\n<\/p>\n
In the build-up to Ireland’s Six Nations win over Wales on Saturday, it was difficult to recall a recent time when one team was favoured so heavily in this fixture. <\/span><\/p>\n The common theme in the pre-match commentary revolved around Ireland’s unanswerable superiority and the hiding Wales were supposedly going to get. <\/span><\/p>\n<\/div>\n Ireland are a serious winning machine, after all. Wales, in contrast, are a young team in transition, not nearly as developed as a group of Irish players who have been through a lot in their five years together under Andy Farrell. <\/span><\/p>\n Considering all that, and the fact that Ireland were 17-0 up at half-time after a dominant first-half showing, it was striking then that Farrell found himself pinpointing his side’s resilience after they came through a sticky second half to stay on course for a second straight Grand Slam. <\/span><\/p>\n “Exactly that [the resilience],” observed the Ireland head coach after watching his side record an 18th straight home win. <\/span><\/p>\n “If we start at the end result and work our way back, I thought we were tenacious to get to that point where we won 31-7 with a bonus point. <\/span><\/p>\n “There was all sorts of stuff going on in that game. Some of it was our own doing but most of it was because we were playing against a tenacious Welsh side as well, so congratulations to them. <\/span><\/p>\n “But we stuck at it and broke them down in the end.”<\/span><\/p>\n Sitting pretty at half-time, Ireland allowed Wales a glimmer of hope early in the second half when Tadhg Beirne was sin-binned for illegally stopping a Welsh maul, with the visitors awarded a penalty try as a result. <\/span><\/p>\n That brought Wales, without a Six Nations win in Dublin since 2012, back to 17-7 down, and they applied further pressure on the Irish defence before wilting in the closing stages.<\/span><\/p>\n Having seen enough from his team over the 80 minutes, Warren Gatland remarked that he felt Ireland’s 24-point advantage at the end was not a fair reflection of the game. <\/span><\/p>\n When that was put to Farrell minutes later, his response drew laughter from those packed into the Aviva Stadium press conference room. <\/span><\/p>\n “It probably should have been 40, 44-7, shouldn’t it?” he said with the slightest hint of a smile. <\/span><\/p>\n “There were a couple of tries that were notched off, wasn’t there?”<\/span><\/p>\n Elaborating, Farrell said he felt Ireland “got what we deserved” and they arrived at a third successive bonus-point win thanks in no small part to their bench. <\/span><\/p>\n While much has been made of Gatland’s willingness to blood new players in the Test arena, it was telling that Farrell could call upon a starting British and Irish Lion number eight from 2021 (Jack Conan) and two Irish centurions (Cian Healy and Conor Murray).<\/span><\/p>\n “I thought it was huge,” Farrell said when asked about his bench’s impact.<\/span><\/p>\n “They were always going to come on and add some power. It’s the reason for the bench, to bring some power on to the field when people are a little tired.<\/span><\/p>\n “I think for that 10-minute spell with the [Tadhg Beirne] yellow card, they were always going to take advantage of that so it got us back on the front foot and that’s the job.”<\/span><\/p>\n While Farrell has lost Johnny Sexton to retirement and a few players to injury – notably Mack Hansen and Garry Ringrose – he was able to select most of his key players over the first two rounds of the championship. <\/span><\/p>\n But Hugo Keenan’s injury presented a headache. The livewire full-back has been two things recently: sensational and ever-present. <\/span><\/p>\n Farrell could have opted to give Jacob Stockdale, James Lowe or Jordan Larmour the 15 jersey, but he instead entrusted Ciaran Frawley, a player whose total previous Six Nations experience amounted to a late cameo against France. <\/span><\/p>\n During the week, Gatland had said Wales would look to target the Leinster man, whose first-choice position is fly-half, but Farrell was pleased with what he saw from the 26-year-old, who marked his full championship debut with a pressure-relieving try in the second half. <\/span><\/p>\n “Yeah, he was solid enough,” said Farrell.<\/span><\/p>\n “Obviously a big day for him and it was going to test him. Gatts [Gatland] was saying all week they were going to test him but his skillset is sound. <\/span><\/p>\n “He’s always going to be good under the high ball, he’s an extra pair of hands and eyes and communicates pretty well as well. <\/span><\/p>\n “He’ll be glad that that’s done and he’s going to learn a lot from that.”<\/span><\/p>\n With Ireland not quite firing on all cylinders, how much do they need to improve to secure wins over England and Scotland and bag a second straight Slam? Farrell isn’t sure. <\/span><\/p>\n “I can’t really answer that because we wanted to be better today but the opposition always has a say in that and Wales certainly did,” said the Englishman. <\/span><\/p>\n England may well have a say in two weeks’ time. No longer able to win the Slam themselves after <\/span>losing to Scotland<\/span><\/a>, Steve Borthwick’s side will be desperate to do what France, Italy and Wales couldn’t and knock Ireland down. <\/span><\/p>\n<\/div>\n