Thomas turns on the style

Indiscipline, turnovers and the lethal boot of Welsh out-half Arwel Thomas guaranteed an emphatic victory for Wales in yesterday's A international at Eugene Cross Park in Ebbw Vale.

Injuries disrupted Irish aspirations but they can not quibble with the result. The hosts were sharper and more fluent behind the scrum, largely attributable to the mercurial Thomas, and focused and committed up front.

The Swansea number 10 provided an appreciative crowd with a wonderful performance, kicking seven penalties and two conversions from 10 attempts with the placed ball. Thomas was far from one-dimensional, sniping constantly for a half-break and distributing beautifully.

Ireland will rue the number of opportunities which the afforded him. There was precious little for the watching Ireland senior team manager Donal Lenihan and assistant coach Philip Danaher to enthuse about.

Ireland's scrum creaked ominously, both before and after the departure of the luckless Reggie Corrigan with knee ligament damage. Indeed, the Irish bench resembled a casualty ward by the end with Gordon D'Arcy (hamstring) and John McWeeney (back) also departing early.

Despite a decent platform out of touch through Gary Longwell and the hard working Mark Blair, Ireland lay too deep behind the scrum, squandering hard won possession with clumsy errors, laboured passing and diagonal running. Wings Darragh O'Mahoney and John McWeeney were notable exceptions in the first half, scoring a try each.

Scrum-half Guy Easterby enjoyed a fine first half and made one smashing break in the second but was guilty of drifting in and out of the game. Ireland's struggle to contain an eager Welsh pack up front put the emphasis on defence. In this respect and indeed their general play, flankers Alan Quinlan and David Wallace were excellent, aided by Blair.

On the night few reputations were enhanced with several tarnished, but it is not the individual lapses that are most damning but the fact that Ireland failed in the basics of the game. Wales made much better use of their possession and in centres Steve Winn and Jason Lewis boasted players capable of cutting through the Irish defence.

Three Thomas penalties to one from Killian Keane set the tone early on before Ireland produced a sustained burst of quality rugby, involving backs and forwards, that culminated in McWeeney breaking a tackle to cross close to the corner. Keane added a superb conversion.

Wales reply was swift, a fine try from Nick Walne and a Thomas penalty took them 17-10 clear. To their credit the visitors again snatched the momentum with Keane kicking a penalty and Darragh O'Mahoney alighting upon a loose ball on the ground, twice hacking on in a 70-metre run for an opportunist try.

The second half made for pretty grim viewing from an Irish perspective with Walne and Lewis adding tries for Wales and Thomas kicking everything in sight to take his personal tally to 25 points. Two Simon Mason penalties and an injury-time try from Blair offered only a token respite for the visitors.