Ireland 35 Wales 12: Adam Griggs sang the praises of the “immense” Claire Molloy, after she secured a brace of tries in Ireland’s bonus-point victory over Wales in the Women’s Six Nations Championship at Donnybrook yesterday.

Molloy supplement additional scores by Leah Lyons, Sene Naoupu and Hannah Tyrrell, as Ireland recorded their second consecutive win in this season’s competition.

“She [Molloy] is immense. She’s super. That last try, she’s running out there like a back-three player. She’s invaluable to us. Especially her work around the breakdown. Just delighted that she’s putting in those performances,” Griggs said.

“ Every time we’re stepping on the pitch at the moment, we’re improving. That’s all you can ask for. Finally, a few of those last passes stuck, which we’ve been working on. Pretty happy overall.”

Aoife McDermott was handed her debut in the second row as a late replacement for Nichola Fryday, and she brilliantly secured the line-out that led to Lyons’ deadlock-breaking try in the 16th-minute.

Briggs superbly curled the resulting conversion between the posts to give Ireland a seven-point advantage – which was subsequently doubled when flanker Molloy applied the finishing touches to a stoppage-time move.

Yet, Wales dramatically reduced their deficit to two points (14-12) after the restart with quickfire Amy Evans and Sioned Harries five-pointers. Lindsay Peat was sin-binned for a high tackle on Mel Clay in the build-up to the latter’s unconverted effort, but Ireland responded with a third try of their own in her absence.

Briggs’ outstanding looped pass released Naoupu for a clinical finish to the right of the posts on 52 minutes.

This served to kill the momentum that Welsh had earlier developed and Ireland completed an impressive performance with spectacular scores from Tyrrell and player of the match Molloy in the closing moments.

Scorers for Ireland:

C Molloy 2 tries, L Lyons, S Naoupu, H Tyrrell try each, N Briggs 3 cons, K Flood 2 cons.

Scorers for Wales:

A Evans, S Harries try each, E Snowsill con.

IRELAND:

K Flood; M Williams, K Fitzhenry, S Naoupu, C McLaughlin; N Briggs, A Hughes; L Peat, C O’Connor, L Lyons, A McDermott, O Fitzsimons, C Griffin, C Molloy, P Fitzpatrick.

Replacements:

C Moloney for O’Connor (50), L Feely for Fitzsimons (57-58), H Tyrrell for McLaughlin (61), N Cronin for Hughes, E McMahon for Fitzsimons (both 66), M Claffey for Briggs (70), Feely for Peat, F Reidy for Lyons (both 76).

WALES:

L Neumann; H Bluck, K Lake, R De Filippo, J Kavanagh-Williams; E Snowsill, R Parker; C Thomas, C Phillips, A Evans, S Lillicrap, M Clay, A Butchers, B Lewis, S Harries.

Replacements:

H Jones for De Filippo (43), J Knight for Parker (61), N John for Lillicrap (63), NE Davies for Lewis (70), R Wilkins for Bluck (73), K Jones for Phillips, C Hope for Thomas, M York for Evans (all 80).

Referee:

S Cox (England).