{"id":524623,"date":"2026-03-07T12:12:19","date_gmt":"2026-03-07T12:12:19","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/524623\/"},"modified":"2026-03-07T12:12:19","modified_gmt":"2026-03-07T12:12:19","slug":"andy-farrell-gives-wales-flowers-but-hints-they-pushed-luck-in-one-area","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/524623\/","title":{"rendered":"Andy Farrell gives Wales flowers but hints they pushed luck in one area"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

Andy Farrell hinted that Wales<\/a> may have pushed their luck in one particular area of the game after Ireland<\/a> kept alive their slim hopes of reclaiming the Guinness Six Nations<\/a> title with a 27-17 bonus-point win in Dublin.<\/p>\n

The Ireland boss praised a \u201cdogged\u201d Welsh defensive effort that prevented his side from reproducing the ruthless display that dismantled England<\/a> in round three, but suggested the visitors repeatedly rode their luck in what he described as a refereeing \u201chot bed\u201d.<\/p>\n

Despite tries from Jacob Stockdale<\/a>, Jack Crowley<\/a>, Jack Conan<\/a> and Jamie Osborne<\/a> securing the win, Farrell\u2019s side were forced to scrap throughout as Wales stayed in the contest with a dogged performance that included a fine solo score from prop Rhys Carre.<\/p>\n

Ireland head coach Farrell said: \u201cI actually thought Wales did fantastically well to stay in the game.<\/p>\n

\u201cThey played tough, they hung on in there and kept it close on the scoreboard. I thought they were tremendous tonight.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt was a proper Test match and for us to come away with a bonus-point win, we\u2019d certainly take that with how the game unfolded because it was a different game to the game we played last time around.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe weren\u2019t playing rugby on the front foot because of how well they defended. I thought they were excellent in contact and at set-piece and they can be really proud of their performance.\u201d<\/p>\n

Although Ireland remain in contention for championship glory, table-topping France<\/a> will retain the title with a round to spare by beating Scotland<\/a> with a bonus point at Murrayfield on Saturday.<\/p>\n

Wales, meanwhile, will bid to avoid the wooden spoon for the third successive Six Nations when they host Italy<\/a> on the final weekend after they slipped to a 15th consecutive championship defeat, despite a creditable display at the Aviva Stadium.<\/p>\n

\u201cI thought we came up against a rock-solid defence who kept knocking us back and we should have been just a little bit more patient at times and I thought we\u2019d get our reward from that,\u201d said Farrell.<\/p>\n

\u201cBut most of the credit of how that Test match unfolded has to go to Wales because I thought they were outstanding in the way they went about the fight.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt was a dogged Test match and that\u2019s how these type of Test matches should be.\u201d<\/p>\n

Farrell also hinted that Wales, in one particular area of the game, had pushed their luck at times. Steve Tandy\u2019s men threatened multiple intercepts and threaded a fine line, if you\u2019ll excuse the pun, with referee Karl Dickson. <\/p>\n

\u201cThe offside is the hotbed, isn\u2019t it, for referees at this moment in time and to keep giving them another opportunity on another opportunity.<\/p>\n

\u201cWhen you\u2019re defending your own line pretty well, it gives them the territory and the feel-good factor that they\u2019re after, there\u2019s no doubt.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Andy Farrell hinted that Wales may have pushed their luck in one particular area of the game after…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":524624,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[567],"tags":[64,63,760,85],"class_list":["post-524623","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-rugby","tag-au","tag-australia","tag-rugby","tag-sports"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/524623","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=524623"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/524623\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/524624"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=524623"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=524623"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=524623"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}