Osborne and wobbly Crowley finish off Wales to keep Ireland in Six Nations hunt

The pre-match predictions that Ireland would win with a bonus and Wales would get nothing tangible from it were wholly correct. Never, however, has so much been lost in the nuts and bolts of the sums adding up.

Wales were magnificent, good enough to reduce the home team and a raucous full house to sweaty souls praying for the final bell. When it came it had become a two-score game. The fear factor had subsided a few minutes earlier, but only when Jack Crowley managed to kick a handy penalty, though at this level there are not many kicks in that category for him.

Ireland had to work flat out to get the numbers right. In the end a dodgy looking pass from Jacob Stockdale – his first looked forward, his second was class – featured in Jamie Osborne’s touchdown to finally put Wales away. Or almost – Crowley’s missed conversion kept them in sight of a draw before he shut the window with his final kick.

So, what did the vanquished captain, Dewi Lake, make of it?

“Time [together] with this group is massive. We’ve worked a lot on the little bits of our game, and I think over the past two weeks there’s been a massive difference in that. Look, we came out and gave everything tonight – unfortunately, we’re just shy of the win.

“But I think there’s so many positives to take from that game for us. From where we were in round one to where we are now, there’s a stark difference. I think we’ve really given ourselves a platform to build on.”

Despite their heroics, the relationship between time in the opposition 22 and points taken is not great, and it was inevitable that the team on the ball so much of the time would eventually hit their markers. It followed too that the man of the match would come from the green changing room. It has taken a while for Jack Conan to be recognised as the top-quality international forward that he is, but he is making up for lost time. Two touchdowns, one of which was allowed, illustrated his work rate.

“That was a proper Test match,” Conan said. “The intensity was unbelievably high throughout. We probably gave them easy access a few times but I think we did well to stick in there. Yeah, maybe it wasn’t as controlled as you would have liked in various stages but I think that’s a credit to them. They played really well, and brought an unbelievably high intensity to it. The atmosphere was unbelievable. You could hear every single person in the stadium – it felt like a proper home game, and I think it means the world to the lads when everyone’s on their feet, shouting for us. Hopefully we get the same here next week.”

Jacob Stockdale celebrates scoring Ireland’s first try to set them on their way to a hard-fought 27-17 victory against Wales. Photograph: Clodagh Kilcoyne/Reuters

That much is guaranteed. The identity of those being cheered on will change again, though. Andy Farrell has used 33 players across the four games, putting his squad within touching distance of a triple crown. The biggest debate has been over No 10, and it will kick off again after this game – Crowley will carry some blame over how hard Ireland’s attack had to work to open Wales up.

When they got a perfect start with a scrum penalty at the first engagement, and then a try for Stockdale on six minutes, the prospect of a handy win presented itself. Soon enough it was taken away by the quality of Wales’s defence, mitigated only by the shortage of the same commodity in their attack. They had to settle for making Ireland work too hard for everything.

Going in 12-10 down at the break looked uplifting for them the way Rhys Carré sprinted over after Ireland were caught short on the blind and Tadhg Furlong had to suffer the pain of losing the race to the line to his direct opponent at the scrum.

Despite scoring first in the second half through Conan, which put them 19-10 ahead, Ireland still could not pull away. By the time they were mobilising Joe McCarthy and Tom Clarkson off the bench, Wales had struck back with James Botham squeezing over by the posts, Dan Edwards making it a two-point game.

Wales did not have the same quality of big hitters coming off the bench – Josh van der Flier made a big impact for Ireland – but hung in there on spirit and hard work.

Osborne’s try was typical of Ireland’s capacity to find another gear, helped by fresh legs, when it really mattered. Given the mood after the November series, exacerbated by the opener in Paris, Farrell will be pleased with the position his squad have carved out and the number of players used at the coalface.