Impressing a heavier defeat on the Welsh than they had done at the Millennium Stadium in October, Ireland produced a six-try effort to begin their campaign in the strongest possible fashion.
Wales sustained an injury worry in the first minute of lay as Chris Wyatt took a knock to his ankle, yet more woe was heading Wales’s way. Ireland’s David Wallace created a break in which he found fly half David Humphreys who smoothly passed to try scorer Geordan Murphy. Humphreys converted and added two penalties to take the home nation into an early 13-0 commanding lead.
As the game entered the second quarter so came another Irish score. Debutant lock Paul O’Connell drove over in the corner to further stretch the Irish lead, though his debut was cut short as he sustained a head injury soon afterwards.
Wales, playing against a strong wind, conceded another two penalties from the boot of Humphreys before they mounted some pressure on their hosts in the dying minutes of the first half. Stephen Jones, chosen for kicking duties over rugby league convert Iestyn Harris starring in his first Six Nations match, fired over Wales’s solitary in the score in the first half.
Wales face a huge task on the resumption of the second half as they were 24-3 deficit. Even with the wind now behind them Wales conceded the first points of the half; Andy Marinos lost possession to gift Murphy his second try after some great work by John Hayes, Peter Clohessy and Kevin Maggs.
Eventual man-of-the-match Humphreys converted and added two additional penalties to take Ireland into an unassailable 37-3 lead but Wales soon gave the Welsh contingent in the Irish crowd something to cheer about.
With twenty minutes remaining the Quinnell brothers and Wyatt’s replacement Ian Gough set up a try for fly half Jones, which he duly converted, becoming Wales’s sole points scorer in the clash. This heralded the conclusion of Welsh scoring in the match but three further tries from Denis Hickie, debut-making Keith Gleeson and Humphreys’s replacement Ronan O’Gara took Ireland over the fifty points barrier and termination of Wales’s miserable start to the 2002 campaign.
