O’Driscoll’s 45th try moved Ireland to 17-9 in the second half and with players all stepping up tot he mark the space was created for Keith Earls to celebrate his 24th birthday with two-tries. O’Gara added four penalties and two conversion to take his points tally to 16. Sexton on as a replacement for O’Gara also added a conversion and a penalty.

A front row of Healy, Best and Ross was more than a match for the expected struggle in the scrum and the back row of O’Brien, Ferris and Heaslip were dominant throughout.

The unlucky player of the night was Tommy Bowe, who had a first half try disallowed and went so very close to scoring in a frenzied second half!

Sexton finally scored his third penalty (what is it about this ball and kickers in this RWC?) and the score remained at 3-0 until the dying seconds of the first half  when Tommy Bowe crossed the line after taking an inside pass from Sexton to score the 17th of his Irish career. Sexton converted to end the half 10-0.

Paterson was to kick the Eagles first points of the second half, only to see Best peel off from a maul in the 56th minute and charge over the line, then O’Gara miss the conversion.

Three minutes later quick ball (finally) through the Irish backline saw O’Driscoll passing back inside for Bowe to get a second, this time O’Gara found his mark to get the extras.

Ireland’s attention focussed on what could be a very lucrative bonus point if they could find it….

However, a loose pass from Gordon D’Arcy allowed Paul Emerick to intercept and race for the line to score a try for the Eagles.

O’Driscoll will return after missing the last two defeats against Scotland and France in what seems to be an almost full strength Ireland squad.

D’Arcy gets his first game of the season, moving Earls from centre on to the left wing. O’Brien will move to number six with Heaslip and O’Connell to start. Stephen Ferris returning after a serious knee injury in January is named in the replacements.

The hotly contested half-back partnership is made up of Sexton and O’Leary this time.

Kearney is not included after his groin injury at the weekend but should be back in training by the end of the week. Bowe has been involved in full training but sits out this one.

With Kidney naming his squad on Monday this is the last chance to make an impression for some players, as you’d have to expect Kidney to have most of the team already inked in.

Peter Stringer has been overlooked again which limits the opstions at scrumhalf. O’Leary has attracted a lot attention in the wake of the French defeat, leaving only Eoin Reddan to be promoted from the replacements. Although it is widely suspected that O’Leary’s name is already set in stone!

Stringer would  add experience and variety along with O’Gara from the bench.

Bowe and Trimble look the most likely to be selected from the call-ups after good returns over the weekend. Bowe is an almost certainty, but whether that’s at the expense of McFadden (who’s done very little wrong), Earls or D’Arcy is the big question.

The other six players called up are Mick O’Driscoll, Donnacha Ryan, Gavin Duffy, Denis Hurley, Tony Buckley and Rhys Ruddock.

Andrew Trimble picked up try of the year for his try against Bath in the Heineken Cup, Leinster’s John Fogarty collected the IRUPA Nokia Unsung Hero Award.

Girvan Dempsey was inducted into the Bord Gáis Energy IRUPA Hall of Fame, whilst Jamie Heaslip was awarded the Bord Gáis Energy IRUPA Supporters’ Player of the Year, voted for by listeners of Newstalk106-108 fm.

BORD GÁIS ENERGY IRUPA PLAYERS’ PLAYER OF THE YEAR 2010

Winner: Tommy Bowe (Ospreys)

Nominations:

Tommy Bowe (Ospreys)
Keith Earls (Munster)
Jamie Heaslip (Leinster)

IRUPA NOKIA UNSUNG HERO OF THE YEAR 2010

Winner: John Fogarty (Leinster)

Nominations:

John Fogarty (Leinster)
Chris Henry (Ulster)
Michael Swift (Connacht)

IRUPA NATURE VALLEY YOUNG PLAYER OF THE YEAR 2010

Winner: Fionn Carr (Connacht)

Nominations:

Fionn Carr (Connacht)
Scott Deasy (Munster)
Keith Earls (Munster)

