Wales vs Ireland result: Five things we learned from Rugby World Cup warm-up match in Cardiff

Ireland bounced back from a record loss against England and boosted their World Cup preparations by inflicting a rare home defeat on Wales

Ireland clung on to a 22-17 victory to end Wales’ eleven-game home winning run.

Two first-half tries from Jacob Stockdale and a penalty try won at the scrum gave Ireland a 22-3 lead early in the second half, with Joe Schmidt’s side bouncing back from England’s demolition job last weekend with a fine defensive performance.

But the introduction of Rhys Patchell and Tomos Williams gave Wales greater control, and the former’s crossing on 76 minutes narrowed the deficit to five after Owen Lane had scored on debut.

However Ireland saw through the final few minutes to secure the win.

Here are five things we learned from the game:

Ireland step up physicality and line speed in defence

Ireland were notably quicker off the line this week, and the early physicality Joe Schmidt’s side brought set the tone for the game.

Having been blasted away so comprehensively by England, it was a step that had to be taken. Wales lack England’s physical carriers in the backs, and that enabled Ireland’s midfield of Bundee Aki and Chris Farrell to attack the contact area with more conviction, not worrying so much about protecting weaker defenders alongside them.

Both Aki and Farrell are fierce in the tackle and showed their strength in that regard, and loosehead prop Dave Kilcoyne buoyed his side with his defensive intensity early on. The return of James Ryan made a real difference, too. If Ireland were guilty of letting England dictate last week, this was a more proactive performance.

Wales struggled to combat it, trying to move the ball out of the back door and use layered runners, but with largely untested combinations through the backs the moves were disjointed and ineffective. From one such messy manouvre an errant pass was thrown, and Jacob Stockdale toed through to score his second.

Jarrod Evans not helped by those around him

Jarrod Evans struggled in his first international start (AFP/Getty Images)

The deck was rather weighted against Jarrod Evans in his first start. With Warren Gatland talking up a shootout between he and Rhys Patchell, the Wales coach dealt him an ill-suited midfield combination and an unfamiliar halfback partner. Gatland appeared to encourage Wales to play openly and throw the ball about, with carriers often running into contact with predetermined outcomes, too often looking for offloads that weren’t there and running into contact too high, or taking small steps to stall momentum and losing collisions.

The forced passes did not allow Evans to build a cohesive attacking pattern, with Wales not maintaining possession.

While Gatland could not have legislated for Aled Davies’s stinker at scrum-half, compare and contrast how Joe Schmidt a similarly tender Jack Carty into the environment. Carty had two carriers outside him to release pressure with hard running lines and was protected in defence, while his game plan was kept relatively simple.

Perhaps Gatland wanted to see if Evans could handle such a situation, but he might have been better served pairing Evans with Cardiff Blues team mate Tomos Williams, who started on the bench.

Rhys Patchell came on at half-time and Williams was introduced soon after, and the pair laid the foundations for Wales’ comeback, with the red-haired fly-half crossing for a score. Patchell did the basics superbly, shifting the ball wide accurately when necessary and bringing his bigger runners into the game more effectively than Evans. Though Ireland tired and lost a degree of defensive steel as the replacements were introduced, Patchell showed well.

Conversely, Evans might have played himself out of contention for the backup ten position, though he cannot be fully blamed for his misfire.

Dave Kilcoyne surely secures his spot as Irish props shine

Dave Kilcoyne starred in the first half (Action Images via Reuters)

Kilcoyne might well have been on the plane to Japan before this game, but he did his chances no harm with a quite brilliant performance at loosehead prop.

With some fine angles of running, he was busy and extremely effective in the carry, and his line speed and physicality in the tackle was notable. Further, he popped up as a distributor at first receiver on at least a couple of occasions, and his scrummaging was excellent. Indeed, Ireland repeatedly dismantled the Welsh scrum, with Leon Brown’s set-piece naivetés preyed upon and the Welshman sin-binned soon after coming on.

Quickly after, Romain Poite trotted under the posts to award a penalty try as the reintroduced Samson Lee was demolished by a fresh Andrew Porter.

Kilcoyne appears to have moved ahead of Jack McGrath in the loosehead pecking order. Porter showed his loosehead-tighthead versatility, and to have a both-sides option of such quality at your disposal means Joe Schmidt only needs five props for the World Cup. That leaves McGrath on the outs, unless Cian Healy’s ankle injury is more severe than reported.

Ireland’s spare back quandary

This was a very solid performance from Ireland’s backs. Jacob Stockdale’s return to try-scoring form is a welcome one, while Bundee Aki’s relentlessness suggests his place in the squad might not have been quite secure before today.

But it is the performances of fringe squad-men Chris Farrell, Andrew Conway and Will Addison that selection chatter will centre. All three produced good performances to put themselves very much in the frame.

With his utility across a number of spots in the backline, Addison is a very solid squad-filler, which could leave Farrell and Conway battling for the final spot. Conway displayed his ability as an open-field runner in the win but Farrell is such a solid operator at either centre spot, and his combination with Bundee Aki dovetailed brilliantly in defence. He has been dismissed as something of a one-track basher in the past, but there is far, far more to his game.

It is a question perhaps without a wrong answer, but Conway probably has a slight edge when the squad is viewed as a whole. Whisper it quietly, perhaps, but human pyrotechnic Jordan Larmour could be in danger, with the Leinster man not looking fully comfortable on the wing.

Owen Lane is a bolter that makes sense

There are few better finishers in the British Isles than Lane, with pace, power and such suppleness and flexibility in the corner. While he has plenty of work to do on his own game, he offers a serious skillset as a runner already and he has cut some of the more basic errors out of his game in the last season and a half.

Wales’ back three is crowded, with George North, Leigh Halfpenny, Liam Williams and Josh Adams sure bets, you’d think, and a fifth option is unlikely to get too much

That makes Lane a shrewd inclusion, exposing him to a tournament environment and perhaps breaking him in against Georgia or Uruguay. Lane will be a better player long-term for the experience, and thus he makes sense as the 30^th or 31^st man on the plane.