Wales were shorn of the services of Dan Biggar early on after the Ospreys fly-half was injured from kick-off, but battled back with the help of a Taulupe Faletau try to trail by just three at the interval.
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“The good thing is this is one of our away games (out of the way)”. They were desperately unlucky in the World Cup, and I was rooting for them against Australia.
However, after getting back on level terms, there was the feel of it being a wasted opportunity.
It probably means that Eddie Jones’ England are the opening weekend’s winners, yet both Ireland and Wales will move forward in the tournament with confidence on this evidence, both believing that silverware is achievable.
It took nearly half an hour for Wales’s replacement flyhalf to edge them ahead, before Sexton replied with a long-range effort that sneaked over to share the points.
The home side raced into a 13-0 first half lead, but were trailing 16-13 with eight minutes remaining before the drama was topped off with Johnny Sexton’s nerveless 40-metre penalty on 74 minutes to give Joe Schmidt’s men a deserved draw.
Yet Wales rallied and the game was back in the balance at half-time.
Wales cut the difference to three points when Toby Faletau burst over the line just before halftime and were level just after thanks to a Rhys Priestland penalty.
Centre Jamie Roberts admitted to a degree of frustration that Wales could not hold on to the lead given them by Priestland’s late penalty.
Meanwhile, Tom James made an outstanding recovery tackle to deny Andrew Trimble a try after the Irishman latched onto a lovely pass from Sexton.
It was tense and gripping rugby with discipline crucial as the clock ticked down – with both sides paying the penalty.
Ireland did cross two minutes later, though, as Murray barged his way through a gap in the Welsh defence to touch down.
It might not have been the win Ireland needed as they embarked on their quest for a history-making Six Nations title hat-trick this term, but they absorbed everything that Wales could throw at them, fighting back to draw after seeing a 13-point lead wiped out.
Ireland: S Zebo, A Trimble, J Payne, R Henshaw, K Earls (D Kearney 71), J Sexton (I Madigan 75), C Murray, J McGrath, R Best (captain, S Cronin 75), N White (T Furlong 63), D Toner, M McCarthy (D Ryan 63), CJ Stander, T O’Donnell (R Ruddock 48), J Heaslip.
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Keith Earls was fortunate to escape a yellow card for his dump tackle on Liam Williams where he was unable to bring the Wales full-back safely to ground.
