks is a try.
Ref Dickson thought it was as well, but TMO Jackon reckons he’s spotted a knock on in the ruck… NO TRY!
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Updated at 20.24 GMT
9 mins. Some to-ing and fro-ing in the middle third, with little composure from either side comes to an end when Gibson-Park lobs a pass behind Stockdale into touch on halfway. Wales win the lineout, but some flabby passing and running in midfield coughs the ball back to Ireland once more.
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Forgot to tell you who the officials are for the match.
Referee: Karl Dickson (England)
Assistant Referees: Nika Amashukeli (Georgia), Damian Schneider (Argentina)
TMO: Andrew Jackson (England)
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TRY! Ireland 7 – 0 Wales (Jacob Stockdale)
6 mins. The ball is won by Ireland and they work up to the 11 phases, moving left with some big McCloskey carries, before returning to the shadow of the posts. The ball is moved short to Stockdale off his wing to go over close to the posts.
Crowley converts.
Jacob Stockdale opens the scoring for Ireland. Photograph: Charles McQuillan/Getty ImagesShare
Updated at 20.23 GMT
4 mins. Edward tries to find space behind the Ireland defence with a kick, but he puts at least one too many Weetabix into it and it rolls dead. The error is compounded when Wales collapse the scrum way back where he kicked it to concede a penalty. Crowley punts it to touch on the 22.
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2 mins. Wales win a cleanish lineout after Gibson-Park finds touch after the restart. The ball is into midfield for a Wainwright carry before Tomos Williams dallies a bit and puts Edwards in trouble with a pass. The ball is loose, but secured by a retreating Carre close to his 22.
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Kick Off!
Dan Edwards sends the ball skyward and it’s action time.
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The teams are out of the tunnel and await the pre-match formalities, which involves Presidential glad-handing and an extra anthem.
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Brendan Fanning has been assessing Wales’s chances in this here fixture
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Get in touch, why don’t you?
I look forward to receiving your views on the action and more besides on the email. Keep them coming.
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Team news.
Andy Farrell makes five changes to the team that humped England. In the backs, Jacob Stockdale comes in on the wing for the injured James Lowe. Up front, Tom O’Toole starts in place of Jeremy Loughman, while Ronan Kelleher replaces Dan Sheehan at hooker. Jack Conan returns to the back row, where he’ll partner Nick Timoney whose form off the bench has rewarded him an openside berth, moving Josh van der Flier to the bench. Tadhg Beirne shifts back into the second row, with Joe McCarthy named among the replacements.
Wales coach Steve Tandy introduces three new selections after the narrow Scotland defeat. Dan Edwards returns at fly‑half with the perenially unlucky Sam Costelow unavailable, and Ellis Mee starts on the wing in place of Gabriel Hamer‑Webb. In the pack, James Botham replaces the injured Taine Plumtree. The bench features Louie Hennessey of Bath, who is in line for his first cap when called upon.
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Updated at 19.32 GMT
Teams
Ireland
15 Jamie Osborne, 14 Robert Baloucoune, 13 Garry Ringrose, 12 Stuart McCloskey, 11 Jacob Stockdale, 10 Jack Crowley, 9 Jamison Gibson-Park; 1 Tom O’Toole, 2 Ronan Kelleher, 3 Tadhg Furlong, 4 James Ryan, 5 Tadhg Beirne, 6 Jack Conan, 7 Nick Timoney, 8 Caelan Doris.
Replacements: 16 Tom Stewart, 17 Michael Milne, 18 Thomas Clarkson, 19 Joe McCarthy, 20 Josh van der Flier, 21 Nathan Doak, 22 Tom Farrell, 23 Ciaran Frawley.
Wales
15 Louis Rees‑Zammit, 14 Ellis Mee, 13 Eddie James, 12 Joe Hawkins, 11 Josh Adams, 10 Dan Edwards, 9 Tomos Williams; 1 Rhys Carre, 2 Dewi Lake, 3 Tomas Francis, 4 Dafydd Jenkins, 5 Ben Carter, 6 Alex Mann, 7 James Botham, 8 Aaron Wainwright.
Replacements: 16 Ryan Elias, 17 Nicky Smith, 18 Archie Griffin, 19 Adam Beard, 20 Olly Cracknell, 21 Kieran Hardy, 22 Jarrod Evans, 23 Louie Hennessey.
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Preamble
It’s Friday night in Dublin and Ireland welcome Wales to the Aviva Stadium.
What a difference a week made prior to their performances in the previous round of matches; so imagine what the fortnight since could deliver. That will be the hope of the respective fans in anticipation of the game to come.
Ireland – all dynamism and nous in their dismantling of England, with more than a few outstanding individual performances thrown in – will surely look for a second record score on the bounce as par at home against the 2026 vintage of Wales.
For their part, Wales must continue their impressive feat vs Scotland of not looking like a touring rugby team that managed one training session after an 11 hour flight followed by an 11 hour drinking bender. They were so much better two weeks ago than at any time in the preceding one-hundred and two that any fall away from that is not acceptable. They still lost in Cardiff – as they will tonight most likely – but sometimes progress is measured in not receiving four yellow cards in a match and keeping it competitive for seventy minutes. It is what it is.
We’ll be off and running in an hour or so.
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