Brave Irish U-21s lose in Wales
Despite taking an early lead and dominating the early exchanges, the Ireland Under-21 side were beaten, 20-19, this afternoon in Ebbw Vale by their Welsh counterparts.
Right-wing Richard Lane - who had earlier been informed of his inclusion in the Munster squad for the Heineken Cup knock-out phase - opened the scoring with an early try as the Irish carried the fight impressively to the highly regarded Welsh side.
However, they failed to turn possession into scores and four missed shots at goal were to prove costly in the end.
The home side rallied, and raced into a 20-5 lead.
To their great credit, the Irish turned in a committed closing quarter and got to within a point of the lead thanks to tries from John Hearty and Keith Matthews.
David McAllister converted both and the Irish had opportunities to win but in the end the failure to convert those early opportunity proved crucial to the outcome.
