How rank are the rankings? There was a moment here when Ireland were in position to replace Wales at the top of them one week after they had conceded 57 points at Twickenham and in a year when they had been well beaten at home by England and in Cardiff. They were 22-3 up, having been overwhelmingly dominant against a team made up of second- and third-choice players before, as if embarrassed by the prospect, they eased off to the point where they were hanging on for a victory.
It gave both head coaches something to salvage from an afternoon when the immediate future counted for appreciably more than the present. Ireland’s Joe Schmidt saw a response from Twickenham with his defence sharper, admittedly without the spectre of a Manu Tuilagi to contend with, and the set-pieces supreme. Ireland squeezed Wales for an hour, forcing mistakes and turning them into points, but even with Bundee Aki providing drive in midfield they struggled to create off their own ball.
Wales’s Warren Gatland, who made 14 changes from the team that had defeated England two weeks ago to allow him to work out the final places in his World Cup squad which will be announced on Sunday on Sunday, saw his side lose their place at the top of the rankings in his final match in charge of the side here but the final 20 minutes showed the difference he has made in his 12 years.
Wales used to be known for their shallowness, gold-plated rather than full metal. Here, 22-3 down after 62 minutes having been routed up front to the point where their prop Leon Brown was sent to the sin-bin after a fourth team penalty conceded in the set-piece in almost as many minutes and squeezed in the lineout, they rallied to score two tries and were pressing for an improbable victory in the final minutes.
Wales have developed character under Gatland, a refusal to accept defeat and a willingness to give everything. It was never likely to be enough against an Ireland team which, though Schmidt had made 11 changes from Twickenham, contained some established combinations and was primed with a strong bench with experienced players such as Rory Best probably feeling they had something to prove.
Wales had the bulk of possession in the first half but trailed 15-3 at the break, having conceded two tries when they had been in possession. First Aled Davies was forced to kick hurriedly after Ryan Elias had been brought down a long way behind the gainline. Will Addison caught the ball running from deep and, after the prop Dave Kilcoyne evaded three tacklers, Jack Carty freed Andrew Conway with an inside pass.
The wing weaved his way into Wales’s 22, leaving four tacklers clutching nothing, before freeing Jacob Stockdale who had an unopposed 15-metre run to the line. He had rather more distance to cover 10 minutes later when Aaron Shingler flicked a pass out of the back of his hand to James Davies as Wales moved right on halfway.
It was a manoeuvre Wales used not to indulge in but they now have a licence to skill. “It was not the pass but the execution,” said Gatland. As the ball bounced behind Davies, Stockdale swooped, hacked ahead and accepted a kind bounce to beat Hallam Amos to the line.
Jarrod Evans had earlier equalised Carty’s opening penalty but it was otherwise a game to forget for the fly-half who was, in effect, in a shoot-out with the replacement Rhys Patchell for the role of Dan Biggar’s deputy in Japan. He had few opportunities to launch his back division in his 40 minutes on the field with Wales overrun up front and at the breakdown but, as his desperation increased, he missed a penalty to touch one minute before Ireland’s second try and was wide with a 25-metre kick at goal.
Patchell seized his moment in the final 18 minutes. He had had no chance before that with Wales conceding a penalty try shortly after Brown had been sent to the sin-bin, but his ability to give his side width yielded a try for the debutant Owen Lane, a bustling wing who was used to supply the thrust Wales lacked in midfield, scoring on the right.
When Patchell dummied over five minutes from the end, the home side scented the opportunity to extend their run of 11 consecutive victories in a sequence that stretched back 21 months. They fell short but the tear Gatland had in his eye when he took to the field at the end was a rare nod to sentiment.
“It is emotional,” he said. “We have overachieved in the last 12 years and we are not finished yet. When we are mentally and physically right, we can give any team in the world a run. I believe we will go a long way in the World Cup.”