BORD GÁIS ENERGY IRUPA HALL OF FAME 2010

Inducted: Girvan Dempsey (Leinster)

IRUPA VOLKSWAGEN TRY OF YEAR 2010

Winner: Andrew Trimble (Bath v Ulster, Heineken Cup)

Nominations:

Fionn Carr (Leinster v Connacht, Magner’s League)
Brian O’Driscoll (Leinster v Brive, Heineken Cup)
Andrew Trimble (Bath v Ulster, Heineken Cup)

SUPPORTERS’ PLAYER OF THE YEAR VOTED FOR BY LISTENERS OF NEWSTALK106-108FM

Jamie Heaslip (Leinster)

Despite being disappointed they hadn’t won, Tommy Bowe said:

“We can take an awful lot from the tournament. We played some good rugby, and we scored good tries.  Myself and Keith Earls were the top try scorers in the tournament so there is a lot to take out of it.”

O’Driscoll’s 100th game was a win, but not particularly entertaining!

An early setback for Ireland had us worried when D’Arcy limped off with a leg injury, fortunately in-form Kearney came off the bench. Only for Wales to put themselves down to 14 men with Byrne sin-binned for killing the ball.

Keith Earls cored in the 23rd minute thanks to O’Driscoll’s offload, and O’Leary followed it up with one of his own shortly after on the half hour mark. Earls got a second in the second half to close out Wales who’s entire 12 points were Stephen Jones penalties.

Had it not been for Sexton’s poor kicking form Wales would have lost by a lot more (I know we need to get him ready for the World Cup but this is getting silly!), he missed three of his five first-half attempts including a straightforward conversion. He made up for some it with a late drop-goal.

In a soggy Twickenham Ireland got it just about right! The line-out fired, and the scrum looked improved. Sexton came off not early enough in our book, never have we screamed so much for O’Gara to enter the field of play, when he did he put a sublime kick in for Tommy Bowe’s try.

Wikinson had just kicked into the lead for England at 16-13 when Bowe again broke the defensive line from the lineout to score his second.

Earls also got try, with Dan Cole getting England’s only try of the game.

Ireland and England both now have 4 points, two behind France

At 25 the world’s his oyster and his market value soared after an amazing Lions tour where he scored four tries. Out of contract at the end of the season with Ospreys, interest is growing from Ulster, Leinster and Munster!

That said it looks like the Ospreys will retain Mr Bowe’s services having scored nine tries in nine games for them. A move back to Ireland  give Bowe an IRFU central contract, which would give generous player welfare through to the next World Cup.

Bowe still has strong connections at Ulster, but with two recent Heineken Cup champions interested, that’s got to be tempting hasn’t it?

During the ceremony at UCD’s O’Reilly Hall, Kearney was also honoured for IRUPA Try of the Year against Scotland at Croke Park.

Tommy Bowe said:

“After missing out on selection for the World Cup, the season seemed to just get better and better for me personally culminating in winning back my place in the Ireland team.

“This has topped it all off as it is the ultimate award in Ireland and I take great pleasure in winning it as it comes from the ones who really matter, the players.”

2008 IRUPA AWARD WINNERS:

IRUPA Players’ Player of the Year
Winner: Tommy Bowe (Ulster)
Nominations: Tommy Bowe (Ulster), Jamie Heaslip (Leinster), Eoin Reddan (London Wasps)

IRUPA Unsung Hero
Winner: Andy Dunne (Connacht)
Nominations: Rory Best (Ulster), Andy Dunne (Connacht), Niall Ronan (Munster)

IRUPA Hall of Fame
Inducted: David Humphreys (Ulster)

IRUPA Try of the Year
Winner: Rob Kearney (Ireland v Scotland)
Nominations: Tommy Bowe (Ireland v Scotland), Rob Kearney (Ireland v Scotland), Andrew Trimble (Ulster v Gloucester)

IRUPA Newcomer of the Year
Winner: Cian Healy (Leinster)
Nominations: Cian Healy (Leinster), Denis Hurley (Munster), Niall O’Connor (Ulster)