Ireland 37-27 Wales Talking Points Ireland v Wales games are traditionally tight and this one was no exception, the excitement lasting until the final minute. Yet when reflecting on this Six Nations game, the hosts should have been comfortable winners at the Aviva Stadium. They completely dominated the territory (75%) and possession (69%) statistics but were unable to make their advantage tell consistently – and maybe even lifted their foot off the pedal slightly after scoring the bonus-point try midway through the second half. They should have had a far greater advantage than the 15-13 one they took into the break such was their dominance, but it was their own errors that proved costly and they only had that lead after Bundee Aki had stretched for the line in the closing minutes of the half and Johnny Sexton had slotted the conversion. Related: Six Nations bonus points Ireland started the second period on their mettle and secured the try bonus after 55 minutes with scores from Dan Leavy and Cian Healy. That Wales then narrowed the gap to seven points through Aaron Shingler’s 62nd-minute try was a testament to the visitors’ desire and resilience for Ireland surely should have been out of sight by that point. And even when Conor Murray slotted a penalty to take Ireland’s lead to ten points, Wales hit back with a Steff Evans try. Jacob Stockdale, who had touched down at the start of the game, had the final say with an interception try as Wales looked for a winning score and that summed up just how crazy this match was, ebbing and flowing in all directions. And it was brilliant to see two sides committed to playing attacking, ball-in-hand rugby Two things we learnt – Ireland are making hard work of winning; Wales are an extremely difficult side to kill off as they keep coming back! In fact, they were unlucky not to finish with a losing bonus point in the end. Here are the big talking points from the game… Missed opportunities Johnny Sexton didn’t get any points on the board until the 35th minute, missing three kicks at goal in succession for the first time since 2010, when he was off-target with four for Leinster against Scarlets (stat courtesy of Stuart Farmer!). The Ireland fly-half may have been controlling matters with ball in hand but he didn’t look all that comfortable when putting his boot to it, perhaps a symptom of the back injury that caused him to miss part of the captain’s run the previous day. He found his groove towards the end of the half, slotting a penalty and a conversion to give Ireland that 15-13 lead. Yet it wasn’t just Sexton’s kicking that made life difficult for Ireland. Their inability to look after the ball in Wales’ half saw several other opportunities wasted as the visitors were able to snaffle possession and clear pressure – or create pressure of their own. After 20 minutes, Ireland had 70% possession and … Continue reading Ireland v Wales Talking Points from the Aviva Stadium