Ireland 27-17 Wales: Resilient Irish prevent ‘formidable’ visitors from winning famous Six Nations title in Dublin

For a moment, Ireland threatened to flee into the night.

After Jacob Stockdale ended his five-year wait for an international try, Ireland celebrated a second try against Wales just 10 minutes into Friday’s Six Nations match when Jack Conan crashed.

But the home support’s excitement at the prospect of a big hit turned to frustration when the try was ruled out due to a Tom O’Toole strike.

It made for a tense night for Ireland as England’s post-England euphoria was quickly forgotten as they began to keep a stubborn and lively Wales side quiet.

In their record win away to England, Ireland took a relentless 22-0 lead before the hosts hit back.

But on Friday, a solid Welsh defense prevented the hosts from building an insurmountable advantage.

When asked for his observations, Ireland coach Andy Farrell was quick to praise Wales after they gave his team a more uncomfortable test than England last time out.

“I actually thought Wales did a fantastic job of staying in the game,” he said.

“Like Kellan [Doris, Ireland captain] If it got to 14 points, it would be a different game, he said, but they played hard, hung in there and kept it close on the scoreboard. I thought they were tremendous tonight.

“It was a proper test match, and for us to come away with a bonus-point win, we’ll certainly take that with the way the game has developed, because it was a different game to the one we played last time.

“In terms of, we weren’t playing good rugby because of how well they defended, I thought they were excellent at contact and set-pieces.”