Finding their feet under Andy Farrell will take time for Ireland, but there were certainly some trends on show on Saturday as they made it two wins from two in the 2020 Guinness Six Nations.
Ireland also made it two from two at the Aviva Stadium with a 24-14 win over the Grand Slam champions, ending their eight-game unbeaten run in the Championship.
And while Ireland took their chances close to the line to run in four tries in total, it was their wide passing that really stood out in this success.
In some ways it is ironic, considering Nick Tompkins’ distribution last week helped Wales unlock Italy’s defence, but this time he and Wales were on the receiving end.
Early on it seemed that Wales were too narrow on every attack, Jacob Stockdale finding space outside George North down the left as they pressed into the 22 in the very first minute.
It was clearly a well-defined tactic to open up space for Stockdale out wide and that was possible because of some excellent wide passing, Conor Murray with one standout delivery to the winger to burst clear just before the quarter-hour.
While Ireland could not initially turn that into points, by the end the pressure of keeping Wales’ defence wide, opened up the space inside for Jordan Larmour to step over for the opening try on 20 minutes.
Larmour has exceptional feet, but showed his passing as well on one attack in the second half, fed by a brilliant Keith Earls pass just as he was being hit in midfield in the move above.
Earls’ pass was even more impressive, managing to spread the ball wide enough distance to find Larmour, who then played the two on one to send Stockdale away down the left, albeit with a pass that forced the winger to check his run a fraction.
A phase later and Wales were back in their 22 and trying extravagant offloads, Hadleigh Parkes giving away a scrum with a forward pass to Tompkins. From that scrum, again the wide passing made the difference after initial good work from the forwards.
Having drawn in the Welsh defence, the backs got their chance, and Larmour’s final, looping pass to Andrew Conway put the winner over in the right corner.
Whether this was something that Mike Catt and the Ireland attack had spotted last week against Wales, or whether it is an indication of how Ireland will look to set up in future remains to be seen.
What is certain is that Ireland’s insistence on keeping the Wales defence spread all game, opened up the space for them to attack in the heart of the pitch.
