Taffy Spice had the sort of match which normally buries a career. A career which is based on packing a bulimic centre up and walking him back three to four yards and taking a penalty kick to beat England. That's it. His reputation is Anna Kournikovalike. For all the grief Gareth Thomas received during the fortnight . . . if he came on at out-half after 15 minutes, even with the same lack of match practice, you would have fancied Wales to at least compete, mainly because Thomas has presence and substance.

You could see O'Driscoll licking his lips when Henson vogued onto the pitch. In his book Henson complained about receiving a cheap shot from the Irish captain . . . well if he wasn't happy about that then give him a Louis Vuitton expensive shot. Sadly, no one got near his Dax wave and groom-manicured coif.

Years ago crowds in the old English first division used to throw bananas at the odd black player on the pitch.

Now there is an abundance of black players in the English league and the racial taunts have more or less been eradicated.

I suppose the hounding that Henson got from the Irish crowd was not unlike the racial baiting of the 1970s.

I just hope that there isn't an abundance of Hensons in 20 or 30 years and that the crowds don't seize up from giving him what he deserves.

Teams implode when all 15 aren't humming . . . hard to goose-step together when someone is doing the chacha-cha. It was perceptible that Henson didn't fit in. But you couldn't blame everything on him . . . most of the stuff, but not everything.

Wales were dreadful . . . worse than the 2002 team that had more than 50 points put on them in Lansdowne under Graham Henry. The Welsh, with the exception of Dwayne Peel, were sub-standard in every department. So how come it was 11-5 at half-time with Ireland living on their wits for the first 21 minutes?

It was disquieting that Ireland did not convert the other four or five real try-scoring opportunities that came their way. More worrying that they had to rely on two fortuitous turnovers and a set of unlucky events to turn the game . . . which if it went on going the way it was going could have swamped them.

Wales were still dictating the pace of the game after 20 minutes. They had a throw-in near Ireland's 22. They had something up their sleeve outside for when the ball came . . . but it never arrived.

Malcolm O'Kelly's helping hands deflected it onto Ireland's patch of ground. It wasn't an Interflora delivery . . .

but you'll take turnover ball anytime, even if it came from Goran Ivanisevic. Stringer took a while to collect and by the time he turned and assessed what was in front of him the Welsh had already started to squeeze up.

Stringer's path to O'Gara was blighted by a ginger shadow and so he had to lob Martin Williams . . . a dangerous thing to do that close to your line.

Stringer's pass never made it to O'Gara, Andrew Trimble received the ball with both feet stuck to the ground and space at a premium.

Before I describe what he did you have to ask yourself what he was doing in the pivot spot in the first place.

It's part of the gameplan that the blind-side winger comes in to pack the number 10 channel or stop the cut back inside. One of his line-out forwards would have stayed in the tramlines after the lineout cleared. What would have happened if Trimble had been like the IRFU delegation invited to the Wanderers RFC annual dinner and hadn't bothered to turn up . . . well then O'Gara or D'Arcy would have shooed the ball into touch. Fortuitous steal at the line-out, fortuitous that Trimble had no other course but to run and he did a pretty good job . . . helped though by Give-in Henson. Trimble shaped to go out, the Welsh drifted, he cut back in onto Henson's right shoulder, setup for a blade-cutter of a tackle. Henson never followed him and simply fell off the tackle and this caught them cold.

Trimble scooted through and Mark Jones' tackle had to be really good. The ball was put deep by O'Gara and chased by O'Driscoll. Ireland didn't leave without scoring . . . Wallace from the number eight slot converting brilliantly from a retreating scrum.

Wales went behind the posts and there was no rallying call . . . they'd run through the game plan but there was no conviction. It would be 10 minutes before the boxing gloves were replaced by traffic corp gloves.

The Welsh pack had been gamey up until then but indifference outside stewed resolve at the hub. Wales took any easy strike at scrum time on the 40-metre line. They took Ireland back three or four metres and then Peel skimmed one out to Henson.

Watkins had been expecting a ball in front to run onto . . .

what he got was a head high scud a metre behind his right shoulder . . . miraculously he managed to catch it but was held. He popped to Martyn Williams coming around . . .

the move was dead. What happens next is that someone has the sense to apply leather and start again. The Welsh kept going with aplomb . . .

sideways aplomb. Mark Jones shovelled to Daffyd James.

Simon Easterby, still simply irresistible (in a non-sexual way), dropped him. Such was the quality of the tackle that James couldn't work the pill back . . . he was pinned and facing into the Irish.

O'Driscoll came in and did what he does best . . . the turnover was easy. The Welsh forwards get up out of the scrum . . . look at this shambles and then look at the clock in the stadium. Flannery got away down the right handside. The Welsh, incredibly, weren't pinged or yellowcarded. Ireland again didn't leave without scoring, but it was three instead of seven.

With the score at 11-5 and 45 minutes to go . . . and with the wind in their favour in the second half . . . the Welsh ran up le drapeau blanc.

Quite how Ireland didn't double the final score is a matter for discussion. Daffyd James, Hal Luscombe, Lee Byrne and Gavin Henson were lamentable in everything they did. AIL players wouldn't have done some of the things they did.

I have played against some great second rows in the Championship like Martin Johnson, Paul Ackford, Wade Dooley, Olivier Roumat, and Abdel Benazzi. They belong in the pantheon of greats. Ian Gough and Robert Sidoli belong in the Pink Pantheon . . . the rinky-dink pantheon.

Maybe Ireland were unsure of themselves and didn't have the confidence to mince a very poor side. The French game was such a rollercoaster that any infinitesimal change in mood could be calamitous. This game should have set them up to have a good run at Scotland.

Uncertainty still persists.

Maybe the crack at another great prize will galvanise them.

Why are Scotland good?

One reason is that they had no Lions last summer. Their squad is fit and fresh. Also Matt Williams said that they are benefiting from two and a half years of hard work . . .

under him that is. He's right, it is hard work to lose nearly every match by huge margins for two and a half years.

Frank Hadden is no genius . . .what he has though is a willing and committed dressing room, a marked contrast to a year ago.

I'd forsake the pretty stuff and send up some hostile to Hugo Southwell and Chris Patterson and play position all day. Scotland can win if you let them tackle you all day. Turn them, press them and take your time dismantling them.