Match Report - Wales crush shambolic Ireland to land Grand Slam
Wales were crowned Six Nations Grand Slam champions as they demolished Ireland 25-7 in Cardiff to claim European rugby’s glittering double prize.
The Principality Stadium threatened to lift from its foundations, with Wales making it 14 games unbeaten and giving head coach Warren Gatland a record-breaking Six Nations swansong.
Gatland’s final Six Nations game – he leaves Wales after the World Cup later this year – saw him become the first coach in Five or Six Nations history to win three Grand Slams.
Gareth Anscombe kicked 20 points – six penalties and the conversion of centre Hadleigh Parkes’ second-minute try – to sink Ireland in swirling rain under leaden skies on an afternoon when the visitors insisted the stadium roof remained open.
Ireland were washed away as Wales completed a first Six Nations clean sweep for seven years – a tournament record fourth Grand Slam – and landed their first Six Nations title since 2013, while also climbing above Ireland to second in the official world rankings.
WAL 25-7 IRE
Wales have done it! Capturing the Triple Crown and the Grand Slam in Cardiff with their 14th win on the bounce.
Diweddglo chwedlonol i'r ymgyrch Chwe Gwlad?, wedi ei sefydlu ar waith caled a chyfeillgarwch.
??????? #HWFN #ForTheJersey pic.twitter.com/nA5XgpNLEz
— Welsh Rugby Union ??????? (@WelshRugbyUnion) March 16, 2019
The outcome was never in doubt once Anscombe and Parkes combined to cut Ireland open after just 70 seconds, with the visitors’ only points coming from Jordan Larmour’s 80th-minute touchdown that his fellow replacement Jack Carty converted.
Ireland went into the game with an outside chance of title success, but the final Six Nations game for head coach Joe Schmidt and captain Rory Best will quickly be erased from the memory.
Wales have now claimed four Grand Slams in 15 seasons – 2005, 2008, 2012 and 2019 – and they will head to the World Cup six months from now as major title contenders.
Wales were unchanged from the side that beat Scotland at Murrayfield last weekend, while Ireland showed three switches as full-back Rob Kearney, flanker Sean O’Brien and lock Tadhg Beirne, who made his Six Nations debut, all started.
The stadium roof was open at Ireland’s request, but with a forecast of gale-force winds it was Wales that blew the game wide open with a brilliant early try.
Wales’ forwards laid the foundations, driving forcefully from a lineout, but the try owed everything to Anscombe, whose sublime angled kick off the outside off his right boot was caught by Parkes.
The Scarlets centre took his chance superbly, with Anscombe’s conversion making it 7-0, before Parkes then turned defender to pull off a stunning try-saving tackle on Ireland wing Jacob Stockdale.
Wales were then forced into a major reshuffle when wing George North was forced off injured. Dan Biggar replaced him, with Anscombe moving to full-back and Liam Williams switching to wing duties.
Anscombe, though, was not remotely knocked out of his stride and he kicked a penalty from just inside Ireland’s half to put Wales 10-0 ahead after 17 minutes.
It should have arguably been more just three minutes later, but Wales saw a penalty award reversed following a challenge by scrum-half Gareth Davies on Ireland centre Bundee Aki.
Ireland dominated in terms of territory during the third quarter, but they encountered a Wales defence as resilient and defiant as it had been in repelling Scotland seven days ago.
Another Anscombe penalty opened up a 13-point lead as the interval approached and, with the rain pouring down, Ireland appeared more miserable than the weather, being dominated by a title-hungry Wales team.
Anscombe then completed his penalty hat-trick, and Wales trooped off 16-0 ahead, 40 minutes from glory.
He then put the issue beyond doubt with two penalties during the third quarter, before adding another penalty 10 minutes from time and the celebrations could begin after one of Wales’ most dominant displays in recent memory.
It was a day when they rose to the occasion majestically, inspired by a number of world-class individual displays, but none more so than Anscombe’s as he came of age as a Test match performer.
Comments on RugbyPass
🤦♂️🤣 who cares who’s the best . All I know is the All Blacks have the star coach but have few star players now …
29 Go to commentsJe suis sûr que Farrell est impatient de jouer avec Lopez et Machenaud et d’être entraîné par Collazo… 🤭
1 Go to commentsAn on field red (aka a full red) in SRP must surely carry a bigger suspension than a red card given by the bunker as that carries a 20 minute team punishment. Had Damon Murphy abdicated his responsibility as a ref and issued both Drua players a yellow, which would have been upgraded to a 20 minute red by the bunker, that would have killed Australia and New Zealand’s push for the 20 minute red to be trialled globally from July this year.
