For years, Ireland v Wales in the Guinness Six Nations was a tit-for-tat rivalry. Get in, get the win, and get out. The margin and the style in which it was done didn't matter.
Since the 2019 Rugby World Cup, all of that has changed.
A pair of Irish wins in this fixture in 2020 was halted by a surprise victory for Wayne Pivac’s side in Cardiff in 2021. Their Six Nations title that spring marked the last stand of a truly great Welsh generation, as the bottom fell out of the game in the country, both on and off the field.
While the gap between the sides at the Aviva Stadium today looks alarming, the rate at which it opened is more so.
The Irish players and management have bristled at the suggestion that this game is a "banana skin" for Ireland. That label, according to captain Peter O’Mahony, is disrespectful to the visitors. Impartial observers might say it’s actually generous.
The gap in experience is hard to overstate this weekend.
A core of this Irish team have been on the road for a long, long time, with O’Mahony, Conor Murray and Cian Healy’s Test experience alone amounting to 341 caps.
Even with Jack Crowley, Ciarán Frawley, Calvin Nash and Joe McCarthy all pups of the international game, Ireland’s starting XV this afternoon can boast 608 caps between them, 109 more than Gatland’s side. Of the combined 499 caps in the Welsh line-up, George North’s 113 appearances are doing a lot of heavy lifting.
That chasm of experience is even more evident on the bench, where the eight Irish players outnumber their Welsh counterparts by more than three caps to one on average. Of the Welsh matchday squad, seven have 10 caps or fewer.
Those numbers are eye-opening, but they’re partially by design.
Since returning to the head coach job at the
Six Nations
Irish Rugby
Sport
Rugby
Wayne Pivac
Conor Murray
Peter Omahony
Calvin Nash
Jack Crowley
Cian Healy
Joe Maccarthy