ROBIN McBryde has urged Wales not to get bogged down by the defeat in Ireland and to go out and express themselves in World Cup style against France on Sunday.

But the experienced Llanelli hooker admits that in order to do that the pack will have to provide a much stronger platform at the Millennium Stadium than they did at Lansdowne Road.

"Although we were all disappointed by it, we are not going to be bogged down by the Ireland performance. There are three games left in the championship," said McBryde.

"The Irish had watched our game against Scotland and had analysed our rucks and decided to target them and slow the ball down, which they did very effectively.

"They had also analysed the referee and knew he was quick to penalise the man on the floor for holding on and we were penalised regularly.

"So they'd done their homework and managed to stop us playing.

"But there were other reasons why we lost that game and because we want to play an expansive game we have to be ready for teams who want to stop us.

"We have to come up with answers and other ways of playing and not relying on quick ball all day.

"The driving maul wasn't an area that Ireland had trained very hard on, it was just a case that because it went so well they kept on doing it.

"We've got systems in place to counter the driving lineout and for whatever reasons it didn't work against Ireland."

But he said confidence following the World Cup and the opening Six Nations win over Scotland still remained.

"The majority of the squad are only in their early twenties and not filled with any fear of doing their own thing," he said.

"Because we had a relatively good World Cup that confidence is buoyed and they just want to chuck the ball around and have a bit of fun and enjoy the game.

"All the backs want now is a platform to work from which they didn't have in Ireland.

"The thing is not to be phased by the pressure for success and to concentrate on performance.

"That's why we don't want to be bogged down by Ireland and go from one end of the spectrum to the other in just one match."

He acknowledged, however: "I think France will be tougher again than Ireland.

"They have a formidable pack. They'll obviously target the weaker areas of our game which were exposed against Ireland.

"Where there's a weakness you attack that weakness so I'll be surprised if they don't drive a few lineouts early on to test us out and we have to be strong for that.

"We also have to be stronger in the scrum as well.

"The Irish game highlighted the areas we're sometimes not focused on because we want to play such an expansive and quick tempo game.

"We have worked hard on those areas and we hope we have put a lot of things right."