Its been a funny 6 nations so far. Wales coming back from the dead against England in Twickenham, France losing to England in Paris, and now a fired up Scotland beat England in the Calcutta Cup on Saturday.
Ireland were again flat as pancakes today, against a Welsh team that seemed to have passed up 2 tries in the first half by failing to run it out wide when they had the chances.
Then they had an equalising penalty chance reversed due to a yellow card offence by the scrum half Phillips just before half time. Ireland were unlucky to have what looked a good try disallowed by the TMO. Horgan made a great run and seemed to touch the ball down on the line. The TMO thought different. So it looked ok - 6 - 3 up, the wind with in the second half and a man in the sin bin. <
It must have been a "steady as she goes" half time team talk. Warren Gatland would have had a much more robust conversation about chances missed and silly infringements. Wales came out a much better team in the second half and they quickly managed to get the equalising penalty, while still with 14 men.
Then, a wonderful Shane Williams try and a brilliant Jones conversation (he had missed a couple of easier penalties in the first half). Ireland got a couple of penalties to bring it back to 12-13. Then a very foolish penalty by Jackman when Ireland were building a platform with 5 minutes to go. It gave Wales a 4 point lead and from the drop out they simply held the ball until the full-time whistle.
A very disappointing day especially given that we are off to Twickenham next week looking for an unprecedented 4th successive win over England. England were poor against Scotland after being so impressive against France 2 weeks ago. It will be a battle for pride by 2 wounded teams with a lot to prove - its going to be heart-breaking for one of the teams in Twickenham next week.
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