Tell us what you thought of tonight’s match between Wales and Ireland. What were the main talking points? Which players stood out?
Give the match a rating out of ten, and then share your opinions in the comments below.
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Sam Warburton outplayed CJ Stander for Lions spot
Yes Sam had a blinder tonight!
Yes he certainly did on the night. But Stander is a very strong player – they should both be on the plane.
Not the greatest quality but blood and guts fully on show. As for Lions Biggar was poor, Sexton tried to too much. Warburton stepped up, probably got captains nod now. Webb did well but needs to cut out mistakes and penalties.
Devon Toner was below ordinary, Rory Best not much better.
Great match. Dominated by unbelievable tackling for most of it. Thought Sexton’ s yellow card had a big effect and was extremely harsh as the Welsh 13 was holding him down and he had no chance of rolling away. Tuperic was superb, and Webb must be pushing for the Lions team. Good to see George North back on form. Hope he can stay injury free.
Agreed, Sexton should not have had that yellow. In a tight match that was a big, wrong call from Barnes who otherwise had a good game.
Well done Wales, big effort and a deserved result.
I’d like to see it again but I disagree. Sexton had no intention of getting away from that ball. Never even made an effort
Pablito you are spot on. Sexton made zero attempt to move in anyway. A leg kick would’ve been enough. 1m from the line that is definately yellow
I’ve had another look in the cold light of day – I can’t see what he could have done to get out of there. That may be a penalty regardless, and it’s virtually on the line, but if that’s a yellow card I really don’t like that law.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bFmxvL7blp0
What effort could he have made? He’s immediately kept in there by three Wales players.
Still disagree. He makes the tackle and rolls over onto the wrong side whilst clutching the ball and the player.
Williams arrives and drives Earls away. Still Sexton has hold of Davies and is laying on the wrong side. At that point the rest of the Welsh arrive and Sexton is on the wrong side of the ruck with no effort made to release the tackled player
In the old days he’d have got a shoeing. Today Barnes has no option but to give the penalty and the yellow card.
You cannot lay on the wrong side of the ruck, especially so close to the try line, and not expect to be punished for it.
Good decision from Barnes
We’ll have to disagree on whether he could have gotten out of it or not. What’s not in doubt is him ending up on the wrong side – hypothetically, if he 100% couldn’t get out, would a penalty with no yellow not be more reasonable? I’d say yes, whether it’s close to the line or not.
Barnes may well have made the right call by the law book – in which case the law book is a harsh bugger!
He nearly got his neckk broke. I totally disagree. He was under a pile of players and the English comintater said Oh clearly that was a foul. So quick to say.? Even with replay its still impossible to say. But sexton is a fair player and hss integratey. He was clearly fouled on numerous occasions, but no yellow cards for Wales. Ref, afraid of crowd lol
Really?
Sexton is a pro, and he knew what he was doing.
Or put it another way, if it was Biggar you’d have screamed for a yellow.
did it matter ? 3 zip on tries alone , was harsh though, but what diff did it make re score ?
Yes I know, and it seems very unfair! (and as a Welsh supporter I am biased I know!). But it is the rules, and it happens time and time again.
I think he did, but Stander is very strong – they should both be on the plane.
I said previously that Ireland were over-rated and I think my point was proven this evening.
A great test match to watch even if the quality wasn’t amazing. A number of the Welsh threw their hats back in the ring for the Lions. Ireland 1-15 with the exception of Sexton did the opposite
Pablito, it’s hard to ‘over-rate’ a side who beat the All Blacks in November Every single Welsh squad member would be ecstatic to achieve that! This is a brilliant Irish side, and Wales are rightly pleased with that result.
But that is exactly the reason why this Irish team is over rated. Its like when England last beat the all blacks they were massively over rated then too
Exactly right Leon. And as I have argued previously on this blog, I personally think this AB side is over-rated as well and is not close to the level they were before the retirement of so many top-class players.
In this 6 Nations, a much vaunted Ireland have lost to an improving but still limited Scottish side and to decent but tactically limited Welsh side.
On their day and particularly at home, Ireland can beat anyone in the world. But they are not the team that their media and fans made them out to be after beating the ABs
First half 10, second half 8 as the legs tired. Going to be some tough choices for Gatland to make in a number of positions.
Great full blooded test match. Ireland suffered the Welsh back lash after being humiliated in Edinburgh. Will England suffer the same in Dublin?
I thought Wayne Barnes was man of the match to be honest, he was absolutely brilliant.
The Wales defence were brilliant.Quick off the line thto out!I That the Welsh back row outplayed there Irish counterparts with BIG Sam Warburton having a blinder.The Irish turned over so much ball in critical parts of the park.Wales well deserved winners!
