Wales hail boot of Jenkins

Replacement fly-half arrives to kill Ireland's dream of championship

The old ones are still the best. Neil Jenkins, dropped and mighty despondent, was triumphantly restored to what he no doubt considers to be his rightful place in the national side. He won the match for Wales and condemned Ireland to another bout of self-doubt. The excitement of the closing stages, almost unbearable for the Irish crowd, made up to some extent for the indifferent quality of what had preceded it but, despite the fact that they came within an agonising inch of winning the game, Ireland had by their earlier frailty given themselves too much to do.

There was admittedly not much they could do to keep Jenkins, such a tactically astute replacement for Stephen Jones, off the scoreboard. His two match-winning penalties, struck to perfection in a two-minute spell late in the game, not only restored the Welsh lead but reinforced their determination to withstand Ireland's final frenzied assaults. It was somehow fitting that in those frantic seconds Ireland, in the very act of crossing the line for what would have been the winning score, were guilty of a forward pass. It was that kind of a day and Ireland are that kind of a team.

Just as one poor game does not turn a good side into a bad one so one decent performance, no matter how remarkable, cannot transform an average side into a great one. Yet since their stirring victory in Paris a fortnight ago, this is what so many would have us believe of Ireland. Forgotten, it seems, was the poverty of their effort at Twick- enham, as lame and as tame as any in recent memory, and for long periods yesterday they were little better.

The basic error count rose at an alarming rate, along with the number of penalties they conceded. After some early success at the line-out, the ball-winning capacity of the forwards disappeared and Wales, who showed a commendable if questionable desire to run the ball, were allowed to control the game for too long. The Welsh had speed on the wings and at full-back where Rhys Williams was as slippery as the surface, glazed by a steady drizzle which fell before and fitfully throughout the game. It was Ireland, through their fly-half Ronan O'Gara, who adapted more quickly to the conditions, and his shrewd use of the raking kick behind the Welsh defence set up early attacking opportunities. What the Irish could not appreciate was the help they would get from their opponents. Not only were the Welsh jumpers unable to co-ordinate their leaps at the line-out but on those rare occasions when they did, Garin Jenkins could not find them.

His first throw was crooked and when the Welsh front row sank to their knees, O'Gara kicked the penalty. A short while later at another line-out the upending of Malcolm O'Kelly enabled O'Gara to kick his second penalty and, given the success the Irish were having with their limited strategy, the Welsh obsession for moving the ball from the deepest and darkest recesses of defence was baffling.

If the Welsh had a plan at this stage they were cunningly concealing it. Their attacks lacked conviction, subtlety and penetration, but that was before they introduced us to the Williams boys, Rhys and Shane. It was the latter who stripped his opposite number, Shane Horgan, to the bone, forcing him to obstruct the little winger and concede a penalty. Wales went for touch on the Irish line and for once all the components of their line-out worked beautifully for Nathan Budgett to be driven over for the try which Jones converted.

At last the Welsh tactics began to make sense. A loose kick out of defence by O'Gara launched Rhys Williams on a mesmeric run and, as Wales gradually applied the pressure in the scrummage, the penalty count mounted against Ireland. Jones extended the Welsh lead with a penalty five minutes before half-time and although, incredibly, he missed with a second penalty attempt from in front of the posts, it scarcely seemed to matter.

Ireland made frantic attempts to repair the damage of the first half but they lacked composure. O'Gara made ground into the Welsh half but in supporting him Ireland left themselves exposed to the persistence of the Welsh runners on the counter-attack. Colin Charvis and Gareth Thomas combined cleverly and opened a gap for Jones to score under the posts, giving him the simplest of penalties.

The Irish, so frail under pressure, continued to make mistakes but when the Welsh collapsed a maul there was a glimmer of hope, O'Gara's third penalty had a galvanising effect on his colleagues. Despite squandering a three-man overlap on the left after Brian O'Driscoll had broken, Horgan squeezed over in the right-hand corner for Ireland's first try. O'Gara kicked the conversion and 14 minutes from time gave Ireland the lead with his fourth penalty.

It was only now that we began to see O'Driscoll in a better light. In the aftermath of Paris, and the preposterous over-reaction to his achievements that day, it was only to be expected that he would be a marked man, but still he did enough to confirm that he is a player with immense potential. But this was a day and an occasion for the old head, and it was left to Jenkins to win the match.

Ireland: G Dempsey (Terenure); S Horgan (Lansdowne), B O'Driscoll (Blackrock College), R Henderson (Wasps), D Hickie (St Mary's College); R O'Gara (Cork Constitution), P Stringer (Shannon); P Clohessy (Young Munster), K Wood (Garryowen, capt), J Hayes (Shannon), M Galwey (Shannon), M O'Kelly (St Mary's College), S Easterby (Llanelli), A Foley (Shannon), K Dawson (London Irish). Replacements: A Ward (Ballynahinch) for Foley, 31-34; J Davidson (Castres) for Galwey, 58; A Ward (Ballynahinch) for S Easterby, 66; D Humphreys (Dungannon) for O'Gara, 67.

Wales: R Williams (Cardiff); G Thomas (Cardiff), A Bateman (Northampton), S Gibbs (Swansea), S Williams (Neath); S Jones (Llanelli), R Moon (Llanelli); P Rogers (Newport), G Jenkins (Swansea), D Young (Cardiff, capt), I Gough (Pontypridd), A Moore (Swansea), N Budgett (Ebbw Vale), G Lewis (Pontypridd), C Charvis (Swansea).Replacements: R McBryde (Llanelli) for G Jenkins, 64; N Jenkins (Cardiff) for S Jones, 67; D James (Lanelli) for S Williams, 76.

Referee: A Cole (Aus).