Ireland 35
Wales 21
Performances in warm-up matches won’t exactly book your seat on a flight, but Ireland’s showing this afternoon certainly won’t hurt some of their squad’s chances.
Ireland were the brighter of the sides throughout the game, their physicality a huge advantage against a Wale’s side featuring four uncapped players.
Jamie Heaslip got Ireland off the mark with a try and Darren Cave added to that either side of a Paddy Jackson penalty to give Ireland a 15-0 lead on the half-hour mark.
Keith earls ran in shortly after to give Joe Schmidt’s side a 22-point lead, Jackson who missed his first conversion made no mistake this time around tacking on the extra points.
Richard Hibbard added one before the half to bring some respectability to the Wales scoreline and the sides went in at the break Ireland 25-7 Wales.
It was much the same in the second half and when Wales’ Ross Moriarty was sin binned just after the restart Simon Zebo took full advantage with a try, but there was to be no conversion this time around.
Jackson’s kicking was under the spotlight all afternoon and he won’t look back on the game with any fondness, inconsistent from both his conversion and penalty kicks.
He would go onto miss the next conversion, an albeit tougher prospect, after Darren Cave ran over for his second of the afternoon making the score Ireland 35-7 Wales.
Felix Jones also managed to get himself on the score sheet, putting the finishing touches on a well-worked move.
Two tries in the last ten minutes for Wales, first from Justin Tipuric and then from Alex Cuthbert in the dying seconds, softened the blow of a poor Welsh performance.
The performances will give Schmidt a lot to think about, in particular Earls’ involvement who put in a sterling display to put himself in the frame as one of the day’s top performers.
Ireland
Tries: Heaslip, Cave, Earls, Zebo, Jones Pens: Jackson (2) Cons: Jackson (2)
Wales
Tries: Hibbard, Tipuric, Cuthbert Cons: Hook, Anscombe (2)
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