A dream not only died in Cardiff, it was trampled upon.
Ireland arrived in Wales ‘on the hunt’ for England. They will leave, in the early hours of Saturday morning, hunted, punished and hung out to dry. 22-9 to Wales and it was full deserved too.
They put in one of their worst performances since the 2015 World Cup and still could have led with 10 minutes to go, had Robbie Henshaw not foolishly obstructed at the maul to see a Rory Best try ruled out.
That was Ireland’s last fling of the dice and Sexton’s charged down kick led to a Jamie Roberts try that had Welsh fans dancing in the aisles.
Perhaps the key moment of the game was an injury sustained by Conor Murray at the half-hour mark. The Munster scrum-half badly damaged his upper arm when tackling George North but stayed on after treatment.
Treatment for Murray before he carries on #WALvIRE pic.twitter.com/SFU9cqOqZ1
— Pat McCarry (@patmccarry) March 10, 2017
Murray emerged for the second-half but his laboured throwing slowed Ireland down. Sensing this, Wales charged his passes and forced a mistake out of Sean O’Brien that eventually led to North’s second try.
It was no surprise – but it was surely too late – when Murray was called ashore moments later for Kieran Marmion.
Wales caretaker coach Rob Howley admitted Murray’s loss was a major fillip for his team but complimented Marmion for his probing, high-tempo influence off the bench.
Following the game, Schmidt told SportsJOE that Murray’s arm was improving after the “stinger” injury but a call had to be made as his passing had slowed down.
“Conor [had a] stinger. The shoulder was getting better, through the half time it improved sufficiently he felt he was ok to go.
“We said ‘try it, see how it goes’, he felt he could have probably played on, but his passing wasn’t as good as it usually was, it was 15-20% off so we wanted to get Marmion on.”
Schmidt did not list Murray as an injury concern after the game but did confirm Tommy Bowe was headed for an x-ray on his injured ankle.
