Wales 12 Ireland 35

Ireland beat Wales 35-12 at Lansdowne Road in Dublin in the first of their 2003 Rugby World Cup warm-up games, handing the struggling Wales team their ninth consecutive Test defeat.

Ireland never looked threatened by a young and largely untested Wales team, consisting of six new caps with coach Steve Hansen, in an effort to settle on his final 30-man squad for the World Cup, picking Wales Under-21 outside half Nicky Robinson to make his first full Test debut at fullback and Gwent Dragons back row forward Rhys Oakley on the flank, as well as another four former or current Under-21 players on the bench.

For Ireland, inspirational captain Keith Wood made his first appearance in over a year since being ruled out by a shoulder injury, while star centre Brian O'Driscoll, who hasn't seen any action since injuring a hamstring in the Heineken Cup semi-final against Perpignan in April, also made his return, impressing, as always, alongside his skipper.

It took only four minutes for the hosts to cross over for the first try of the game when lock forward Paul O'Connell touched down following a relentless Irish surge up the field, with fly-half David Humphreys stretched the lead to seven points with the conversion.

Wales, however, answered back almost immediately after an Ireland handling error led to a turnover, with their young backline sweeping across the field, allowing veteran winger Gareth Thomas to touch down in the corner.

That, however, was to be the only joy for Wales in the first half.

What followed was wave upon wave of green jerseys as Ireland sent the ball wide at every opportunity and were it not for some poor handling and over-eagerness by Ireland, the scoreline could have looked entirely different.  As it turns out, the Irish managed to cross the tryline once only, going to the break at 14-5.

Ireland began the second half the same way they began the first, when replacement loose forward David Wallace crossed over in the first two minutes, Humphreys making no mistake with the conversion attempt.

Ireland again threatened to break loose, but a courageous Welsh defence limited the damage until lock Malcolm O'Kelly stormed down centre-field, cut inside young winger Garan Evans, and went down underneath posts to effectively finish off the game.

O'Connell was rewarded with a second try for his efforts on attack as well as defence, putting in some big tackles that left the Welsh reeling backwards in a display that may just leave more questions than answers, but the decision by Hansen to leave out all four of his "squad captains" -- Colin Charvis, Stephen Jones, Martyn Williams and Robin McBryde -- left the side with little in the leadership role.

Man of the match:  Wales showed plenty of courage on defence as well as on attack, but it was always going to be too much for such a young and inexperienced side to seriously threaten Ireland and while any number of the Irish could pick up the award, Paul O'Connell's work-rate was exceptional and his defence was at times simply devastating -- reason enough for the lock forward to be named as our Man of the match.

Moment of the match:  The massive lock Malcolm O'Kelly stepping inside Garan Evans to score underneath the posts for Ireland.  One up to the forwards!

Villian of the match:  Evans for letting O'Kelly step inside him to score underneath the posts.

The Teams:

Wales:  1 Duncan Jones, 2 Mefin Davies, 3 Ben Evans, 4 Michael Owen, 5 Gareth Llewellyn, 6 Richard Parks, 7 Rhys Oakley, 8 Alix Popham, 9 Dwayne Peel, 10 Ceri Sweeney, 11 Garan Evans, 12 Iestyn Harris, 13 Jamie Robinson, 14 Gareth Thomas (c), 15 Nicky Robinson
Reserves:  Huw Bennett, Gethin Jenkins, Vernon Cooper
Unused:  Nathan Brew, Andy Williams, Andy Marinos, Robin Sowden-Taylor

Ireland:  1 Simon Best, 2 Keith Wood (c), 3 Reggie Corrigan, 4 Malcolm O'Kelly, 5 Paul O'Connell, 6 Keith Gleeson, 7 Alan Quinlan, 8 Anthony Foley, 9 Peter Stringer, 10 David Humphreys, 11 Tyrone Howe, 12 Brian O'Driscoll, 13 Kevin Maggs, 14 Anthony Horgan, 15 Geordan Murphy
Reserves:  Shane Byrne, Gordon D'Arcy, Girvan Dempsey, Guy Easterby, David Wallace, Justin Fitzpatrick, Donncha O'Callaghan

Attendance:  20000
Referee:  Dume j.

Points Scorers:

Wales
Tries:  Evans G.R. 1, Thomas G. 1
Conv:  Harris I.R. 1

Ireland
Tries:  O'Kelly M.E. 1, O'Connell P.J. 2, Quinlan A. 1, Wallace D.P. 1
Conv:  Murphy G.E.A. 1, Humphreys D.G. 4