Ireland's chances of chasing a Six Nations, were all but obliterated last night, following a disappointing loss to Wales.
It marked their second defeat in the campaign, which effectively rules them out of contention for the Championship, with just one round of games remaining.
Ireland conceded three tries on the way to a 22-9 defeat in Cardiff, and despite several attempts at getting a try themselves, their only scores on the night came from the boots of Johnny Sexton and Paddy Jackson.
But despite a disappointing performance from Ireland, head coach Joe Schmidt is electing to emphasise the positives as they look towards a Six Nations finale with England on March 18th.
Speaking at the post-match press conference, Schmidt said:
Image: George North dives over for a Welsh try.
"You can wallow in your own self-pity or you can try to build from this. With what we've got coming up next week (England), we can’t afford to wallow for too long. It’s still a huge opportunity for us, we can still finish in the top half of the Six Nations. That’s still something that’s incredibly important to us."
"That's what we've got to turn the page to now. Unfortunately, it means that we are no longer in the hunt to win the championship."
"As frustrating as it is, I still think there was some really positive things that we did tonight. I thought our line speed in the first 20 minutes put them under real pressure and created opportunities for us."
"I felt we were a bit unlucky not to get something more from them and we did get in behind them. It is incredibly frustrating that you get so close to the line and even get over it and get the ball down, but you just don't get the reward for it. Those are the fine margins."
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