As Wales prepare to face Ireland in Dublin on Saturday, Dragons coach Bernard Jackman has a confession to make to Alex Bywater. The former Ireland hooker cost his country their chance of victory in the same fixture 10 years ago.
Bernard Jackman has one particular memory of games between Ireland and Wales.
It isn’t a good one. In 2008, Jackman rose from the bench against Warren Gatland’s side at Croke Park to replace Rory Best in the 71st minute.
The game was in the balance with Wales 13-12 up.
A little over 120 seconds later, the hooker needlessly charged into Ryan Jones at a ruck, conceding the penalty which James Hook put between the posts.
It cost Ireland a Triple Crown and sent Wales on the path to Grand Slam glory. Now, head coach of the Dragons, Jackman will be an interested observer at the Aviva Stadium on Saturday when Ireland and Wales meet once again.
“I bought Ryan a coffee for that hit, but I think he wants a pint,” Jackman said. “Wales put a squeeze on us. I was on the bench and I could feel the game wasn’t really going for us.
“I thought Wales did a good job at slowing the ball down and I felt if I came on, I could try and quicken the game up. Ryan was on the wrong side of the ruck trying to slow the ball down, so I stupidly cleaned him out. It was a brain dead moment from myself.”
Jackman won nine caps for Ireland. With two of his Dragons players involved in Gatland’s Wales squad on Saturday, the 41-year-old will have split loyalties to a degree.
“I definitely shouldn’t have done it. I deal with Ryan quite a bit in Wales and he’s a good bloke, but it came from frustration at how good Wales were,” Jackman said, looking back a decade.
“For us playing at Croke Park was special because we were the only generation of rugby players that got to play there. I don’t think it will ever be opened up again for rugby.
“We wanted to put up a good performance, but Wales came with a very good game plan and executed that really well. When I came on the game had gone away from us a little bit.”
Jackman continued: “I imagine Wales will try to do the same this weekend. When Wales are confident they are capable of going to Dublin, or anywhere else for that matter, and winning.
“Warren is very good at getting teams ready for the big events and the big days.
“Wales have always outperformed Ireland at World Cups under him and he’s in a really good spot at the moment. He’s building towards a World Cup and he’s in the middle of a Six Nations which he has a cracking chance of winning. I think Ireland will be very wary of Wales.”
Jackman believes that while Ireland are unbeaten in this year’s Six Nations, their inability to put teams to bed will make Saturday’s clash in Dublin another close-run affair.
“I genuinely think it’s going to be very tight. Ireland generally don’t pull away from teams and we win a lot of tight games,” he said.
“Our try scoring record isn’t that good. We’ve scored 61 tries under Joe Schmidt in the Six Nations and 57 per cent of those have been against Italy.
“We hammer Italy, but we don’t beat France by very much and Scotland beat us last year. The Wales games have generally been a one-score game and we beat England last year, but they beat us the year before. We are a well-drilled side who are very structured and that makes us competitive.”
Chris Farrell has replaced the injured Robbie Henshaw in the Irish midfield, while injured forward pair Tadhg Furlong and Iain Henderson miss out.
Wales have made three changes, bringing back Leigh Halfpenny, Liam Williams and Dan Biggar to deal with the aerial assault Conor Murray and Johnny Sexton are set to rain down.
For Wales, it’s a must win game. For Ireland, defeat is not an option. It makes for an intriguing prospect.
“Ireland use their kicking game as a way of getting possession back or getting their defence on the front foot,” Jackman said.
“Wales have some excellent kickers too, but Ireland didn’t kick too much against Italy because that was the nature of the game. That was unusual because I think Ireland are very accurate and very good in the air. It will be no surprise if Ireland go to the sky against Wales.
“It’s nothing to do with any perceived weakness that Wales have, it’s just what we do. We do it more than anyone else, but I don’t think we have a divine right to beat a team of Wales’ quality.”
