Bernard Jackman: Wales scrum and kicking game are weaknesses

RTÉ rugby analyst Bernard Jackman instances the Welsh set-piece and kicking game as obvious weaknesses as Warren Gatland's side land in Dublin ahead of Saturday's Six Nations encounter.

With limited expectations after a torrid couple of years, Wales have lost two from two against Scotland and England but emerged with some credit from both games, almost pulling off a comeback of surreal proportions against the Scots and leading at Twickenham until the closing stages.

However, with Gatland - who returned to the Welsh post in 2022 after Wayne Pivac's three-year stint - openly acknowledging that Wales are in a rebuilding phase, Jackman indicates that their flaws are too numerous to cope with the Irish team in their current form.

"Their scrum is a weakness, they've chopped and changed their props. Their lineout has been hit and miss," Jackman told Game On on RTÉ2fm.

"Their biggest threat is without the ball, Tommy Reffell, their 7, has had an outstanding tournament so far. They do play fast. And they do play with abandon.

"They probably haven't been together long enough to have a very clear and obvious shape or attack strategy.

"But when they played to their best against Scotland and England - now having said that, England were down to 13 at one stage - they did just move the ball quickly, they took quick taps and played with great tempo.

"Their kicking game is actually very poor. Any time they've gone back to that, it's got them in trouble. Sam Costelow coming in at 10 will give them a little bit better kicking game.

"But I think there's going to big opportunities for Ireland to counter-attack.

"Obviously, if Ireland are sloppy, they can take advantage of that. But if you look at Ireland over the last 21 games, we've been incredibly