Ireland's Donnacha Ryan believes that a second Six Nations defeat to Wales came down to 'small margins' in the end.
Joe Schmidt's side suffered a 22-9 defeat in Cardiff, with the hosts crossing over for three tries. After leading through some of the early stages in the game, Ireland withered under the intense physical exchanges. They also lost out-half Johnny Sexton to a yellow card which allowed Wales to capitalise.
Ireland launched several attacks, but failed to come away with a try and Ryan believes that 'small margins' in struggling to break through the lines, ultimately made a big difference.
"We're constantly evolving, trying to get better. As I say, they're only small margins. We could have gone ahead but if you’re looking at it from that point of view, we're not a bad team overnight. We know what we’re capable of doing and it’s just focus on what we can control."
Image: Jonny Sexton receiving a yellow card during Ireland's Six Nations game against Wales.
He added: "Wales were backs against the wall, obviously put in a poor performance against Scotland and they were looking to come out swinging and they threw everything they had. It was just disappointing that we weren’t on the right side of the result.
"You've got to tip the hat to the Welsh defence, they did well in the line-out. Some days you have good days and bad days and that’s the way it is. We all take it on the chin together, especially in the pack we're constantly backing each other up. We've good days together and on challenging days we work together to get better."
Ryan went on to say that recovery is of paramount importance in the coming days as they look to prepare for a final Six Nations outing against England who face Scotland later today.
"It was a very physical game this evening, we're gonna have to get recovery. It sounds boring but it's very important stuff. We'll have to look at the technical side of things, the missed opportunities. We have a look at it on Sunday and build on Monday towards next week.
"Obviously playing at home against England, we're just looking to put in a performance that we know we're capable of doing."
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