Winners & Losers: Wales v Ireland

Winners & Losers: Wales v Ireland

Wales saw their long unbeaten home record come to an end on Saturday as Ireland claimed a 22-17 at the Principality Stadium.

The result saw Warren Gatland's side go down in his final home game as Wales' head coach while Joe Schmidt's side bounced back from a heavy defeat to England.

Here are our winners and losers from the clash in Cardiff:

Rhys Patchell - Winner

Patchell is arguably the biggest winner from the Welsh side that went down to Schmidt's men. 


It had been a tough year for the playmaker who was blighted by injuries and his 40-minute cameo off the bench would likely decide whether he made Wales' Rugby World Cup squad.

Patchell stepped up and produced an excellent performance that almost saw Wales turn the game around and turn defeat into victory.


Jarrod Evans - Loser

Evans and Patchell effectively had 40 minutes each to make one final play for a place on the plane to Japan. 

Evans started well with some nice covering and a lovely kick pass, but then he missed a penalty from in front of the posts and overall he didn't have a terrible game.

The playmaker was overshadowed by the impact of Patchell in the second half.

Andrew Conway - Winner

Conway was given another opportunity to shine in the starting line up for Ireland and the Munsterman did not disappoint.

He made an excellent break to set up the first try of the game and was brilliant throughout the game, in a performance that could well have cemented his spot in Ireland's Rugby World Cup squad.

Jacob Stockdale stole the headlines with his two tries but Conway was just as effective, if not even more so.



 Another big winner from the back three was Will Addison who put in an assured performance in the #15 jersey.

Aled Davies - Loser

A rare start for Davies and the scrumhalf failed to take his opportunity with both hands. He had a really poor kick that effectively led to Stockdale's second try.

What made things worse for Davies was Tomos Williams strong performance off the bench.

Jack Carty - Winner

Stepped up and produced a strong performance in his first start as he showed off his variety on attack with a few great kicks, passes and attacked the Welsh defensive line.
 
 
 
His stellar performance earned him the man of the match award and likely pushed him up the pecking order for Ireland's World Cup squad that will be named tomorrow.
 

Ross Byrne - Loser

Ross Byrne is a loser from the encounter having not even touched the match ball in Cardiff. Byrne started Ireland's loss to England last week and Carty was given a full 80 minutes against Wales this weekend and judging on the two games, particularly the manner in which Carty dealt with his first start, it looks as if Carty will be battling Jonathan Sexton and Joey Carbery for a starting jumper in Japan.

Dave Kilcoyne - Winner

Kilcoyne was simply superb in his start for Ireland and produced a performance that should cement his place on the plane to Japan, if it wasn't already.

 
 
He was handy on defence making numerous big hits, carried superbly and had a great offload to Bundee Aki before the end of the first half.
 
 
 

He dominated in the scrums before he marched off with a head knock early in the second half.

Welsh scrum - Loser

The hosts were monstered in the scrums, conceding a penalty try, a yellow card in a scrumming performance that will concern the coaches.

Gatland will want his pack to front up quickly.

Ireland's lineout - Winner

After a poor performance in the lineout last week, Joe Schmidt will be pleased with the set piece performance on Saturday.

Ireland won just 5 of their 15 lineouts against England but improved to lose just one lineout against Wales.

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