George North lived up to his promise for self-improvement according to the coach who backed his man to come good for Wales.
Rob Howley could have dumped North. Instead he got him pumped and the desperately needed reward for Wales was a 22-9 victory over Ireland that repaired the tarnished reputation of both men.
It was a bone-jarring Six Nations match as has been the way between these teams in recent seasons. But Wales were sharper in the moments that mattered, whilst Ireland have lost the self-assuredness and composure of the side that beat the All Blacks just five months ago.
North’s two tries, and a late third for replacement Jamie Roberts, means Wales can, theoretically, still win the title if England lost at home to Scotland on Saturday.
The victory was hugely deserved for a ferocious defensive display to set alongside their cutting edge from first-phase possession. But they still remain a team who look less and less likely to score the more they retain the ball through phases – running out of ideas as well as space.
North was among those players singled out for heavy criticism following Wales’ second-half surrender to Scotland at Murrayfield two weeks ago.
But the 24-year Lions winger shone under the lights on a Friday night, North’s double giving him 30 tries in 68 Test appearances.
Ireland had needed victory to set up a potential title decider in Dublin next week. But England will now secure Six Nations silverware for a second successive season if they beat Scotland at Twickenham.
“He’s a quality, world-class international player,” Wales coach Howley said of North.
“We all have bad games and George is the first one to put his hand up after the Scotland game.
“He said: ‘Look I need to do better’ and he certainly did that.
“He showed ambition, he had a number of touches and when he gets five metres out, he’s very difficult to stop.
“We want him on the ball as often as possible and Liam Williams on the other side made some important tackles as well.”
Wales had been at risk of losing three consecutive matches in the championship for the first time since 2007.
After losing to England and Scotland, there had been a clamour for changes from some sections of the public and the Welsh media.
But Howley responded by keeping faith with the side which had lost 29-13 at Murrayfield, after being 13-9 ahead at half-time, with skipper Alun Wyn Jones insisting the only pressure on the team had come from within.
“I don’t think it was about proving a point to anyone outside the camp,” Jones said.
“We were hurting and I think the selection has been done before in terms of repeat selections.
“I think we answered the questions from the coaches.
“There are still parts to improve on, but we can be pleased with what we did without the ball.
“We defended well at the set-piece and when we get the ball we probably need to keep it longer. But on the whole we can be happy.”
Ireland retain slim title hopes, but it would need an improbable set of results for that to happen.
Scotland must win at Twickenham for the first time since 1983 but then lose at home to Italy on the final weekend, while Ireland would then have to beat England in Dublin.
“We’ve got to take this on the chin, we can’t afford to wallow in our own self-pity,” Ireland coach Joe Schmidt said.
“We’ve got to turn it around and make sure we convert that into something positive next week.
“We have still got a chance to finish in the top half of the championship, even with France and Scotland playing well, Wales bouncing back and England obviously playing really well.
“I said seven weeks ago that this is going to be the most competitive championship, and that’s been shown by England scrambling to wins over Wales and France.”
Ireland were out-foxed by Wales, both on and off the field. They lacked the tactical savvy of Rhys Webb, particularly when his opposite number at scrum-half, Conor Murray, went off injured, and they were rudderless for the 20 minutes Johnny Sexton spent off the pitch being treated for a head injury and then in the sin bin.
They were also muttering darkly about being duped into believing a closed roof would mean a dry surface when it was clear the turf had been watered – an accusation Howley said he was unaware of.
Man-of-the-match Rhys Webb said: “It’s been an emotional two weeks, because obviously we felt dominant in the first three games and only one result had come our way,” man of the match Webb said afterwards.
“We knew as a team, as a collective we were only fine margins away. Little offloads, discipline, those sorts of things throughout the 80 minutes that we could control, and we did that today.
“Look, we believe in ourselves, we go out there week in, week out and put a performance in for ourselves. We give 110 percent each week and we go out there to win.
“We definitely owed the fans a win, and credit to the support we had as well. It was unbelievable.”
“It was great work from 1 to 23,” he said. “Also the boys not involved in the match day 23, for the pressure they’ve put on us over the last two weeks.
“The likes of Owen Williams and Tom Young, those sort of boys, they’ve put a lot of pressure on us. So, it’s not just the 23 it’s the whole squad effort that this win goes to.”