Women’s Six Nations 2023: Wales 31-5 Ireland – Bonus-point win for hosts

Ireland came close to pulling one back, Sam Monaghan charging down Elinor Snowsill’s clearance, but the Wales fly-half recovered and earned a penalty.

They took advantage of further indiscipline as Ireland tried to play their way out of their 22, but this time the driving line-out malfunctioned.

Ireland were back under pressure at the start of the second half and forced to cough up a penalty.

Wales went for the corner to set up a driving maul and Tuipulotu powered over for her first Six Nations try, before Bevan added the conversion.

But an unusually late intervention from television match official (TMO) Ian Tempest saw referee Amber McLachlan bring play back for a knock-on.

Ireland were also reduced to 14 players in the build-up, Deirbhile Nic a Bhaird shown a yellow card for a deliberate knock-on.

Wales worked their way back to the try line and Tuipulotu was not to be denied at the second time of asking.

Ireland then enjoyed a spell of pressure as the home side’s discipline let them down.

Both teams began to empty their benches, with Royal New Zealand Navy officer Kate Williams winning her first Wales cap, having moved back to her country of birth from Auckland.

There was also a first Ireland appearance for Niamh O’Dowd.

As the game became fragmented Ireland pushed for a consolation and they got it as captain Fryday touched down.

Wales captain Hannah Jones told BBC Sport Wales: “It was a brilliant start, we talked about having a fast start and we definitely did that.

“We had a brilliant crowd to back that up, a record crowd, which was brilliant.

“It really helps on the field to hear that noise, so thank you.

“We were lucky with the coin toss, we used the wind to our advantage, pinned them in their own 22. We aimed to score more tries and we did that today.”

Ireland captain Nichola Fryday said: “There’s a lot of positives, but you can’t give 40 minutes of not performing to your best against a team like Wales, though there was real fight from the girls and I’m proud of that.

“It was our errors, giving away silly avoidable penalties. When you give Wales momentum like that, they’ll kick to touch and build themselves up the pitch through their kicking game.

“Wales have good cohesiveness from the World Cup and they’ve really built on what they’ve done in the last year.”

Wales: C Keight; L Neumann, H Jones (capt), K Lake, C Williams-Morris; E Snowsill, K Bevan; G Pyrs, K Jones, S Tuipulotu, A Fleming, G Crabb, G Evans, A Callender, B Lewis

Replacements: K Evans, C Thomas, C Hale, K Williams, S Harries, F Lewis, L George, H Bluck

Ireland: M Deely; A Doyle, A Dalton, E Breen, N Behan; N Cronin, M Scuffil-McCabe; S McGrath, N Jones, L Djougang, N Fryday (capt), S Monaghan, D Wall, M Og O’Leary, B Hogan.

Replacements: D Nic a Bhaird, N O’Dowd, C Haney, J Brown, G Moore, H O’Connor, D O’Brien, V Irwin.