Wales 18-27 Ireland: Six Nations champions squeak win despite Garry Ringrose 20-minute red card

Ireland just about cliched the 14th Triple Crown in their history after a 27-18 win in Cardiff, having been pushed all the way by a much-improved Wales after Garry Ringrose was shown the Six Nations' first 20-minute red card. 

Ringrose was shown yellow on the field for a high tackle in making head-on-head contact with Wales centre Ben Thomas five minutes before half-time - a card which was upgraded to red following a bunker review.

Jack Conan and Jamie Osborne scored tries for the visitors, with captain Dan Sheehan invariably choosing to kick for points through fly-half Sam Prendergast (five penalties) - a tactic which almost came back to bite the heavily-fancied away side when Wales wing Ellis Mee was adjudged to have lost control attempting to score in the corner with seven minutes to play.

Having fallen 10-0 behind early, Wales showed huge spirit and quality to fight back and lead by eight points in the second half through Jac Morgan and Tom Rogers tries and the boot of Gareth Anscombe (one conversion, two penalties), but just fell short to a mightily relieved Ireland.

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The visitors settled into an early spell of physical dominance as a monstrous counter-ruck and Ringrose 50/22 granted territory, and Ireland did not let up until they scored the opening try in the seventh minute through Conan - the No 8 holding off Tomos Williams before reaching out superbly to ground on the tryline.

Prendergast converted for 7-0 but a brilliant Rogers high ball take up against Osborne soon put Wales in possession in the Ireland half, with fly-half Anscombe noticeably bringing more pace to their attack. Tadhg Beirne eventually forced a breakdown penalty to halt matters, though.

Sustained Irish pressure thereafter failed to bring more points despite neat link-ups with ball in hand at pace, as James Lowe knocked on in the 22, but the lead was stretched to 10-0 on 21 minutes through a Prendergast penalty.

A knock-on by Sheehan near his 22 allowed Wales to immediately cancel out that penalty with one of their own through Anscombe after a subsequent offside.

Wales showed heart to end the half on top, with huge pressure on the Ireland defence in their 22 only being lifted when Ringrose was dismissed.

Anscombe slotted over that penalty to reduce Ireland's lead to four at 10-6, and opposite number Prendergast then missed a chance off the tee in hitting the post.

Instead, the Principality was lifted to its feet after Morgan's close-range try three minutes into dead time at the end of the first half.

Anscombe converted for a 13-10 Wales lead, and the lead was stretched beyond a score after a Prendergast knock-on and then missed tackle invited Wales onto the attack and Rogers to acrobatically fly over in the corner.

Ireland got back into their attacking swing but missed the chance for a try when Prendergast knocked on possession again. They did then narrow the gap back to five points via a close-range penalty when Wales were caught offside.

A lovely Prendergast 50/22 soon put Ireland back on the front foot, with Bundee Aki emerging to restore them to 15 players, and when the likes of Peter O'Mahony, Josh van der Flier and Ryan Baird carried hard to create advantage, scrum-half Jamison-Gibson Park produced a cross-field kick which Lowe did superbly to bat inside for Osborne to score.

Prendergast missed the conversion to leave the score level at 18-18, with a Rogers breakdown penalty halting Ireland's next spell.

Exciting Wales full-back Blair Murray somehow held up Ireland wing Mack Hansen from scoring with 14 to play, as Ireland chose to go back and kick over their penalty advantage to edge in front 21-18.

An Aki penalty won on halfway saw Prendergast stretch the lead to six points off the tee, but Mee then almost scored a try which would have given Wales a conversion for the lead late on, only for replays to show he grounded the ball short before losing it, while his elbow also appeared in touch.

A further Prendergast penalty with two minutes left on the clock rubberstamped victory, though few of an Irish persuasion will be content with this display.

Easterby: We dug ourselves out of a hole; Ringrose decision could have been yellow

Ireland interim head coach Simon Easterby said post-match...

"Pleased with the result but lots of things in the game we feel we could have done better. We go down in the game, we go down a man and then we go down on the scoreboard.

"We came in at half-time and felt like if we played in the right way and did things better our way then we felt we could dominate them.

"We had a lot of possession and territory for 30 minutes, just didn't quite get our accuracy right in terms of scoring the points that we needed.

"We knew that Wales would come back into it if we gave them an opportunity and we did that.

"I was pleased that we responded to being in a bit of a hole and we dug ourselves out and took the game away from them in the last 20.

"Those [Ringrose red card] can go either way, Ringer's a great player for us, everything he does is with intent, in terms of the speed he works at.

"That's probably what cost him there, the speed of his movement off the line and he just doesn't quite drop enough.

"He's certainly far from a dirty player, it's just one of those things, it could have gone either way. It could have been a yellow.

"There was another incident late in the game that could have gone either way. It didn't fall in our favour, these things happen."

Sherratt: I loved it - we removed the fear and got the players to express themselves

Wales interim head coach Matt Sherratt told media...

"Firstly, I loved it, it was a great game.

"This week has just been about us trying to get some confidence in the group and then trying to imprint what we've done on the field, and for large parts they did that.

"We put a clear plan together for the players, one or two things we thought we could put all our energy into, because there has been no lack of emotion and passion from the boys.

"It was just about removing the fear and letting them go on the field and express themselves a little bit within our structures."

What's next?

Following the second rest week, Ireland are in action on Saturday March 8 for the fourth round of the championship, hosting France in a mammoth match at the Aviva Stadium in Dublin (2.15pm kick-off).

Wales next travel to face Scotland at Murrayfield on Saturday March 8 (4.45pm kick-off).

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