Henry aghast at Wales display

Graham Henry (centre) and the Wales management show their concern

Graham Henry could only look on in dismay on Saturday as Ireland inflicted their heaviest ever defeat on Wales.

After Scotland had derailed Ireland's Six Nations Championship hopes two weeks ago at Murrayfield, their was genuine hope that Wales could end a home winless streak that stretches back 18 years.

But any gameplan by Wales coach Henry was undermined by poor first-up tackling and sloppy handling from his side.

We didn't deserve to get anywhere near Ireland

Wales coach Graham Henry

"It was a very poor display," Henry said. "Ireland played very well, played very constructively, played intelligent rugby and put the pressure on us."

Despite missing tackles in open play, when their try line was threatened the Wales players put their bodies on the line - preventing the ball being grounded on two occasions just before half-time.

Ireland were still not out of sight as the last quarter began, but then Wales fell apart as the visitors at last turned Welsh errors into tries.

"We tried to play catch-up in the last 10 minutes, turned a lot of ball over and they scored three tries." Henry added.

"It was 15-6 with 10 minutes to go. We just turned the ball over in the tackle trying to attack from our own half and they got the points. The defence was suspect.

Kevin Maggs finds the Wales defence wanting

"We played well in the first 20 minutes of the second half and we had a chance of pulling it out of the fire, but we didn't deserve to get anywhere near them.

"They were a much better side. They played down our end of the field and (Ireland outside-half) David Humphreys, who played well, kicked the goals."

Wales now have a month to pick themselves up before facing touring Argentina on 10 November, followed by matches against Tonga and world champions Australia.

Henry will have injured players such as Scott Quinnell and Gareth Thomas to return by then, adding that he will be glad to get his team back in Test action and rectify what went so badly wrong.

"We need to get back into it, we need to pull together very quickly."