Jonathan Davies got it wrong, ‘BIG’ Sam Warbuton was man of the match, completely outplayed all the other backrowers and never took a backward step. Needs to start packing this travel bag for NZ.
Players from this game on plane to NZ.
Warburton, Tipiric, Owens, North, L.Williams, Stander, Earls, Henshaw
Maybe
Sexton (he ain’t fit), Murray (he’s crocked), Webb, AWJ (but Grays, Itoje, Launchbury, Lawes all need bad last couple of games still), Moriarty, Kearney, Zebo, Davies
Definitely not
Biggar (Wales could have been out of sight), Toner, Heaslip, Ball
Owens and Earls? Maybe at best.
Sexton not fit? He looked fit enough against France. He took a bang to the face (as usual) – that’s all, unless I missed something. AWJ still very likely. Webb again was annoyingly good, he’s on the plane. Fingers crossed Murray’s ok.
With a ten minute HIR and ten minutes in the bin Sexton still was blowing out his arse after 60 minutes.
Ha. Nonetheless, he’s got a while to get up to 100%.
Not Earls – please, but I would say Ken Owens has to be favourite to start for the Lions at the moment. Solid game and not a huge amount of competition.
Sexton, Murray and Webb are certs.
Possibles should include Heaslip, Hen Shaw, Faletau, McGrath, Best, Furlong and O’Brien.
I think back row selection will depend slightly on what sort of game Gatland is intending to play. Probably centres too.
From a Wales fan, Jez, you know that’s nonsense! Your assessment of Biggar shows why Rob Howley is Wales coach and not you! One of Wales’s problems is the 2.5 million semi-educated idiots who played some games of rugby in Cwm-Twll 2nds back in 1983 and therefore regard themselves as ‘pundits’. God preserve us.
I agree Davies got it wrong but I would have given it to Tuperic who I thought was as good as I have ever seen him around the park and added a valuable contribution in the lineout.
When you pick players on reputation instead of form this is the result you get. No balance in the back row, no line out, a fUllock that gets driven back every time he makes contact, the Irish backs are at best jogging when they get the ball that shows you there intention to use the backline. The last 2 years it’s been 9 man rugby and theven results are starting to go the way they where always going to.
I think you are being hard on them Cathal. They were right in it up t the 78th minute despite losing their most influential player to a poor reffing decision and having a try (rightly) disallowed for a man coming in fractionally in front of the ball carrier. I
Got to disagree on sinbinning, it was a nailed on yellow. Barnes had his normal exemplary game, well explained desicions, confident and without resort to comedy one liners and pithy look at me I’m the star put downs.
I think Barnes got it wrong with the yellow. JD rolled Sexton over to make sure he got stuck in the ruck. To say he was blatantly killing the ball is ridiculous as he never had a chance of moving away or releasing the tackled player.
Sexton, like any pro, knew what he was doing. He made no attempts to move. Killed ball, stopped try. Yellow all day.
A good match from a semi neutral point of view.
I think the main problem with Wales winning is that Gatland will now have the belief that those Welsh players will be good enough to beat NZ, thus meaning a Lions team full of Welsh players who are nowhere near the level they need to be to do that.
They won and played well but, like Ireland, they are inconsistent. I predict they will lose to France next week, but will Gatland still pick them? I think so!!
The problem for Wales is that they will now avoid pot 3 and 9th ranking for the RWC 2019 draw but does that mean Howley keeps his job for much longer than Welsh fans want to see.
Agree with Dazza. I,think the Lions got away with it in Australia against a poor team. With Lions places being at a premium, at the moment i see, Tipuric, Liam Williams, Owens , North, Webb , Wyn jones, Warbs, O’ Brian, Stander, a fit Murray and Sexton, from this game.
Gatland has to have a squad of the the right psyche and momentum so he has to focus on England and the way they play.
In 2013 England were probably the best side in the 6n but for loosing to Wales. Even with an under par performance against Ireland next week, I cannot see them loosing.
Well done Wales, as for Ireland I can’t for the life of me see how Peter o’mahony can’t start next week, move stander to 8. Also would like to see Payne in for kearney at 15 and potentially see healy in for mcgrath as he adds a bit more bulk
Sharpy
March 12, 2017 at 1:52 pm
‘In 2013 England were probably the best side in the 6n….’
Clearly you only watched some of the games that year and failed to note that 30-3 just like 61-21 equates to a hammering
But funnily enough is now why England is on eof the top two teams in the world and why Wales have stagnated.