Wales 42 Ireland 12 at Pontypridd, Wales

Coachtalk - Andy Kelly Ireland and Iestyn Harris----

Wales Put Paid to Ireland in European Cup Final
By Gary Roberts RLCM-------

The Pontypridd Rugby Club, Sardis Road, Pontypridd, South Wales, hosted the semi final of the European Cup between two fierce rivals, Wales and Ireland. -------The Welsh team is coached by Super League legend, Iestyn Harris, who recently announced his retirement as a player following his appointment to the coaching staff of Celtic Crusaders and as Wales head coach. -------The Ireland team is coached by Andy Kelly who had the team for the 2008 World Cup.

-------The European Cup is a competition run in tandem with the Four Nations competition with the winner of the 2009 European Cup being granted automatic inclusion in the 2010 Four Nations with Australia, New Zealand and England. So the prize is attractive.

-------Wales finished the game comfortable winners 4212. After being down 12 nil, they powered home and scored 42 unanswered points.

-------Andy Kelly, the Irish coach, paid the Welsh term the ultimate compliment when he said, We were outplayed and out enthused by a much more enthusiastic side and we paid the penalty.

-------Although this game was not the standard of its big brother, the Four Nations Tournament, it proved to be an interesting game to analyse.

-------The standard was more comparable to a QRL Cup or NSWRL Cup game and there were good and bad sections. Early in the first half, Wales were in control of the game simply by controlling the Irish go forward. This they did by winning the tackle, creating a slow PTB thus forcing the opposition into playing cross field attacking situations. -------Due to some dropped ball and giving away penalties, Wales gave the Irish some valuable ball. This gave them some positive field position resulting in a couple of back to back sets which allowed them to score two converted tries to lead 12 nil at the 21st set of the game.

-------However, between the 31st Set and the 40th Set, Wales scored two converted tries to equal the score at 12 all at the halftime break.

-------Ireland's second stanza will quickly be forgotten by all involved as they struggled to get out of their own half under their own ability. This was caused by Wales complete domination of the ruck. The Irish taking the ball sideways only compounded their problem. -------The Irish coach, Kelly, said, "Going sideways was testament to the way Wales were playing in defence."

-------Wales coach, Harris, said when questioned about the speed of the Welsh ruck attack, We wanted to lift the tempo of the game and we wanted to play with some skill and we did that.

-------Wales will play Scotland in the Final of the European Cup next weekend at the Brewery Field, Bridgend. The effort put in by this club to reach the Final is truly remarkable as many of the players have not come from a junior rugby league environment.

-------Wales could improve further by playing several plays in the one channel, concentrating on attacking the edge defenders before spreading the ball to the other two channels.

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