Ireland U20s blow Wales away in comprehensive victory

Wales lost 43-8 to Ireland as the Grand Slam champions showed their ruthless side in the U20s Six Nations.

Tries from Henry Walker (2), Sean Edogbo, Danny Sheahan (2) and Ben O’Connor secured a handsome victory for the hosts, with Wales getting their sole score through scrum-half Ieuan Davies.

Richard Whiffin’s side could not handle the Irish maul throughout the 80 minutes, with the home side bagging multiple scores through their dominance in that area. The starting and replacement hookers for Ireland scored two tries each, and were successful in peeling off the back of the maul on separate occasions.

READ MORE: Ireland v Wales exact scoreline predicted as Gatland devises plan to stun Farrell

Early on in the first half, Wales hooker Harry Thomas was yellow carded for not wrapping in the tackle, but the visitors remained strong despite being a man down. When the Scarlets front rower returned to the field his bad luck continued, being pinged for a neck roll as Wales tried to build.

Wales showed signs of real promise in attack in the first half, but weren’t able to break the line when it mattered. After being outmuscled by England last week, Whiffin’s side looked to front up to the Irish physicality at times in the opening 40, but were unable to repel their efforts from close range, where Ireland were most efficient.

Ireland’s rolling maul worked relentlessly towards the whitewash for their first try through blindside flanker Edogbo, who finished off a multi-phase surge. All but one of Ireland’s scores came from close range.

Wales were the nearly team at times, putting together some clever, varied moves with smart dummy-running lines, but appeared to run out of ideas when they got within range of executing the killer blow.

Wales