France will be a proper test of Irish faith in attack

The first 50 minutes of Ireland's opening match of the Six Nations started right where they left off in November.

Both their attack and defence looked unbelievably cohesive against what turned out to be a very lacklustre Welsh side.

Defensively, Ireland shut out Wales to all but one try which came from a combination of errors from Ireland and it happened when the game was truly over. Wales never looked like creating their own score and there’s actually not a single moment that I can remember where Ireland were under pressure.

There was a 12-minute period after Sexton’s kick at goal at around the 20-minute mark where Wales and Ireland traded turnovers and errors and Ireland were stuck in their own half for the full 12 minutes. However, other than that, they never struggled and Wales imposed nothing on them.

Ireland’s defence was helped massively by their discipline with zero penalty concessions in the first half. That can be a result of great discipline from Ireland, or it could be down to their set-piece dominance, their possession and effectiveness in attack, or simply due to Wales being completely average when they got their hands on the ball.

Ireland attacked a lot of Welsh breakdowns with penalties awarded to Conan, Porter and Peter O'Mahony. To go after as many breakdowns as they did with no penalties against them in the first half is incredible. It also destroyed the Welsh attack because even when they didn’t win penalties, they disrupted the Welsh flow and slowed down their ball or forced an error.

With France up next, Ireland will be challenged a lot more in defence. France boast the most exciting back line in the tournament, despite not finding top gear last week, and have a pack that will cause a lot more pressure