Joe Schmidt: "We let ourselves down"

Joe Schmidt has admitted that Ireland were not consistent enough against Wales in their Six Nations defeat at the Millennium Stadium yesterday.

The defending champions had previously been unbeaten in this year's competition, but lost 23-16 in Cardiff, leaving them second in the standings going into the final weekend.

The Ireland coach told BBC Sport: "We didn't help ourselves although a lot of credit has to go to the Welsh defence. We let ourselves down a little bit. We probably had enough possession to win.

"In the first half, if you were at all near the ball, you were very quickly penalised. We just didn't quite get that consistency in the second half and we didn't quite get the speed of ruck ball that maybe would have helped us.

"We weren't as accurate as we would have liked to have been. Part of that was Welsh pressure and part was a little bit of a lack of continuity from us."

England, Wales and Ireland are all level on six points with one round of fixtures remaining.