Wales captain Martyn Williams admitted there were few positives to take from his side's disappointing display.

He said: "We were totally outplayed in every aspect. When we go and analyse it, it will be very difficult to get any positives from it. But Ireland were top-drawer and played us off the park."

France are next for Wales in Cardiff and Williams believes his troops will rally and stand up to be counted.

"These boys have been through a hell of a lot together, we had a very poor Six Nations last year and came through that," he reflected.

"We know we have made progress, but had a bad 80 minutes. It is a setback, but we will learn from this and France is another big challenge for us.

"The group of guys are strong enough to come back from this and hopefully we can take on the French again." Meanwhile,Ireland match-winner Shane Byrne enjoyed the romp over Wales so much that he simply did not want the game to end.

Hooker Byrne supplied two first-half tries to help put Ireland out of sight on their way to a 36-15 win and dented hopes of a continuing revival in Welsh rugby. He said: "I thought the forwards were absolutely fantastic.

"We knew we were going to be up against a very strong pack and would have to take it to them. We did, and it was fantastic."

Byrne and captain Brian O'Driscoll are stepping into the famous boots of Keith Wood, the former as hooker and latter as Ireland's new captain.

They each marked the convincing performance with two of Ireland's six tries, and Byrne's only regret was that the whole experience did not last a little longer.

"This was very important for the confidence, because I do not think we did ourselves justice in France," he said.

"Everybody was absolutely tuned in and fully committed to the cause. It was a great day, and I just did not want it to end. "It is a dream come true."