LONDON – Ireland continued where they left off in the 6 Nations after steamrolling a young Welsh side 35-21 in Cardiff.
In what has turned out to be a Super Saturday for the Irish team, spiking to their highest ever rank of second in the World Rugby rankings, they were clinical in despatching an experimental Welsh team that looked well out of their depth during the match.
Few things went right for the home team who struggled at set piece, struggled at the breakdown and struggled stopping Ireland getting over the gain line.
Ahead of downsizing their respective squads before their next World Cup warm up match, both coaches have headaches of a very different nature following the match played in front of a 74,000 strong crowd at Millennium Stadium.
With Welsh coach Warren Gatland expecting players like back rowers Ross Moriarty and Justin Tipuric to assert their authority, they didn’t really give Gatland anything to think about with both being poor in close and looking a little out of their depth.
In contrast, Irish coach Joe Schmidt will be over the moon with how his players performed with midfield pairing Keith Earls and Darren Cave putting their hands up for selection ahead of next month’s Rugby World Cup.