Following a 31-7 victory for Ireland over Wales at the Aviva Stadium on Saturday, here’s our five takeaways from the Six Nations clash.

Home dominance

Ireland appear unstoppable in the 2024 Six Nations but they are especially dominant at the Aviva Stadium. With the victory over Wales, they have now claimed 18 wins in a row in Dublin. That in itself is impressive, but what is remarkable is that only South Africa – in November 2022 – have managed to get to within seven points of Andy Farrell’s men.

While home advantage is very much a thing in sport, with the Irish crowd particularly excellent when their team gets on a roll, it just highlights what an exceptionally good outfit they are. The team which included Brian O’Driscoll was labelled the ‘golden generation’, but there is no doubt that this squad is a level above.

Physical and clinical Ireland

Head coach Farrell was not entirely happy with their execution but the hosts were relentless in the first half. Despite Wales defending well, Ireland still managed to score two tries and go 17-0 ahead at the break. Their handling is so precise, their skill levels are out of the top drawer and the decision-making from both forwards and backs is exceptional.

The Irishmen are so difficult to stop when they get momentum, as the Welsh found out, and they deservedly went three from three in this tournament. Although they were slack at times in the second period, their impressive defence and sheer physicality bailed them out before they eased away from their opponents in the latter stages.

No scrum, no win

Wales somehow managed to avoid being damaged too much in this area at Twickenham – until the second half at least – but they were well and truly dominated by Ireland in Dublin. Warren Gatland’s men actually defended reasonably well, making the Irish work hard for their go-forward in phase play, but the set-piece undid all that good work.

The front-row of Andrew Porter, Dan Sheehan and Tadhg Furlong enjoyed their time against the Welsh scrum, with the Irish loosehead having a particularly good game against Keiron Assiratti. As a result, the visitors simply could not get into the match in the opening period as Farrell’s side controlled possession and territory.

It was no surprise that once it stopped being a factor in the second half Wales began to create a few more opportunities. Although they still made errors and it all got a bit loose, it actually suited the away side, as Ireland decided against going to the set-piece that had worked so well.

Peter O’Mahony has an innovative solution to Andrew Porter’s “elbow down” issues in the scrum.

Elbow up pic.twitter.com/zSV1kKkbCo

— Three Red Kings (@threeredkings) February 24, 2024

Ill-discipline

One of the positive features of Wales’ play in the opening two games was the entire team’s ability to keep the penalties to a minimum. In total, they infringed just 11 times across those matches against Scotland and England, but just before the 23-minute mark of this encounter that had risen to 18.

That’s right, they conceded seven in the early stages of the third round clash, which played a part in their big half-time deficit. However, they managed to fix that in the second period and instead managed to turn the tables on the Irish. The hosts were slack in the third quarter, perhaps due to a drop in intensity caused by the comfortable buffer, and they started to make some surprising errors.

Credit must go to a young Wales side, though, who managed to put some sustained pressure on their opponents and forced Tadhg Beirne to concede a penalty try. But they could not build on that and a big defensive set from Farrell’s charges altered the momentum and turned what could have been a nervous final 10 minutes into an ultimately comfortable win.

TMO lessons learnt

It was fascinating to hear referee Andrea Piardi’s conversation with the television match official when the visitors crossed the whitewash following a driving maul. Much of the talk centred on the officiating after Round Two as Scotland were denied a try, basically because of a technicality. Although it appeared as though Sam Skinner had touched down, Brian MacNeice could not award it as the question asked by referee Nic Berry required conclusive evidence that it had been scored.

Fast forward two weeks and Wales charged towards the line from a maul and went over, but it was inconclusive as to whether it had been scored. Logic suggested that it had been held up and, to be honest, it would have been reasonable for Piardi to come to that conclusion, but the Italian erred on the side of caution.

He did not give an on-field call, instead asking ‘try or no try’, to allow TMO Eric Gauzins to make an independent assessment. Ultimately, we want referees to be decisive but, if they genuinely don’t know, then it is important they properly use all the tools available to come to the right decision. Obviously, the original decision was moot, given that Beirne committed an offence – resulting in a yellow card and penalty try – but it suggests that lessons have been learnt.

If a message has been passed down from the hierarchy following that incident in Edinburgh then it is good to see that they are taking the requisite steps to improve the game, even if it isn’t much consolation for the Scots at the moment.

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