Ireland kept their RBS 6 Nations Championship hopes alive as they ran out 27-12 victors over Wales at Croke Park on Saturday in what was ultimately a clinical win.
Captain Brian O’Driscoll celebrated his 100th Irish cap for the home side, but it was two of his junior team-mates who notched the trys with Keith Earls bagging two and the outstanding Tomas O’Leary the other as Wales suffered their third defeat of the tournament.
Another long-serving star, Ronan O’Gara, was again left out in favour of O’Driscoll’s Leinster team-mate Jonathan Sexton and the latter had an early miss before Stephen Jones kicked Wales ahead.
The kickers then traded fortunes as the Welshman missed and Sexton scored and the Irishman made it 6-3 after Wales were penalised for an illegal tug.
Then came a key moment as Wales full back Lee Byrne was sent to the sin bin for cynically slapping the ball away and Declan Kidney’s men used their one-man advantage to full throttle, scoring two tries while the Ospreys ace was off the field.
The first saw Paul O'Connell and O’Driscoll involved before Earls came flying in on the angle and barged past a dozing Welsh back line to roll over. Sexton’s conversion rebounded off the post, however.
O’Connell also played a key role in the second as again the Wales defence was missing in action. The lock unloaded to O’Leary and the Munster scrum-half had the pace and the room to get over the line. Once, again though Sexton failed with the conversion as it went well to the right.
Byrne eventually returned and Jones managed to kick over a second penalty but Wales trailed by 16-6 as the sides headed for the dressing rooms at half-time.
Wales needed to start the second half strongly and put Ireland under considerable early pressure. However, the men in green stood firm against repeated scrum play, Sexton eventually cleared after a fine Ireland shove and he was soon kicking over his third penalty.
Jones kicked over to make the gap ten again but any hope they had was then extinguished when O’Driscoll laid off to O’Leary who barged through in the form of his captain and fed Earls. He evaded all tackles and slammed the ball down triumphantly.
Sexton missed his third conversion but his confidence will have returned a little when – after Jones accounted for Wales’ final points of the day - the young fly-half sent over a magnificent drop goal to put a little gloss on the win.