A first for me this week, a Welsh Rugby game in Cardiff with my 7 month pregnant partner. What I can comment on is that Cardiff luckily has ample toilet opportunities in the many establishments in the City Centre. Our first port of call was the WRU shop on Westgate street, this has improved a lot since I popped in during the 2015 World cup and I picked up the new home shirt as well as a mini ball for the Baby with a 10% members discount. We then moved on to an official WRU members event at Milk and Sugar on the Hayes. I will be doing a review of the WRU membership and it’s features within the next few weeks, but we spent the majority of the morning in Milk and Sugar where there was food available as well as a good selection of beverages at the bar. Included in this was a live male voice Choir which was a nice touch as they sang traditional Welsh songs and the busy event had a nice family friendly environment. I am also reliably informed that Milk and Sugar has possibly the smallest adult toilet in Cardiff in the ladies toilets. Next on the agenda was food, our personal favourite is a restaurant originally started in Bristol, their expansion has included a spot on St Mary’s Street which is the liveliest street on a match day . I opted for a Moo Pie with fries and a beer, whist my partner opted for a Moo Pie with Mash and Mushy peas. The two floors were busy but comfortable with the pace of the kitchen providing a steady flow of available seats. A good meal for two which hit the £20 range including drinks. See more about Pieminster here. Here are the photos of our meal. Pieminster’s toilet facilities were also well up to scratch,the best of the day.

We were then set for the stadium and opted to go with an hour until kick off to avoid any long que at the bag search area. Tickets for this game were £20 and our seats were fantastic, I expected Wales to name an experimental lineup and this was confirmed with a lot of players making their first appearance of the Summer. The game was not a sell out but around 60,000 tickets were sold. I managed to track down a bar that sold Guinness which was not as easy as it sounds and cashed in my £10 food and beverage voucher which is included in the WRU membership offer which got me a pint of Guinness, a bottled water and a packet of Walkers crisps.

The Game:

Ireland were smarting following their performance at Twickenham last week and made some predicted changes to their lineup with a lot of players trying to stake their claim to a place in their final squad. Meanwhile Wales made 14 changes from the England game with James Davies being the lone starter, Key man Josh Navidi came into the starting lineup at 8 and captained the side for the first time. Wales started the young Rhys Carre and Owen Lane for their first caps, Jarrod Evans also made a first start for Wales after two brief appearances against Scotland in November and England two weeks ago.

The murmurs of discontent about the choice for Wales to play four warm up games have continued in the Welsh media and on social media, but I feel you have to look at it like a prizefighter having to spar, yes there is a chance they catch a stray punch and get knocked out but it’s a necessary evil to get up to speed for the main event. Ireland started on the front foot and showed precision in attack, Jacob Stockdale on the left wing was back to his predatory best opposite Lane. The story of the first half for me was the stranglehold Ireland’s pack put on Wales. Munster prop Dave Kilcoyne was the standout player with him putting in some thunderous hits and making a few barnstorming runs to give the Irish backs the chance to attack on front foot ball. The struggles at the scrum continued with Wales getting dominated here for the third game in a row. Kilcoyne played his part for Ireland here too getting the upper hand over the returning Samson Lee.  Wales went into half time 15-3 down with Jarrod Evans missing a simple penalty to end a half to regret for the Blues man. Wales had no platform and overplayed the ball they did have. This was summed up by Shingler attempting an offload which went astray and saw Stockdale pounce for his second try.

Rhys Patchell replaced Evans at half time and Rob Evans and Leon Brown replaced Carre and Samson Lee. Patchell seized his chance with aplomb and made an instant impact off the bench. The struggles at the scrum continued and French referee Roman Poite  continued to punish the welsh front row somewhat unduly at times. The criticism I have of Poite is that he seems to make his mind up very early in a game about which front row is at fault at the Scrum lottery, anyone who has played front row will tell you this is a fluid process and at any point six players can be cheating at the same time. These penalties continued to stop Welsh momentum. Patchell was controlling matters and was causing far more concern for the Irish defence, After Wales were reduced to 14 men following what I feel was an incorrect call a penalty try was awarded.

Patchell’s purple patch continued and he set Owen Lane free in the corner with a decent pass when Wales were finally able to generate some quick ball. Lane finished well as Wales grew into the game as their fitness shone through. Patchell was taking the ball to the line and was a threat whenever he had the ball. Patchell eventually scored a try and converted to offer a glimpse of hope for an unlikely comeback, Ireland though by now had a lot of experience on the pitch and managed to play their own version of keep ball to secure a 22-17 win which now sees them claim the number one spot in the world rankings, a monkey off the back of Wales who never do well as favourites and we can do without this distraction.

Patchell, as we have now found out has played his way into the World cup squad at the expense of Jarrod Evans, whose failure to launch was not helped by the welsh pack being dominated and his back line playing like a group of players in competition with each other for places in the final squad. Wales will need to find some stability at the Scrum before Georgia roll into town and will need to secure faster ball for the backs to take advantage of the talent at their disposal.

Cardiff comes out as the winner again with my partner finding the facilities easy to use in the stadium, after a reasonable Que at Cardiff Central we were placed onto a train back to Bristol with a decent amount of room. The pre match events were the highlight of the day for us with the Rugby providing some excitement at the end it was another successful day out in Cardiff for a Rugby match. This will be our last match together before two becomes three in our household, I am very much looking forward to our child experiencing a match day at the Principality stadium in the years to come.  The city has it down to a tee in terms of organisation and facilities and caters well for supporters on a day out drinking or for families.

Pre match: We enjoyed our time at the WRU supporters event, but the planned Q and A with Dan Biggar did not happen which was a disappointment, Pieminster was good choice though. 7/10

The match: Players feeling the pressure playing for places against a highly motivated Irish team saw Wales fall short. It was always going to be difficult to match the recent England game, but we enjoyed the occasion none the less. Our seats provided a great view which got us close enough to hear the calls on the field and they provided excellent value for money. 7/10.

Overall match experience: The location of the stadium, experience at the shop as well as the members event were all within a five minute walk of each other which was important for both me and my partner. The ease of getting to the station after the game is unrivalled in any other international stadium I have been to. These extra considerations enhanced our experience to an overall 8/10.