Anyway, my ratings for the Welsh players:
01 Gethin Jenkins - 4. Once again, just looked off the pace of the game, both in open play and at the scrums.
02 Matthew Rees - 4. Lineout went OK with him on the field, but he didn't offer much in open play.
03 Adam Jones - 5. Disappointingly gave away a penalty at the scrum early on to hand Ireland the momentum once again. Did all he could, but didn't apply pressure in the scrums as expected.
04 Andrew Coombs - 8. Excellent test debut. One early knock-on aside, he carried well and and tackled strongly.
05 Ian Evans - 6. Put in lots of work, but was guilty of going into contact too upright, allowing Ireland to hold him up and turn him over.
06 Aaron Shingler - 2. Worst Welsh player I'm afraid. Did little of note imo, and looked way off the pace of the game. Wasn't even used much in the lineouts, the reason Howley claimed he picked him.
07 Sam Warburton - 4. Worked tirelessly as always, but had little impact on the game. Shocking decision making towards the end.
08 Toby Faletau - 9. Great all-round display. Wales' most effective ball carrier, and linked well.
09 Mike Phillips - 5. Once again, his slow distribution hurts us. Getting the ball knocked out of his hand when a try was looking likely was poor. Whilst a scrum half shouldn't normally be expected to stop Healy from short-range, you would normally put money on Phillips making that tackle.
10 Dan Biggar - 6. That charge down was a costly mistake, but his only really obvious one. Other than that he attacked the gainline really well. Some of his passing maybe put pressure on his outside backs a couple of times, but in general his distribution was OK. Tackled when required.
11 George North - 7. As I've said, did all he could. Beat a number of defenders, and always crossed the gainline.
12 Jamie Roberts - 3. Don't remember him doing much all game. No big tackles, no powerful runs. He tried to come on nice angles, but Ireland picked him up and smashed him every time.
13 Jon Davies - 4. Much more involved that Roberts, but was unfortunately often involved with everything poor about Wales too. His spot blitz didn't work today, and instead left the players outside him exposed. His offence was effective, yet filled with errors, especially his passing.
14 Alex Cuthbert - 4. Scored a try, that's about the only thing of note he did. Turnstyle in defence, literally. Unable to keep his depth in attack.
15 Leigh Halfpenny - 9. Once again, Halfpenny gives everything. If every player played like him, we'd be winning these matches. Scored a try, kicked all but the very difficult conversion from the touchline, imperious under the high ball, excellent in defence, and a few nice flick passes to boot. His tackle on SOB showed what he's about, threw himself at the big man, and chopped him down to allow Wales to get the turnover. The man's a class above.
