A negative sixty point turn around against Wales is not the sort of start that new head coach Greg McWilliams would have wished for but he will now have a fair idea of the size of the task ahead.

It’s going to take a while to address the issues, that have been prevalent in Irish Women’s rugby over the last 8 years, but in McWilliams, and his team, the right people are in charge.

A competitive Women’s AIL, or even a rejigged competition, would be a first step in any plan but, even taking into account the paucity of that competition this season, I was still a little surprised at how few players from the AIL made the final cut and a lack of 15-a-side game time played a big part in Ireland’s downfall in this game.

Wales enjoyed the best of the opening exchanges but it was Ireland that opened the scoring with Amee Leigh Murphy Crowe racing home on the 16th minute. Nicole Cronin added the extras to give Ireland a 7 – 0 lead.

The Welsh forwards started to get on top and they pulled the score back to 7 – 5 when Carys Phillips found the line off the back of a lineout maul on the 27th minute.

Ireland hit back with their best move of the game as Sam Monaghan crashed through the Welsh midfield to off load to Linda Djougang who gleefully finished up under the posts. Cronin’s conversion gave Ireland an unlikely 14 – 5 lead and that’s how it stayed until half time.

Wales, who had the lions share of possession throughout, concentrated on a simple game plan and, with Ireland’s forwards showing more style than substance, Wales dominated the forward exchanges.

Jasmine Joyce was the first to benefit six minutes into the second half as she easily sliced through a disorganised Irish defence to take the game to 14 – 10.

However, Wales seemed determined to throw this one away minutes later when a disastrous quick lineout went into Irish hands for Stacy Flood to work an overlap and take the score to 19 – 10.

Ireland’s defence of the driving maul had been poor throughout and it was the visitors key weapon in attack. Wales walked one into the middle of the park, with 4 of the Irish pack standing upright in the middle, and after a couple of dabs at the line Wales’ Donna Rose dotted the ball down on the line for another unconverted try to take the score to 19 – 15.

An inevitable yellow card was issued to Ireland’s Eimear Considine with 10 minutes left and Wales scored two more tries to wrap up the game. Rose grabbed her second, within minutes of Considine’s departure, and the impressive Hannah Jones scored Wales’ fifth try with 2 minutes to go.

Only one conversion from Wales the whole game, Robyn Wilkins converting Rose’s second try to give a final score of Ireland 19 Wales 27, but it was a lot more comfortable than that.

Gallery Below.

Images by Bob Given Photography