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Ruthless first-half performance decisive as Wales see off Ireland

By PA
(Photo by PA)

Wales opened their TikTok Six Nations campaign with a dominant 31-5 victory against Ireland at the Cardiff Arms Park. The hosts secured the bonus point in a ruthless first-half performance where they scored four tries and despite an improved display after the break Ireland were unable to find any way back into the game.

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Wales took the lead in the fourth minute as a good drive from the maul saw Alex Callender touch down in the corner, but they suffered a blow when Gwen Crabb was taken off with injury minutes later.

Scrum-half Keira Bevan added another try in the 14th minute, breaking forward through a gap, and the driving maul proved effective again for the Welsh as replacement Sioned Harries crossed in the 23rd minute.

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They added a fourth just before the break when a smart move allowed Kerin Lake to burst through the Irish defence and hand the ball off to captain Hannah Jones who touched down underneath the posts.

After having a try chalked off at the start of the half, Wales prop Sisilia Tuipulotu showed great strength to power over the line in the 46th minute and Ireland earned a consolation in the 65th minute when captain Nichola Fryday went over from close range.

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Nickers 5 hours ago
All Blacks sabbaticals ‘damage Super Rugby Pacific when it is fighting for survival’

Sabbaticals have helped keep NZ’s very best talent in the country on long term deals - this fact has been left out of this article. Much like the articles calling to allow overseas players to be selected, yet can only name one player currently not signed to NZR who would be selected for the ABs. And in the entire history of NZ players leaving to play overseas, literally only 4 or 5 have left in their prime as current ABs. (Piatau, Evans, Hayman, Mo’unga,?) Yes Carter got an injury while playing in France 16 years ago, but he also got a tournament ending injury at the 2011 World Cup while taking mid-week practice kicks at goal. Maybe Jordie gets a season-ending injury while playing in Ireland, maybe he gets one next week against the Brumbies. NZR have many shortcomings, but keeping the very best players in the country and/or available for ABs selection is not one of them. Likewise for workload management - players missing 2 games out of 14 is hardly a big deal in the grand scheme of things. Again let’s use some facts - did it stop the Crusaders winning SR so many times consecutively when during any given week they would be missing 2 of their best players? The whole idea of the sabbatical is to reward your best players who are willing to sign very long term deals with some time to do whatever they want. They are not handed out willy-nilly, and at nowhere near the levels that would somehow devalue Super Rugby. In this particular example JB is locked in with NZR for what will probably (hopefully) be the best years of his career, hard to imagine him not sticking around for a couple more after for a Lions tour and one more world cup. He has the potential to become the most capped AB of all time. A much better outcome than him leaving NZ for a minimum of 3 years at the age of 27, unlikely to ever play for the ABs again, which would be the likely alternative.

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