Ireland Vs Wales
Ireland face Wales this weekend in the 3rd round of this year’s Six Nations, after the results against Wales in the last two years, a 16 all draw in 2016 and a 22-9 defeat in Cardiff last year. This particular fixture has been one of the trickiest ties since he took the job in 2013.
Injuries to Robbie Henshaw and Luke Mc Grath in the last few weeks have cast a shadow on the good results of the opening two weekends. Gary Ringrose , Rory Scannell and John Cooney have been called into the squad to train this week ahead of Wales on Saturday.
Looking at what has gone before this fixture won’t be as easy as turn up and walk away with the win. This game will be won up front and will take a monumental effort to keep the hopes of at the very least a Championship win on track for another few weeks. Ireland have managed this campaign very well, one hopes that they can attack Wales and see where that will take them.
The Irish defence needs to sharpen up and you can be sure in the down week , Andy Farrell has put his charges through a few rigours sessions and they can iron out some chinks that may have been spotted against Italy. All the talk this year is of a winner take all clash on March 17th in London but let’s not get carried away with ourselves just yet, if Ireland do the business then and maybe only at full time this Saturday people may be able to get excited of what lies ahead but the players will be fixed on 2.15 this Saturday.
This campaign is of course set up perfectly for the game that everyone wants and of course that is England in Twickenham on St Patricks Day at the end of the Cheltenham week. Of course that is the ideal picture and we have been here before and hopefully we will be here again. Let’s just see how this weekend goes first and then bring on the rest.
Here is the XV I would select to take on Wales,
15 Rob Kearney
14 Keith Earls
13 Bundee Aki
12 Rory Scannell
11 Jacob Stockdale
10 Jonathan Sexton
9 Conor Murray
8 Jack Conan
7 Dan Leavy
6 Peter O Mahony
5 James Ryan
4 Iain Henderson
3 Tadgh Furlong
2 Rory Best
1 Cian Healy
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16 Sean Cronin
17 Jack Mc Grath
18 Andrew Porter
19 Ultan Dillane
20 CJ Stander
21 John Cooney
22 Joey Carbery
23 Andrew Conway
By
Cian Mc Gibney
19/02/2018