Warren Gatland confirmed Jones failed a head injury assessment in the second half of Ireland’s win over Wales in Cardiff
, Ireland’s first Six Nations win in Cardiff since 2013, is hardly how Gatland would have wanted to open his second era, but he suggested Wales’s improvement in the second half, during which they held Ireland to 7-7 provided reason for hope. “I thought the second half was a huge improvement. We created chances but just weren’t clinical enough to finish them. I took a lot of positives out of that performance, apart from the scoreboard.
Ireland’s captain, Johnny Sexton, who is nursing a minor leg injury, spoke of his nerves before his first matchat the start of the year, but is looking forward to next week’s date against France in Dublin. “It is only a start,” he said. “But a bad result today means the triple crown’s gone, the grand slam’s gone. We’re still in the hunt which is brilliant. But there are no easy games in this competition, and none are tougher than next week’s.
Ireland managed to ride the loss on the day of Jamison Gibson-Park and Cian Healy from the squad, to compoundin the previous few days but did not seem to be at all ruffled. “We’re delighted to get off to a good start,” said the head coach, Andy Farrell. “The good thing about it is that there were a lot of things we could have used as an excuse over the last 12 days. But our preparation has been top drawer. I think we got what we deserved. It’s a tough place to come and history says exactly that. If you’d offered us a bonus-point win here at the start of the competition, we would have snapped your arm off.
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