Tries from Andrew Conway (twice), Gary Ringrose, and Bundee Aki got Ireland over the line, with Taine Basham scoring Wales’ only points. Wayne Pivac’s side will now look to regroup ahead of a vitally important test against Scotland at the Principality Stadium next Friday.
We look at the reaction from the Wales camp.
WAYNE PIVAC
“No-one’s happy with defeat, we came here wanting to win so they’re all very disappointed. We can’t go back in time in terms of the players missing, we need to learn our lessons from today and this is the squad we’ve got.
“We talked about what we needed to do in that game from the outset and that was to match them physically and our discipline needed to be spot on. We didn’t achieve that. In the first 20 minutes of the game, the penalty count was off and we let them into both halves very cheaply.
“We have got to make sure we are working hard, and there is no doubt the boys will want to improve in those areas. When you make over 100 tackles in a half a bit of fatigue does set in.
“It happens to any side. I thought the boys came back very strongly in that last quarter of the game and kept fighting towards the end which we want.
“We certainly look forward to getting back home, there is no doubt about that. A full house at the Principality Stadium, there is nothing better and it certainly lifts the boys.”
DAN BIGGAR
“We said the discipline and the physicality were the two things that we needed to bring, coming to Dublin, and we probably didn’t get those two quite right across the whole 80 minutes.
“There is no doubt it was a frustrating afternoon. We didn’t get enough front-foot ball or dominate enough collisions to really allow us to put pressure on Ireland for large periods, like they did to us.
“Ultimately, Ireland won too many physical collisions, and for us, for whatever reason, that is what we need to go back on and have a look over the weekend and on Monday.
“The collisions in rugby, if you don’t win them and especially against a team the way Ireland play, it was going to be a hard afternoon, and that is how it turned out. That will be a huge focus for us this week, along with the discipline.
“We are better than that today, really. We know we are better than that, and we have got to make sure we get a bit more edge to us in training this week.
“Not overthink things, because there is not a huge amount to fix. Physicality is a huge one, and discipline. I am really proud to lead the team out, but it was a disappointing afternoon, there is no doubt about that.”
ADAM BEARD
“Obviously, it was disappointing. It felt like we didn’t fire enough shots out there. Discipline let us down big-time, whether that was our own errors or whatever came from that. Hugely disappointing.
“I thought our scrum was pretty good. That was one of the positive parts of our game. The lineout was a bit of a mixed bag.
“The first half we didn’t have many attacking opportunities, but when we did, it felt like they were a bit on our arm and stuff like that and we didn’t really get the rub of the green off the referee, but you are going to get that sometimes.
“It is just how we adapt and move forward. When we had more ball in the second half, it was a bit more positive, but still not the percentages we would like.
“We have got to pick ourselves up, we can’t be down. There are four games left, we are only game one into the campaign. We will be honest with each other, come Monday, look to improve on the stuff we need to work on. It is just about building that atmosphere and getting round each other.
“It will be nice getting a home game. The players love playing at the Principality Stadium – they are like our extra number on the field when we have a full stadium. I know we will bounce back from this, we will have a positive training week and hopefully make it right for Saturday against Scotland.”
