Wales moved smoothly up to fifth position in the world rankings, relegating England to fifth with a win they fought ferociously for, which they deserved and which will ring alarm bells among the populous ranks who felt that Wales were also-rans in the Pool of Death in the World Cup.
It was a true Test match, at least until the world and his grandmother came on as second-half replacements and, although it is never, ever apt to claim that good things happened in defeat, Ireland have no need to panic in most areas.
Wales are officially the first team in this warm-up period to look like they have been training, rather than just to have spoken about it. And they won this game partly because of that. They won it because their big forwards were so staggeringly quick and effective off the defensive line, with the unbelievable Alun Wyn Jones leading the way. They shut Ireland down completely in midfield, leaving Johnny Sexton the sole option of kicking and chipping, neither of which he did to his usual standard.
Wales dominated the first half, were extremely unfortunate to go in almost level but, after a considerable Irish third-quarter revival, it was 10-10 with the Irish worth every point. Yet Wales were better in the closing stages, where Rhys Priestland chose the kicking option in heavy rain to drive Ireland back.
And although in an tumultuous late rush, Ireland catapulted Sean Cronin over the line, he was held up by Aaron Jarvis and Leigh Halfpenny, and the final whistle blew — with the crowd roaring for a try after every one of a succession of replays, bless them.
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Ireland’s new-found status as World Cup contenders took a mild form of a battering and they will certainly need Sexton and Robbie Henshaw to be far more effective and alert to tactical changes, when the big one comes along. Their driving mauls having been stopped, Ireland simply did not have the scoring power to catch the opposition.
The Kearneys at the back, however, were excellent and there was further good news up front. Jack McGrath and Nathan White may only be second choices for the World Cup but McGrath, especially, had an outstanding game and Iain Henderson, the newish lock, was also startlingly effective. Ireland would have preferred to have won, and the evidence of last week is that France may well have exhumed themselves to challenge in Ireland’s previously “unloseable” pool. But there are still many a good number of hard heads in the Irish team, and with a few more cutting edges they could still make an impact.
The match brought a fulfilment of the worst nightmares of the coaches. Poor Keith Earls was taken from the field on a stretcher wearing a neck brace, and the only good news was that he held his arm up in the air with thumb raised to show us that, thank goodness, it was not one of those horribly destructive injuries.
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Wales had their own warming news up front. Tomas Francis, who has managed to lose about five stone and still appear fairly hefty, is now in the first stages of being a revelation. In this his first cap, and in a position where Wales are desperately searching for real quality to back up the injury-prone Samson Lee, he was steady in the scrum and played a part around the field. Frankly, Wales would have seen this day as a bonus for that news alone.
Wales did not finish as well as they might have done, and it was disappointing that the rapid Hallam Amos kicked ahead at the end when he could have backed himself on a try-scoring chance. But Dan Biggar continues to grow in stature at fly-half. And you also wonder, if to be an international inside-centre is to make two tackles in a match and one pass — the criteria applied to Sam Burgess — then where does Jamie Roberts stand? He was colossal. When he went down for some prolonged treatment so, you imagine, did half the Welsh nation.
Justin Tipuric was endlessly influential, Dan Lydiate had his best game for some time and Wales will now return to work hard on their lineout, to put the finishing touches to their scrum and to make sure that they develop the attacking potential to put teams away. They are not, yet, anything like as good as they were in 2011, but they are getting there.
They were 10-0 ahead in the first half. Halfpenny, immaculate as ever, put them ahead with a penalty and then, on the back of another loose ball won by Tipuric, they drove hard for the points, passing up on shots at goal.They came close with a couple of drives, which ended with penalties against Ireland,but after a period of pressure they drove Tipuric over and the conversion made it 10-0. But after Sexton had put Ireland on the board, the Irish typically saw the chance to made a statement on half-time. They forced Wales into a defence scrum, and when Ireland wheeled round to the left, the Wales scrum seemed to cave in and quite correctly were penalised. Ireland blasted and finally the impressive Henderson worked his way over at the posts and it was 10-10.
Ireland continued to have the territorial advantage, but Wales kept on hitting on the defensive line rode out the storm and two Halfpenny penalties put them 16-10 ahead going into the last 10 minutes.
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The Welsh composurewas impressive but almost cracked when Ireland kicked to touch from the penalty and went for the drive. They were not good enough, but they persisted and Cronin dived for glory. But the ball, stubbornly, stayed just a few inches too high.
Star man: Alun Wyn Jones (Wales)
Scorers: Ireland: Try: Henderson 40 Con: Sexton Pen: Sexton
Wales: Try: Tipuric 27 Con: Halfpenny Pens: Halfpenny (3)
Referee: C Joubert (South Africa)
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Attendance: 47,430
Ireland: R Kearney; D Kearney, Fitzgerald (Ryan 67min), Henshaw, Earls (Jones 63min); Sexton (Jackson 63min), Murray (Reddan 63min); J McGrath (Kilcoyne 60min), Strauss (Cronin 50min), White (Furlong 56min), Henderson, O’Connell, O’Mahony (O’Brien 50min), Murphy, Heaslip
Wales: Halfpenny; Cuthbert, Williams, Roberts (Amos 61min), North; Biggar (Priestland 63min), Webb (G Davies 63min); Jenkins (James 46min), Owens (Baldwin 53min), Francis (Jarvis 53min), B Davies (Charteris 53min), Jones (King 72min), Lydiate (King 50-60min), Tipuric, T Faletau