11 Go to commentsEver so often you all post a Danny Care story that isn’t the announcement that he has finally re-signed for one more, victory tour season at Quins and I’m just like, “well you fooled me again!” My absolute favorite player ever, we need to make his final year at the Stoop (and Twickers) official already. I know he supposedly snubbed France but I won’t feel better until he signs.
1 Go to commentslate hit what late hit it wasn’t at all late and can clearly see he was committed before the tackle
1 Go to commentsChristian Lio -Willies 2 try perfomance was a standout. As was captain Scott Barrett. Up front was where the boys won it.They are a great team and players. Fantastic Crusades , you can keep going.
1 Go to commentsI don't know how the locals feel about that? I guess if you call yourselves the Worcester Wasps that might be appease. But really we need more teams in the Premiership in my view so they are not padding it out as they are at the moment. It might curtail so many players going abroad as well
5 Go to commentsNZ 😭😭😭is certainly rivaling England for best whingers cup!😭😭😭 !!!
29 Go to commentsYup. New Zealand won 3 out of 10 world cups played. SA 4 out of 8 attempts 30 Vs 50 per cent.🤔🤔
29 Go to commentsShould've done this years ago. Change Saturday kick off times to around 11am. Up and off and back home before 3pm, limit travel time too. Allows players to actually do something else with their Saturday that's family oriented or being rugby fans they could ‘watch’ pro rugby. Increases crowds etc. How can anyone that enjoys grassroots and pro rugby have to choose between the two on Saturdays?
9 Go to commentsI bet he inspired those supporters just as much.
1 Go to commentsBen Smith Springboks living rent free in his head 😊😂
67 Go to commentsGood to hear he would like to play the game at the highest level, I hadn’t been to sure how much of a motivator that was before now. Sadly he’s probably chosen the rugby club to go to. Try not to worry about all the input about how you should play rugby Joey and just try to emulate what you do on the league field and have fun. You’ll limit your game too much (well not really because he’s a standard athlete like SBW and he’ll still have enough) if you’re trying to make sure you can recycle the ball back etc. On the other hard, you can totally just try and recycle by looking to offload any and everywhere if you’re going to ground 😋
1 Go to commentsThis just proves that theres always a stat and a metric to use to justify your abilities and your success. Ben did it last week by creating an imaginary competition and now you did the same to counter his argument and espouse a new yardstick for success. Why not just use the current one and lets say the Boks have won 4 world cups making them the most successful world cup team. Outside of the world cup the All Blacks are the most successful team winning countless rugby championships and dominating the rankings with high win percentages. Over the last 4 years statistically the Irish are the best having the highest win rate and also having positive records against every tier 1 side. The most successful Northern team in the game has been England with a world cup title and the most six nations titles in history. The AB’s are the most dominant team in history with the highest win rate and 3 world cups. Lets not try to reinvent the wheel. Just be honest about the actual stats and what each team has been good at doing and that will be enough to define their level of success.
29 Go to commentsHow is 7’s played there? I’m surprised 10 or 11 man rugby hasn’t taken off. 7 just doesn’t fit the 15s dynamics (rules n field etc) but these other versions do.
9 Go to commentsPick Swinton at your peril A liability just like JWH from the Roosters Skelton ??? went missing at RWC
14 Go to commentsLike tennis, who have a ranking system, and I believe rugby too, just measure over each period preceding a world cup event who was the longest number one and that would be it. In tennis the number one player frequently is not the grand slam winner. I love and adore the All Blacks since the days of Ian Kirkpatrick when I was a kid in SA. And still do because they are the masters of running rugby and are gentleman on and off the field - in general. And in my opinion they have been the majority of the time the best rugby team in the world.
29 Go to commentsHaving overseas possessions in 2024 is absurd. These Frenchies should have to give the New Caledonians their freedom.
21 Go to commentsBell injured his foot didn’t he? Bring Tupou in he’ll deliver when it counts. Agree mostly but I would switch in the Reds number 8 Harry Wilson for Swinton and move Rob Valentini to 6 instead. Wilson is a clever player who reads the play, you can’t outmuscle the AB’s and Springboks, if you have any chance it’s by playing clever. Same goes for Paisami, he’s a little guy who doesn’t really trouble the likes of De Allende and Jordie Barrett. I’d rather play Carter Gordon at 12 and put Michael Lynagh’s boy at 10. That way you get a BMT type goalkicker at 10 and a playmaker at 12. Anyways, just my two cents as a Bok supporter.
14 Go to commentsThanks Brett, love your articles which are alway pertinent. It’s a difficult topic trying to have a panel adjudicating consistently penalties for red card issues. Many of the mitigating reasons raised are judged subjectively, hence the different outcomes. How to take away subjective opinions?
11 Go to comments