RWC 2011 Quarter Final Preview - Ireland v Wales | Thebigtip

Come Saturday, Eden Park will host a battle between the Welsh Dragons and the Leprechauns of the Emerald Isle. It is set to be a compelling contest between the northern neighbours with both teams coming into the knockouts on the back of strong form in pool play.

Ireland sprang the biggest upset in the tournament to date when they put a spanner in the works of Robbie Deans’ well-oiled Wallabies to finish top of Pool C. Meanwhile, Wales surprised many with a strong showing in Pool D where they came agonizingly close to knocking over defending champions, South Africa in an opening weekend thriller.

Form Guide: Ireland WWWW (most recent result first)
The Men-in-Green arrived in New Zealand with zero pre-tournament form. They shook off the rust with an unconvincing win against USA before sending a 58 000 strong Auckland crowd into raptures by outmuscling the Wallabies in one of the games of the tournament. Since then Brian O’Driscoll’s men have comfortably swept aside Russia and Six Nations rivals, Italy and are looking like a team more than capable of a spot in the top four.

Form Guide: Wales WWWL
Bolted out of the blocks in emphatic style and nearly caught a complacent Springboks side napping. Wales were only foiled by a controversially disallowed penalty goal and a try to the Boks in the dying minutes. They followed that up with a gritty display against the Samoans and concluded pool play by ticking up cricket scores against the amateur Namibians and a hapless Fijian outfit. More than any other Northern Hemisphere team, Wales look at home playing the sort of free flowing game usually associated with their Southern Hemisphere counterparts and could be the dark horse of Rugby World Cup 2011.

Key Players:
It is shaping up as a showdown between two excellent backrows. The highly impressive young openside Sean O’Brien stole the show in the win over Australia with his strong ball running and brilliant work at the breakdown. If he can disrupt the supply of clean ball to the exciting Welsh backline, Ireland could choke their Celtic cousins out of the contest.

Likewise, Toby Faletau, the Tongan-born number eight has been in devastating form for Wales at the boot of the scrum. He scored a crucial try as Wales pushed South Africa to the brink in Wellington and has numerous line breaks to his credit. A few strong carries from Faletau and the Irish could quickly find themselves playing catch up.

There is another intriguing subplot brewing in the midfield, where the veteran pairing of Brian O’Driscoll and Gordon D’arcy will lock horns with Welsh battering rams Jamie Roberts and Jonathan Davies.  The Welsh centres have run rings in this tournament so far but how crucial will the cool heads and experience of O’Driscoll and D’arcy prove to be?

Verdict:
Ireland will undoubtedly continue with the style of forward pack dominance that proved too much for the Australians, while Wales are likely to chance their arm and play a more expansive brand of rugby. History suggests that the conservative kick, kick, kick approach is more successful when it comes to knock out rugby and, in Ronan O’Gara, Ireland have one of the most reliable kickers of our era. Ireland by a nose.