So trying for Ireland as Wales home in on Grand Slam

It’s a crying Shane that Ireland’s Triple Crown hopes died at Croke Park - and not only because most of the 80,000 crowd were convinced that Shane Horgan grounded the ball on the Welsh line, rather than in front of it.

Because ultimately it was his diminutive opposite number Shane Williams who earned Warren Gatland’s unbeaten dazzlers a 16-12 victory with a scintillating try that actually DID count.

Mind you, the green hordes on the terraces  were just a tad biased when giant wing Horgan powered through for a 22nd minute ‘score’ that  could well have seen the Irish 13-0 ahead at a time Wales had hardly got out of bottom gear.

I had to agree with the video official that the ball in Horgan’s outstretched hand hit the deck a centimetre short of glory, thanks to a superb last-gasp cover tackle by scrum-half Mike Phillips. But it was just Ireland’s luck that the Welsh immediately broke away and won a penalty from which Stephen Jones reduced the arrears to 6-3.

Now there’s a big difference between being 6-3 down and 13-0 behind - and that fact seemed to spur skipper Ryan Jones and his men into a new dimension. For the rest of the half, they pummelled the Irish line without scoring. And even when they were gifted an easy penalty on the stroke of half-time, hero-turned-villain Phillips immediately negated the advantage with interest by sticking his knee into the back of the offender.

Out came the yellow card and instead of 6-6 and 15 a side, it was 6-3 and 15 against 14 for the first ten minutes of the second half.  Stupid - or was it just that the Almighty mistakenly implanted a Premier League footballer’s brain into Phillips’ head?

But Wales fans needn’t have worried. By the time Phillips returned they WERE level at 6-6 thanks to another Jones kick. And when Phillips began the move that led to little Williams ghosting past three would-be tacklers to put Wales ahead for the first time, the omens were bleak for Ireland.

At 6ft 4in (Horgan) and 5ft 8in (Williams) respectively, it should have been no contest  between the two Shanes - but it actually turned into a helluva collision that ended with Williams equalling Gareth Thomas's record of 40 tries for Wales.

This was a day when Brian O’Driscoll’s boys were convinced that the luck of the Irish deserted them. But in reality, they were just beaten by a better side - as Ireland coach Eddie O'Sullivan admitted afterwards. The best side in the Six Nations, in fact - as I think will be proved next Saturday when France come to the Millennium Stadium as the only team who can prevent coach Gatland winning the Grand Slam in his first season in charge.

Few could argue that Wales have been the outstanding team in the competition. Certainly not Scotland and England, who battled out a tryless war of attrition at muddy Murrayfield. Wonder of wonders, the Scots came out on top by five kicks to three - but this was no spectacle for the rugby connoisseur.

It was merely evidence that England - conquerors of champions France on their own territory two weeks earlier - are now the most inconsistent side in Europe.