Six Nations: Ireland 29-7 Wales

By Sports Desk February 05, 2022

Andrew Conway helped himself to a double as Ireland eased to a 29-7 bonus-point victory over Wales in the opening game of the 2022 Six Nations to make it nine wins in a row.

Wales defied the odds to win the title last year but the injury hit visitors, without captain Alun Wyn Jones and a number of other experienced players, were outclassed in Dublin.

Ireland led 10-0 at half-time, with Bundee Aki crossing over for the only try, but their dominance truly told in the second half at the Aviva Stadium.

Conway added two more and Garry Ringrose joined the scoring, rendering Taine Basham's late try nothing more than a consolation as Ireland recorded a fifth home Test win in a row against Wales for the first time.

Ireland needed just two minutes to score the first try of the tournament through Aki, who had the simplest of run-ins after being picked out by debutant Mack Hansen.

Johnny Sexton added the extras and, after missing a couple of penalties in quick succession, the Irish skipper kicked over again to pass the 500-points mark in the Six Nations.

Conway collected an offload from Sexton early in the second half, jinked past a couple of opponents and squeezed over at full stretch, the try allowed to stand after a TMO check.

Josh Adams was sin-binned for a reckless challenge on Sexton and more misery was to follow for Wales as Conway profited from Josh van de Flier's work to double his try tally.

Ringrose breezed through to add a fourth try for Ireland, who were undone late on when Basham intercepted from Tadhg Beirne and dived down under the posts.

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    The Championship returns from the international break with, much like the Premier League, a three-horse tussle at the top.

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    Leeds, on the other hand, have won 12 of their last 13 Championship fixtures, dropping points just once in that run.

    As for third-placed Ipswich Town, they are hot on the heels of their automatic-promotion rivals.

    All of these sides have built their fine campaigns on some brilliant attacking play, scoring 224 goals between them. Using Opta data, we can look at just how these attacks stack up.

     

    Ipswich Town

    Of these three teams, Ipswich have scored the most goals, with Kieran McKenna's side netting 80 across their 38 matches - an average of 2.1 per game. That makes the Tractor Boys the leading scorers in the league, while they are also the leading team for non-penalty goals (78).

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